STS-39 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission that was launched on April 28, 1991. It was the ninth flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery and the first mission to carry the Air Force’s Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) payload. The main objective of the mission was to conduct experiments and demonstrations of the SDIO’s space-based technologies, which were designed to detect, track, and intercept incoming ballistic missiles. The mission also carried a number of other payloads, including the Wake Shield Facility, which was used to study the effects of microgravity on the growth of semiconductor crystals. The mission lasted just over a week, ending with a successful landing at Kennedy Space Center on May 6, 1991.
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