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Long Duration Exposure Facility

Long Duration Exposure Facility
LDEF, shortly before deployment, flies on the RMS arm of Space Shuttle Challenger over Baja California.
Mission typeMaterials research
OperatorNASA
COSPAR ID1984-034B Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.14898
Websitecrgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Long_Duration_Exposure_Facility_(LDEF)
Mission duration2076 days
Distance travelled1,374,052,506 km (853,796,644 mi)
Orbits completed32,422
Spacecraft properties
ManufacturerLangley
Launch mass9,724 kg (21,438 lb)[1]
Dry mass3,629 kg (8,001 lb)[1]
Start of mission
Launch dateApril 6, 1984, 13:58:00 (1984-04-06UTC13:58Z) UTC
RocketSpace Shuttle Challenger
STS-41-C
Launch siteKennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Recovered bySpace Shuttle Columbia
STS-32
Recovery dateJanuary 12, 1990, 15:16 (1990-01-12UTC15:17Z) UTC
Landing dateJanuary 20, 1990, 09:35:37 UTC
Landing siteEdwards Runway 22
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Eccentricity7.29E-4
Perigee altitude473.0 km (293.9 mi)
Apogee altitude483.0 km (300.1 mi)
Inclination28.5 degrees
Period94.2 minutes
 

NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF (pronounced "eldef"), was a cylindrical facility designed to provide long-term experimental data on the outer space environment and its effects on space systems, materials, operations and selected spores' survival.[2][3] It was placed in low Earth orbit by Space Shuttle Challenger in April 1984. The original plan called for the LDEF to be retrieved in March 1985, but after a series of delays it was eventually returned to Earth by Columbia in January 1990.[3]

It successfully carried science and technology experiments for about 5.7 years that have revealed a broad and detailed collection of space environmental data. LDEF's 69 months in space provided scientific data on the long-term effects of space exposure on materials, components and systems that has benefited NASA spacecraft designers to this day.[4]

  1. ^ a b "Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF)". NASA.
  2. ^ "The Long Duration Exposure Facility". NASA. Langley Research Center. Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2013-07-29.
  3. ^ a b Allen, Carlton. "Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF)". NASA. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference retrieval was invoked but never defined (see the help page).