The first Shuttle scientific payload /OSTA-1/

On Nov. 12, 1981, the Space Shuttle was launched for its second flight (STS-2). It carried with it the first scientific payload designed to perform remote sensing observations of the earth. During the 54 hour flight, scientific instruments from the OSTA-1 (Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications) payload gathered data over the earth's oceans and land masses, and global atmospheric data on concentrations of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. The flight demonstrated the capability of the Shuttle to serve as an orbiting platform for scientific research. Instruments were successfully developed for spaceflight for a fraction of the costs associated with instruments flown on unmanned satellite missions. Perhaps most importantly, the instruments have been successfully returned to the investigators for the first time in the history of remote sensing from space.