Question: STS-96 was a mission to the artificial satellite that launched into orbit in what year?
Context: A geocentric orbit or Earth orbit involves any object orbiting Planet Earth, such as the Moon or artificial satellites.  In 1997 NASA estimated there were approximately 2,465 artificial satellite payloads orbiting the Earth and 6,216 pieces of space debris as tracked by the Goddard Space Flight Center.  Over 16,291 previously launched objects have decayed into the Earth's atmosphere. A military satellite is an artificial satellite used for a military purpose.  The most common missions are intelligence gathering, navigation and military communications.  The first military satellites were photographic reconnaissance missions.  Some attempts were made to develop satellite based weapons but this work was halted in 1967 following the ratification of international treaties banning the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in orbit.  As of 2013, there are 950 satellites of all types in Earth orbit.  It is not possible to identify the exact number of these that are military satellites partly due to secrecy and partly due to dual purpose missions such as GPS satellites that serve both civilian and military purposes. In orbital mechanics, a frozen orbit is an orbit for an artificial satellite in which natural drifting due to the central body's shape has been minimized by careful selection of the orbital parameters.  Typically this is an orbit where, over a long period of time, the altitude remains constant at the same point in each orbit — changes in the inclination, position of the lowest point of the orbit, and eccentricity have been minimized by choosing initial values so that their perturbations cancel out.  This results in a long-term stable orbit that minimizes the use of station-keeping propellant. The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit.  Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the ISS is now the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth.  The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays, and other components.  ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and American Space Shuttles. Mir (Russian: Мир , ] ; lit.  "peace" or "world") was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia.  "Mir" was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996.  It had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft.  At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station after Mir's orbit decayed.  The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space. Astérix, the first French satellite, was launched on November 26, 1965 by a Diamant A rocket from Hammaguir, Algeria.  With "Astérix", France became the sixth country to have an artificial satellite in orbit after: USSR ("Sputnik 1", 1957), the United States ("Explorer 1", 1958), the United Kingdom ("Ariel 1", 1962), Canada ("Alouette 1", 1962) and Italy ("San Marco 1", 1964), and the third to launch a satellite on its own (the UK, Canada and Italy's satellites were launched on American rockets).  The satellite was originally designated A-1, as the French Army's first satellite, but later renamed after the popular French comics character Astérix.  Due to the relatively high altitude of its orbit, it is not expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere for several centuries. Ōsumi (or Ohsumi) is the name of the first Japanese satellite put into orbit, named after the Ōsumi Province in the southern islands of Japan.  It was launched on February 11, 1970 at 04:25 UTC with a Lambda 4S-5 rocket from Uchinoura Space Center by Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo, now part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).  Japan became the fourth nation after the USSR, United States and France to release an artificial satellite into successful orbit on its own. STS-96 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle " Discovery", and the first shuttle flight to dock with the International Space Station.  The shuttle carried the Spacehab module in the payload, filled with cargo for station outfitting.  STS-96 launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 27 May 1999 at 06:49:42 AM EDT. Badr-1 (Urdu: ‎ , meaning "Full Moon-1") was the first artificial and the first digital communication satellite launched by Pakistan's supreme national space authority – the SUPARCO – in 1990.  The "Badr-I" was Pakistan's first indigenously developed and manufactured digital communications and an experimental artificial satellite which was launched into low Earth orbit by Pakistan on 16 July 1990, through a Chinese rocket carrier.  The launch ushered new military, technological, and scientific developments in Pakistan and also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere.  Originally planned to be launched from the United States in 1986, the "Challenger disaster" furthered delayed the launch of the satellite which changed the plan.  After the People's Republic of China offered Pakistan to use its facility, the "Badr-I" was finally launched from XLSC in 1990 on Long March 2E (LM2E).  "Badr-I" travelled at 61,500 miles per hour, taking 96.3 minutes to complete an orbit, and emitted radio signals at the 145 to 435 MHz bands which were operated by Pakistan Amateur Radio Society (PARS).  The "Badr-I" successfully completed its designed life, and a new satellite was proposed to be developed. Explorer 3 (international designation 1958 Gamma) was an artificial satellite of the Earth, nearly identical to the first United States artificial satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission.  It was the second successful launch in the Explorer program.
Answer: 1998