April 7, 2014 - West Coast Landing

West Coast Landing The first flight of the Space Radar Laboratory began twenty years ago this week when the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew of the STS-59 mission spent eleven days in orbit, working primarily with two radar cameras as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth. The Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) was able to illuminate Earth with multiple frequencies and polarizations of radar waves, allowing the camera to see clearly through clouds, fog, and haze. While the radar cameras on board made light work of bad weather, Endeavour itself could not: clouds and high winds in Florida kept the crew in orbit an extra day and forced them to land instead at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

April 7-13, 2014

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 7

First Qtr Moon 4:31 AM ET

1991: Compton Gamma Ray Observatory deployed
2001: Mars Odyssey Orbiter launched
2007: ISS Expedition 15 crew launched

Tuesday 8

Moon at apogee
Mars at opposition

1964: Gemini I launched
1966: OAO-1 launched
1993: STS-56 Discovery launched
2002: STS-110 Atlantis launched
2008: ISS Expedition 17 crew launched