NASA STS-46 Atlantis Mission Patch

4" Embroidered Patch for the NASA STS-46 Space Shuttle Mission

STS-46 was a NASAspace shuttle mission launched in 1992.

The mission's primary objectives were the deployment of ESA's EURECA (European Retrievable Carrier) and the joint NASA/Italian Space Agency Tethered Satellite System (TSS). EURECA was deployed a day later than scheduled because of a problem with its data handling system. Seven and a half hours after deployment, the spacecraft's thrusters were fired to boost EURECA to its planned operating altitude of around 310 miles. However, thruster firing was cut to six minutes from 24 minutes because of unexpected attitude data from the spacecraft. STS-46 marked the 150th human spaceflight to achieve orbit.