Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on March 24, 1992, on an eight-day science mission (STS-45) primarily focused on the operation of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science 1 (ATLAS-1) payload. ATLAS-1 consisted of 12 instruments from the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan to study the chemistry of the atmosphere, solar radiation, space plasma physics, and ultraviolet astronomy. 

The ATLAS-1 instruments included:

• Atmospheric Emission Photometric Imaging (AEPI)
• Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS) Experiment
• Energetic Neutral Atom Precipitation (ENAP) Experiment
• GRILLE Spectrometer
• Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO)
• Millimeter-Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS)
• Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators (SEPAC)
• Measurement of the Solar Constant (SOLCON)

The ATMOS instrument was a high-resolution interferometric spectrometer that was previously flown on the Spacelab 3 (STS-51B) mission in 1985. 

Additional payloads included the fourth Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet experiment (SSBUV-4) and several Get Away Specials (GAS). Other science experiment payloads included Space Tissue Loss (STL 1), an Investigations into Polymer Membrane Processing (IPMP) Experiment, the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment II (SAREX II), Visual Function Tester (VFT 2), Radiation Monitoring Equipment III (RME III), and the Cloud Logic to Optimize Use of Defense Systems (CLOUDS-1A) Experiment.