STS-85 (Space Shuttle Discovery)

STS-85 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission flown August 7-19, 1997, operated by NASA. Its primary lidar science payload was the Shuttle Laser Altimeter 2 (SLA-02), a 1064 nm pulsed altimetry instrument and the second flight in the SLA series begun on STS-72. SLA-02 conducted investigations of surface topography and vegetation canopy structure using spaceborne laser ranging. The mission flew at 51.6 degrees inclination and approximately 278 km altitude (173 statute miles per NASA mission documentation).^[1] STS-85 is in the spaceborne lidar altimetry lineage, distinct from the LITE atmospheric backscatter demonstration conducted on STS-64.^[1][2]