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NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility (Seeds in Space Experiment Photos)
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NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) was designed to provide long-term data on the space environment and its effects on space systems and operations. It successfully carried science and technology experiments that have revealed a broad and detailed collection of space environmental data.
LDEF had a nearly cylindrical structure, and its 57 experiments were mounted in 86 trays about its periphery and on the two ends. The spacecraft measured 30 feet by 14 feet and weighed ~21,500 pounds with mounted experiments, and remains one of the largest Shuttle-deployed payloads. The experiments involved the participation of more than 200 principal investigators from 33 private companies, 21 universities, seven NASA centers, nine Department of Defense laboratories and eight foreign countries.
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Space Shuttle & LDEF in orbit.
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Space Seeds Experiment Tray, pre-launch.
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Space Seeds Experiment Tray, with Thermal cover.
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"The Seeds in Space Experiment (P0004-01) was one of three passive experiments located in a 6 inch deep LDEF peripheral tray.
The experiment consisted of 2 million seeds of 120 different varieties, one sealed canister,
two smaller vented canisters,
and a silvered Teflon thermal cover."
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Space Seeds Experiment Tray, in orbit.
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Space Seeds Experiment Tray, after retrieval.
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NASA photo comment: "The paint dots, originally white, located on experiment tray clamp blocks now appear brown. The experiment tray flanges also appear to be discolored." |
Arrow points to the location of the "Space Seeds" experiment panel.
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LDEF Satellite being removed from the Space Shuttle payload bay after retrieval.
*Note the size of the satellite compared to the people below!
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LDEF in orbit.
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One of the seed packets sent into space.
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Complete mission details and images are online at
NASA's LDEF Archive
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