The Space Radar Laboratory, flown in 1994, and the more advanced Shuttle Radar Topography Mission of 2000 recorded three-dimensional images charting the differing elevations of much of Earth's land masses.
The shuttle Endeavour, carrying a $366 million Space Radar Laboratory in its cargo bay, rocketed into orbit at 7:05 A.M. Eastern daylight time, as the sun rose over the Atlantic.
Initially called the side-looking radar project, it was carried out by a group first known as the Radar Laboratory and later as the Radar and Optics Laboratory.
An adequate instrument was designed and built by the Radar Laboratory and was installed in a C-46 (Curtiss Commando) aircraft.
Much of Leith's holographic work was an outgrowth of his research on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) performed while a member of the Radar Laboratory of the University of Michigan's Willow Run Laboratory beginning in 1952.
He was the Director of the Radar Laboratory for the Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1958 to 1968.
STS-59 Endeavour (April 9-April 20, 1994) was the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) mission.
In Endeavour's cargo bay is the Space Radar Laboratory, a complex of two radar units and a large antenna that were flown four months ago to look at subtle changes in Earth's environment and to try to determine how much could be attributed to human activity.
In the cargo bay is the Space Radar Laboratory, 23,000 pounds and $366 million worth of imaging systems.
The primary payload on this flight is the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2), making its second flight to study the Earth's environment.