NASA’s Columbia Space Shuttle launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-32.
STS-32, the ninth mission flown by the Columbia Space Shuttle, was the longest shuttle mission to date, lasting an impressive eleven days. The mission had two primary objectives; to launch the Leasat 5 military communications satellite and retrieve a bus-sized space lab called the Long Duration Exposure Facility. The shuttle also ferried an IMAX camera into orbit, with the footage taken making it into the 1990 film Blue Planet.