Description : Houston post stamp. Eleventh shuttle mission. Long duration exposure facility (11 tons) with 57 experiments is left in space to be retreived by later STS.

LDEF remained in space for ~5.7 years and completed 32,422 Earth orbits; this extended stay increased its scientific and technological value toward the understanding of the space environment and its effects. It experienced one-half of a solar cycle, as it was deployed during a solar minimum and retrieved at a solar maximum.

LDEF was retrieved on 11 January 1990 by the Shuttle Columbia. By the time LDEF was retrieved, its orbit had decayed to ~175 nautical miles and was a little more than one month away from reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base and was ferried back to NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on 26 January 1990.

Following the deintegration of each experiment tray from the spacecraft at KSC, research activities included a radiation survey, infrared video survey, meteoroid & debris survey, contamination inspection, and extensive photo documentation. After these post-deintegration activities the experiment trays were shipped or hand-carried directly from KSC to the principal investigators’ laboratories.

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Space Event :

STS 41 C (CHALLENGER) · LDEF 1 (SATELLITE)