Seconds From Disaster | The Amazing Story Of A Shuttle Secret Mission | Hoot Gibson | EPISODE 2

Space Shuttle secret mission STS-27, just seconds from disaster. Get the story from astronaut Hoot Gibson. STS-27 was the 27th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the third flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Launching on December 2, 1988, on a four-day mission, it was the second shuttle flight after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 1986. STS-27 carried a classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), ultimately determined to be a Lacrosse surveillance satellite. The vessel's heat shielding was substantially damaged during lift-off, and crew members thought that they would die during re-entry. HOOT GIBSON SERIES SEASON 1: EPISODE 01: https://youtu.be/sPH1kSa-6zE EPISODE 01 EXTENDED: https://youtu.be/wWsY7tuWa8w EPISODE 02: https://youtu.be/t1cQtJ9iCtw EPISODE 03: https://youtu.be/t1cQtJ9iCtw EPISODE 04: https://youtu.be/iC0n2jK2A2s EPISODE 05: https://youtu.be/fC2TcF817JA EPISODE 06: https://youtu.be/b-a65NXn85w EPISODE 07: https://youtu.be/DNrpZneJEBM EPISODE 08: https://youtu.be/mf-IjzqJBpo EPISODE 09: https://youtu.be/esJjwizqgk4 EPISODE 10: https://youtu.be/L78Bmm2xNsc EPISODE 11: https://youtu.be/Sh7inH3E5z4 EPISODE 12: https://youtu.be/9I6RY4yuCQ4 EPISODE 13: https://youtu.be/DyLdd0SJoto EPISODE 14: https://youtu.be/TsYH90kNfDc FULL PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBI4gRjPKfnO5CF3r1r0FHXLAytdsO-J- The Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104), at the time the youngest in NASA's shuttle fleet, made its third flight on a classified mission for the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It deployed a single satellite, USA-34. NASA archival information has identified USA-34 as Lacrosse 1, a side-looking radar, all-weather surveillance satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Atlantis' Thermal Protection System tiles sustained extensive damage during the flight. Ablative insulating material from the right-hand solid rocket booster nose cap had hit the orbiter about 85 seconds into the flight, as seen in footage of the ascent. The STS-27 crew also commented that white material was observed on the windshield at various times during the ascent. The crew made an inspection of the shuttle's impacted starboard side using the shuttle's Canadarm, but the limited resolution and range of the cameras made it impossible to determine the full extent of the tile damage. The problem was compounded by the fact that the crew was prohibited from using their standard method of sending images to ground control due to the classified nature of the mission. The crew was forced to use a slow, encrypted transmission method, likely causing the images NASA engineers received to be of poor quality, causing them to think the damage was actually "just lights and shadows". They told the crew the damage did not look any more severe than on past missions. One report describes the crew as "infuriated" that Mission Control Center seemed unconcerned. When Gibson saw the damage he thought to himself, "We are going to die"; he and others did not believe that the shuttle would survive reentry. Gibson advised the crew to relax because "No use dying all tensed-up", he said, but if instruments indicated that the shuttle was disintegrating, Gibson planned to "tell mission control what I thought of their analysis" in the remaining seconds before his death. Hoot Gibson’s Hangar, aviation’s premier podcast, hosted by America’s premier aviator, Hoot Gibson, “The Man That Can Fly Anything." Don’t miss a single episode. Video podcasts air exclusively on Air2AirTV and aviation’s premier Youtube channel - Dronescapes, producing aircraft documentaries, exclusive stories, and interviews from veterans, pilots, and aces, in their own words. WWII missions, Vietnam's stories, and much more! Hoot Gibson’s Hangar audio podcast can be downloaded from all top podcast directories: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn Alexa, Overcast, PocketCast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, and many more. You can also download the audio podcast on Air2AirTV by clicking on the RESOURCE tab below each episode. #spaceshuttle #nasa #disaster