STS-62-A was a planned Space Shuttle mission to deliver a reconnaissance payload (Teal Ruby) into polar orbit. It was expected to use Discovery. It would have been the first manned launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The mission designation, 62-A, meant: 6=fiscal year 1986, 2=Vandenberg (1=Kennedy Space Centre), and A=first flight in that fiscal year.
The destruction of Challenger and subsequent halt of the Space Shuttle Program led to the cancellation of the mission.G. Gardner, Ross and Mullane were members of the second post-Challenger mission STS-27-a classified mission for the DoD-during which the Lacrosse-1radar reconnaissance spacecraft was allegedly deployed.
