Crewed spacecraftExpended
STS-32 flight stack
Mission-specific Space Shuttle flight stack
Vehicle and mission dossier
STS-32
STS-32 deployed the Leasat 5 communications satellite and recovered the Long Duration Exposure Facility after nearly six years in orbit. Columbia's crew rendezvoused with the experiment carrier, photographed its exposed surfaces, grappled it with Canadarm, and returned 57 materials and space-environment investigations during a then-record 11-day Shuttle mission.
Flight profile
- Launch
- January 9, 1990
- Landing
- January 20, 1990
- Mission duration
- 10d 21h 00m
Places and recovery
Vehicle record
- Orbiter
- Space Shuttle Columbia
- Mission or test
- STS-32
- Configuration
- , external tank, two , and three main engines
- Status
- Mission hardware disposition recorded by component
- Mission type
- Satellite or observatory deployment and operations
- Crew and station travelers
- 5
- Program
- Space Shuttle
- Crew complement
- 5
- Outcome
- Completed
- Archive classification
- Human spaceflight
- Primary objective
- Space Shuttle Columbia mission that deployed Syncom IV-F5 and retrieved the Long Duration Exposure Facility.
Flight objectives
- Launch Columbia and its crew safely into .
- Space Shuttle Columbia mission that deployed Syncom IV-F5 and retrieved the Long Duration Exposure Facility.
- Complete the mission's assigned payload, , research, deployment, servicing, or logistics work.
- Return Columbia and the landing crew safely to Earth.
Flight timeline
- January 9, 1990LaunchColumbia began an extended deployment and retrieval mission.
- Flight day 2Leasat 5 deployedThe communications satellite entered independent flight for transfer to geosynchronous orbit.
- Flight day 4LDEF capturedBonnie Dunbar grappled the experiment carrier and berthed it in Columbia's payload bay.
- January 20, 1990LDEF returnedColumbia landed with the facility and its long-exposed experiment samples.
