Does anyone know what shuttle flight acheived the highest maximum orbit?

Probably one of the Hubble missions. Let's see, here's a CNN page from 1997 that says "The crew also boosted Hubble into a 385-mile-high orbit, the highest the telescope -- or a space shuttle -- has ever flown."

Thank you. I am teaching a fifth-grade class about the space program and wanted to compare how far the ISS and space shuttle orbits are compared to weather and communication satellites.

Here's a good analogy.

The orbital height of the ISS, shuttle, or Hubble are approximately the same as driving across a medium-sized state in the US, while the height of broadcast comm. satellites are approximately the same as driving around the world (and the GPS satellites are about 1/2 way in between).

__________________
http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats...033/prj:6/.png

Wikipedia lists the initial Hubble deployment mission, STS-31 as reaching 615 km, as contrasted with STS-82's (the mission mentioned above) 574 km.

__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Hmm...385 miles converted into kilometers by multiplying by 1.609344 is 619.6 kilometers. I suppose it could have boosted the Hubble to 619.6 and that would have been the highest Hubble had flown--and higher than any shuttle. One way to interpret it.

Sounds like it's close enough for trswartz's purposes.

Okay, NASA gives STS-82's altitude as 334 nautical miles, or 384 statute miles, and also notes that this is the highest altitude ever for Hubble, so after reviewing the play I'll go with STS-82.

__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Weird. The wiki STS-82 page says 360 statute miles, which is the same for the NASA page referenced at the bottom of the wiki article.

PS: The wiki page has Apogee: 574 km in the Mission Parameters, Orbit Altitude: 360 statute miles in the Mission Statistics, and the body mentions the same 335- by 321-nautical-mile orbit mentioned in your article. Hows come no furlongs?

The Shuttle reaches its maximum atltitude with a series of manoeuvres, so the maximum altitude of the first orbit is less than the absolute maximum. Sources that quote a single orbital height may not have done the necessary review of all the orbital data for the mission.

__________________
"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

In this case, the source for both figures appears to be NASA

The PR people may not have the necessary contact with the orbital mechanics people, after all, who but a bunch of nitpickers like us gives a monkey's?

__________________
"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

Buran could take extra fuel in its payload bay and could fly higher than STS IIRC