19891776 Club
Columbia launches on a secret Pentagon mission, carrying a human skull for science
The orbiter's fourth Department of Defense flight also tests how deep radiation reaches into human bone.
Three and a half years after the Challenger disaster grounded the fleet, Columbia sat on Pad 39B carrying a payload nobody outside the Pentagon would name. On August 8, 1989, it lifted off at 8:37 a.m. on STS-28, NASA's thirtieth shuttle mission and the fourth flown for the Department of Defense. Over five days and 81 orbits, the crew deployed satellites and ran an experiment involving a sliced human skull packed with radiation sensors. Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base on August 13, touching down slower than any shuttle before or since…
