STS-62-A

STS-62-A was a planned NASA Space Shuttle mission to deliver a reconnaissance payload into polar orbit. It was expected to use Discovery. It would have been the first crewed launch from Vandenberg [Space Force Base|Vandenberg Air Force Base] in California, and the first crewed mission to go into polar orbit.
The mission designation, STS-62-A, meant: 6=fiscal year 1986, 2=Vandenberg, and A=first flight from that launch site in that fiscal year.

Crew

Post-''Challenger'' accident

The Space [Shuttle Challenger disaster|destruction] of Challenger and subsequent halt of the Space Shuttle program led to the cancellation of the mission.
Guy Gardner, Jerry Ross, and Mike Mullane were members of the second post-Challenger mission STS-27 — a classified mission for the United [States Department of Defense|DoD] — during which the Lacrosse-1 radar reconnaissance spacecraft was allegedly deployed.