STS 43/SSBUV03

Description

STS-43 was the ninth shuttle Atlantis flight. It's mission was to deploy a NASA communications satellite and to conduct a bevy of scientific experiments. The five-person crew consisted of John E. Blaha, Commander; Michael A Baker, pilot; Shannon W. Lucid, G. David Low and James C. Adamson, mission specialists. The cargo bay held the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), and experimental heat pipe element, an ultraviolet experiment and instruments for optical communications. Eight commercial crystal growth, materials processing, photographic, fluids and microgravity experiments were housed on the middeck. TDRS was dispatched from the cargo bay on orbit five, 6 hrs, 13 mns into the flight. The crew spent the remaining seven days conducting technology experiments and biomedical research. The entire flight from liftoff to landing progressed like virtual clockwork. Atlantis returned to earth on KSC's 15,00-ft concrete runway 15, at 12:23, August 11, to end the 8-day, 21-hr, 21-mn mission.