physics

STS-33

STS-33 is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand STS-33 rather than just read about it. In short: STS-33 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission and the 9th flight of Discovery, during which Space Shuttle Discovery deployed a payload for the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It was the 32nd shuttle mission overall, the ninth flight of Discovery, the fifth shuttle mission in support of the DoD, the seventh post-Space Shuttle Challenger disaster mission and the last Shuttle mission of the 1980s.

Key takeaways

STS-33 belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect STS-33 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of STS-33 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

STS-33 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission and the 9th flight of Discovery, during which Space Shuttle Discovery deployed a payload for the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It was the 32nd shuttle mission overall, the ninth flight of Discovery, the fifth shuttle mission in support of the DoD, the seventh post-Space Shuttle Challenger disaster mission and the last Shuttle mission of the 1980s. Due to the nature of the mission, specific details remain classified. Discovery lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, on November 22, 1989, at 7:23:30 p.m. EST; it landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on November 27, 1989, at 7:30:16 p.m. EST. The mission was officially designated STS-33R as the original STS-33 designator belonged to the ill-fated Challenger STS-51-L, the 25th Space Shuttle mission. Official documentation for that mission contained the designator STS-33 throughout. As STS-51-L was designated STS-33, future flights with the STS-26 through STS-33 designators would require the R in their documentation to avoid conflicts in tracking data from one mission to another.

Crew

Crew seat assignments

Mission background

STS-33 was the original designation for the mission that became STS-51-L, the Challenger disaster. After Challenger's destruction, NASA recycled the mission numbering system back to STS-26, which was the 26th shuttle mission and the first to fly after the disaster. S. David Griggs, a veteran of STS-51-D, was to have been the pilot of this mission. He was killed in the crash of a vintage World War II aircraft in June 1989 while training to serve as pilot on STS-33, and is commemorated on the mission insignia with a single gold star on the blue field. He was replaced by John Blaha. Sonny Carter, a mission specialist on this flight, was killed in a commercial plane crash on April 5, 1991 while training to fly on STS-42.

Mission summary STS-33 was originally scheduled to launch on November 20, 1989, but was delayed because of problems with the integrated electronics assemblies which controlled the ignition and separation of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters (SRBs). STS-33 was the third night launch of the Space Shuttle program, and the first since shuttle flights resumed in 1988 following the Challenger disaster of 1986. During the mission, Discovery deployed a single satellite, USA-48 (1989-090B). Experts believe that this was a secret Magnum ELINT (ELectronic INTelligence) satellite headed for geosynchronous orbit, similar to that launched by STS-51-C in 1985, making this mission essentially a duplicate of that earlier mission. According to Jim Slade of ABC News, USA-48 was intended to eavesdrop on military and diplomatic communications from the Soviet Union, China, and other communist states. The satellite deployed by STS-33 was a replacement for the one launched by STS-51-C, which was running out of the maneuvering fuel required for keeping its station over the Indian Ocean. However, astronaut Gary E. Payton stated in 2009 that STS-51-C's payload is "still up there, and still operating". Aviation Week claimed that during STS-33, the shuttle initially entered an 204 km (127 mi) x 519 km (322 mi) orbit at an inclination of 28.45° to the equator. It then executed three Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) burns, the last on its fourth orbit. The first burn was to circularize the orbit at 519 km (322 mi). The satellite was deployed on the seventh orbit, and ignited its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster at the ascending node of the eighth orbit, successfully placing it in a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). This was the eighth IUS launched aboard the shuttle, and the seventh successfully deployed. STS-33 suffered a cabin leak in the Waste Collection System. STS-33 was observed by the 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) telescope of the U.S. Air Force Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing observatory (AMOS) during five passes over Hawaii. Spectrographic and infrared images of the shuttle obtained with the Enhanced Longwave Spectral Imager (ELSI) were aimed at studying the interactions between gases released by the shuttle's primary reaction control system (RCS) and residual atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen species in orbit. The landing was initially scheduled for November 26, 1989, but was postponed for a day because of strong winds at the landing site. Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on November 27, 1989, at 7:30:16 p.m. EST, after a mission duration of 5 days, 0 hour, 6 minutes, and 46 seconds.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with STS-33

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what STS-33 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to STS-33 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about STS-33 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of STS-33

In research: STS-33 appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses STS-33 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: STS-33 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Department of Defense Space Shuttle missions, Edwards Air Force Base, Space Shuttle missions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for STS-33 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study STS-33 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what STS-33 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain STS-33 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is STS-33 in simple terms?

Why does STS-33 matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study STS-33?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on STS-33.