STS-53 was a NASA Space Shuttle Discovery mission in support of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It was Discovery's 15th flight. The mission was launched on December 2, 1992, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This was also the last mission to have been operated via MCR-2 in JSC. Afterwards the room was restored entirely to its Apollo era appearance.
Crew
Crew seat assignments
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! Seat
! Launch
! Landing
|rowspan=8| 150px<br />Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck.<br />Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck.
|-
! 1
|colspan=2| Walker
|-
! 2
|colspan=2| Cabana
|-
! 3
|Bluford
|Clifford
|-
! 4
|colspan=2| Voss
|-
! 5
|Clifford
|Bluford
|-
! 6
|colspan=2 style="background-color:lightgray"| Unused
|-
! 7
|colspan=2 style="background-color:lightgray"| Unused
|}
Mission highlights
Discovery carried a classified primary payload (DOD-1) for the United States Department of Defense (DoD), two unclassified secondary payloads and nine unclassified middeck experiments.
Secondary payloads contained in or attached to Get Away Special (GAS) hardware in the cargo bay included the Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS) satellites and the combined Shuttle Glow Experiment/Cryogenic Heat Pipe Experiment (GCP).