Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
06:51:00
Saturday August 23, 1997
Lewis was one of two missions selected under NASA's SSTI (Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative) program to demonstrate advanced spacecraft technologies (11 July 1994). Lewis' payload consisted of: - Earth imaging Hyperspectral Imager (HSI) with 384 bands (0.4 - 2.5 µm, 30 m pixels, 7.7 km swath, panchromatic: 0.45 - 0.75 µm, 5 m pixels, 13 km swath) - Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA), from NASA GSFC (1.0 - 2.5 µm, 256 channels, 300 m pixels, 77 km swath). - Ultraviolet Cosmic Background (UCB), from UC Berkely (35 - 85 nm) After reaching orbit, the satellite spun out of control and was losing power just days after launch because an attitude-control thruster remained in the on position longer than planned, so that Lewis could not manouver to its operational orbit and decayed soon after.
Low Earth Orbit
1 Payload
288 kilograms
2nd
Mission
1st
Mission of 1997
46th
Orbital launch attempt