Mission Insignia
Mission Statistics
Mission:	STS-48
Shuttle:	Discovery
Launch Pad:	39-A
Launch:	September 12, 1991, 7:11:04 p.m. EDT.
Landing:	September 18, 1991, 12:38:42 a.m. PDT, Runway 22, Edwards AFB, California
Duration:	5 days, 8 hours, 27 minutes, 38 seconds.
Orbit Altitude:	313 nautical miles (580 km)
Orbit Inclination:	57.0 degrees
Distance traveled:	2,193,670 miles (3,530,369 km)
Crew photo

Crew

• John O. Creighton (3), Commander
• Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr. (1), Pilot
• James F. Buchli (4), Mission Specialist 1
• Charles D. Gemar (2), Mission Specialist 2
• Mark N. Brown (2), Mission Specialist 3

Mission Parameters

• Mass:
  • Orbiter landing with payload: 87,321 kg
  • Payload: 7,865 kg
• Perigee: 575 km
• Apogee: 580 km
• Inclination: 57.0°
• Period: 96.2 min

Mission Highlights

Launch: September 12, 1991, 7:11:04 p.m. EDT. Launch delayed 14 minutes by a faulty communication link between KSC and Mission Control in Houston. Launch Weight: 240,062 lb (108,890 kg).

Primary payload, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), deployed on the third day of the mission. During its planned 18-month mission, the 14,500-pound observatory will make the most extensive study ever conducted of the Earth's troposphere, the upper level of the planet's envelope of life-sustaining gases which also include the protective ozone layer. UARS has ten sensing and measuring devices: Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer (CLAES); Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS); Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS); Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE); High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI); Wind Imaging Interferometer (WlNDII); Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM); Solar/Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE); Particle Environment Monitor (PEM) and Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM II).

Secondary payloads were: Ascent Particle Monitor (APM); Middeck 0-Gravity Dynamics Experiment (MODE); Shuttle Activation Monitor (SAM); Cosmic Ray Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM); Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE); Protein Crystal Growth II-2 (PCG II-2); Investigations into Polymer Membrane Processing (IPMP); and the Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment.

Landing: September 18,1991, 12:38:42 a.m. PDT, Runway 22, Edwards AFB, CA. Rollout distance: 9,513 feet. Rollout time: 50 seconds. Landed scheduled for KSC, but diverted to Edwards due to bad weather. Orbiter returned to KSC September 26,1991. Landing Weight: 192,780 lb (87,444 kg).

See also

• Space science
• Space shuttle
• List of space shuttle missions
• List of human spaceflights chronologically

External links

• NASA mission summary