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WSF 1, 2, 3

WSF 2 [NASA]

WSF (Wake Shield Facility) was an american retrievable spacecraft that was released from the Shuttle. The wake region behind the 4 m disk-shaped, 1935 kg spacecraft would have been even more vacuous than the ambient region and could have enabled growth of slimmer thin-film semiconductors through molecular beam epitaxy technique during a planned two-day mission.

On the first flight, the space craft could not be deployed in orbit and was operated from the manipulator arm.

On the second flight, the experiment had to be terminated and the spacecraft retrieved sooner than was planned because of overheating problems. The results of the experiment were unavailable.

The third flight was finally successful.

An improved WSF-4 Free Flyer planned for 1998 was to be equipped with solar panels for greater power and it was to be capable of processing up to 300 wafers.

Nation: USA
Type / Application: Material research, retrievable
Operator: NASA
Contractors:
Equipment:
Configuration:
Propulsion:
Power: Batteries
Lifetime: 2 days
Mass: 1935 kg
Orbit:
Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
WSF 1 N/A 03.02.1994 CCK LC-39A ND Shuttle with Discovery F18 (STS 60), BremSat 1, ODERACS A, B, C, D, E, F / not deployed
WSF 2 1995-048C 07.09.1995 CCK LC-39A Shuttle with Endeavour F9 (STS 69), Spartan 201-F3
WSF 3 1996-065C 19.11.1996 CCK LC-39B Shuttle with Columbia F21 (STS 80), ORFEUS-SPAS 02

References:

Further WSF missions:

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