page_title: 6555th Aerospace Test Group
section_title: Space Shuttle military missions
hierarchical_section_title: 6555th Aerospace Test Group / History / Space Shuttle military missions
caption_attribution_description: English: STS-36 Crew Egress.jpg
context_page_description: The 6555th Aerospace Test Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Eastern Space and Missile Center and stationed at Patrick AFB, Florida. It was inactivated on 1 October 1990.
  Prior to the activation of the Air Force Space Command, the unit was responsible for the development of USAF missiles, both tactical surface-to-surface; CIM-10 Bomarc Interceptor; SM-62 Snark Intercontinental Cruise Missile; Intercontinental ballistic missile and heavy launch rockets used for military for satellite deployment. The unit played a key role in the civilian NASA Project Mercury, Project Gemini and Project Apollo manned space programs along with military Space Shuttle flights.
  The mission of the unit today is performed by the 45th Space Wing.
context_section_description: The 6555th Aerospace Test Group established its Space Transportation System (STS) Division on 1 July 1974. The division was created to ensure that Defense Department requirements were included in plans for future Space Shuttle operations at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
  As two of its earliest accomplishments, the division got NASA to agree to the Defense Department's requirement for vertical payload installations at the Shuttle launch pad and a secure conference area in the Firing Room of the Shuttle Launch Control Center (LCC). The division continued to serve as an intermediary between KSC and the Defense Department payload community. The division not only gave the payload community a better understanding of schedule and contractual constraints affecting KSC ground operations, it also gathered a more detailed set of requirements from military payload programs to help NASA support those programs.
  The division also helped the 6595th Space Test Group develop requirements for a Shuttle Launch Processing System at Vandenberg Air Force Base.  The division also provided selection criteria and background information to help the Space and Missile Systems Organization select its Shuttle payload integration contractor. Martin Marietta was awarded the Shuttle payload integration contract on 15 September 1977.
  As preparations for military space shuttle operations continued, the STS Division identified and analyzed many problems associated with "factory-to-pad" processing of military payloads. The division's findings helped justify the need for an off-line Shuttle Payload Integration Facility (SPIF), and they convinced the AFSC Commander to approve the SMAB's west bay as the site for the SPIF in January 1979. As work on the SPIF got underway, the 6555th Aerospace Test Group formed the STS/IUS Site Activation Team in September 1981 to address problems associated with the first IUS processed aboard the Shuttle. The STS Division and the Satellite Systems Division were consolidated to form the Spacecraft Division on 1 November 1983.
  The first military Space Shuttle mission, STS-4, was launched from Pad 39A at 1500Z on 27 June 1982. Military space missions also accounted for part or all of 14 out of 37 Shuttle flights launched from the Cape between August 1984 and July 1992. While many details of those missions are not releasable, some features of Shuttle payload ground processing operations and range support requirements can be summarized for what might be termed a "typical" military space mission.
  One process common to many military Shuttle missions was the preparation of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS). Though the ultimate destination of the IUS was mission-specific, the IUS was processed in one of two basic assembly/checkout flows (i.e., one for military payloads and the other for NASA spacecraft). Before either process began, the Inertial Upper Stage's structural assemblies, avionics and flight batteries were received at hangars E and H and placed in various storage areas at the Cape. At the appropriate time, all vehicle elements were transferred to the SMAB, where they were assembled and checked out. Following power up checks and functional testing, the military IUS was cleaned and transferred to the SPIF. For civilian missions, IUSs entered a different assembly/checkout flow at this point in the process. They were sent directly to NASA's Vertical Processing Facility on Merritt Island.
  STS-4 OV-102 Columbia (27 June-4 July 1982)
  While details concerning the nature of the first Shuttle/DOD payload remain classified, we may note that it arrived at the Cape in April 1982. It was processed by an Air Force/NASA/contractor team, and it was loaded aboard the Shuttle Columbia as the vehicle stood on Pad 39A. Following an 87-hour countdown, Columbia lifted off at 1500:00Z on 27 June 1982. Navy Captain Thomas K. Mattingly, II and Air Force Colonel Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr. conducted the military mission in addition to several civilian experiments while "on-orbit," and the long-term effects of temperature changes on Shuttle subsystems wer
caption: STS-36 crewmembers egress Atlantis, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 104, 4 March 1990 via mobile stairway following touchdown on Runway 23 drylake bed at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), California.
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