Shuttle Satellite to Spy on Soviet Union, Sources Say

The secret space shuttle mission scheduled later this month will carry an intelligence-gathering satellite that will cover 80% of the Soviet Union, sources said today.

The Atlantis is scheduled to blast off on the second post-Challenger shuttle mission “no earlier” than Nov. 28, although most observers believe that the spaceship will not get off the ground until Nov. 30 or Dec. 1.

On board will be commander Robert (Hoot) Gibson, co-pilot Guy Gardner, Richard (Mike) Mullane, Jerry Ross and William Shepherd.

The flight will mark only the third fully classified military shuttle mission in the history of the program, and neither the Air Force nor NASA will discuss any details about the flight.

But sources close to the program said the shuttle’s hush-hush cargo is a complex spy satellite that will be launched into a 240-mile-high orbit carrying it up to 57 degrees to either side of the Equator.

Variety of Tasks

From that vantage point, most of the Soviet Union will be visible to the spacecraft as it soars overhead. The satellite is scheduled to be taken to launch pad 39B Nov. 10 for installation in Atlantis’ payload bay.

Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine reported today in its Nov. 7 edition that the satellite’s antenna system will span 150 feet when fully deployed in orbit and that it cost “up to $500 million.”

The satellite will perform a variety of intelligence-gathering tasks for all the military services and several U.S. intelligence agencies, the magazine said.

The flight plan for Atlantis’ mission is believed to run as follows:

Once safely in orbit, preliminary checks will be conducted before the satellite is picked up by Atlantis’ 50-foot robot arm. But the satellite will not be released into space until the second day of the mission, after additional checkout operations.

Space Walk Possible

In case of a malfunction, the shuttle crew can blow the satellite’s solar panels and antennas off, Aviation Week said, and it can be put back in Atlantis’ payload bay by the ship’s robot arm for return to Earth.

In that case, it is believed that two of the astronauts will conduct a space walk as part of the retrieval exercise, although details of such a contingency operation were not known.

The precise launch time will not be publicly revealed until 9 minutes before liftoff, the landing time will not be known until 24 hours before touchdown and no radio transmissions or television pictures from the shuttle will be released to the public throughout the flight.

The mission is expected to last a little more than four days and landing is planned for Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.