Space Shuttle STS-99 Endeavour Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 2000 NASA 15min

more at

‘STS-99 POST FLIGHT PRESENTATION
JSC1819 – (2000) – 15 Minutes –
Commander: Kevin Kregel
Pilot: Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie
Mission Specialists: Gerhard P.J. Thiele, Janet Kavandi, Janice Voss, Mamoru Mohri
Dates: February 11-22, 2000
Vehicle: Endeavour OV-105
Payloads: STRM and EarthKam
Landing Site: Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center, FL’

NASA film JSC-1819

Public domain film slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization.

STS-99 was a Space Shuttle Endeavour mission, that launched on 11 February 2000 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The primary objective of the mission was the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project.

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is an international project spearheaded by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and NASA, with participation of the German Aerospace Center DLR. Its objective is to obtain the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of the Earth. SRTM consists of a specially modified radar system that flew on board the space shuttle during its 11-day mission. This radar system gathered around 8 terabytes of data to produce unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth’s surface.

SRTM uses C-band and X-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) to acquire topographic data of Earth’s land mass (between 60°N and 56°S). It produces digital topographic map products which meet Interferometric Terrain Height Data (ITHD)-2 specifications (30 meter x 30 meter spatial sampling with 16 meter absolute vertical height accuracy, 10 meter relative vertical height accuracy and 20 meter absolute horizontal circular accuracy).

The result of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission could be close to 1 trillion measurements of the Earth’s topography. Besides contributing to the production of better maps, these measurements could lead to improved water drainage modeling, more realistic flight simulators, better locations for cell phone towers, and enhanced navigation safety.

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission mast was deployed successfully to its full length, and the antenna was turned to its operation position. After a successful checkout of the radar systems, mapping began at 00:31 EST, less than 12 hours after launch. Crewmembers, split into two shifts so they could work around the clock, began mapping an area from 60 degrees north to 56 degrees south. Data was sent to Jet Propulsion Laboratory for analysis and early indications showed the data to be of excellent quality…

Radar data gathering concluded at 06:54 EST on the tenth day of flight after a final sweep across Australia. During 222 hours and 23 minutes of mapping, Endeavour’s radar images filled 332 high density tapes and covered 99.98 % of the planned mapping area — land between 60 degrees north latitude and 56 degrees south latitude — at least once and 94.6 % of it twice. Only about 80,000 square miles (210,000 km2) in scattered areas remained unimaged, most of them in North America and most already well mapped by other methods. Enough data was gathered to fill the equivalent of 20,000 CDs.

Also aboard Endeavour was a student experiment called EarthKAM, which took 2,715 digital photos during the mission through an overhead flight-deck window…

Endeavour also saw the recommissioning of the Spacelab Pallet system, used for experiments in vacuum.

The 2007 Smithsonian Networks documentary Oasis Earth was made about the mission…

This was the last mission to fly with the standard cockpit in 18 straight years. A glass cockpit was first used after this mission.(STS-101)

This was also the last solo flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. All further launches for Endeavour became International Space Station missions.