STS-59

STS-59 was a Space Shuttle Endeavour mission flown in April 1994 as the first Space Radar Laboratory flight. The mission supported NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program, using the Shuttle Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites instrument to observe Earth's land, oceans, vegetation, geology, hydrology, and atmosphere. Sidney Gutierrez commanded the six-person crew, with Kevin Chilton as pilot and Linda Godwin, Jay Apt, Michael Clifford, and Thomas Jones as mission specialists. The crew operated around the clock in two shifts so the radar and atmospheric instruments could collect repeated observations over many target regions. STS-59 also served as a pathfinder for the follow-up Space Radar Laboratory mission, STS-68, flown later in 1994. Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A on April 9, 1994 and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on April 20 after more than eleven days in orbit.