Mission Specialist James Van Hoften working on the crippled Syncom IV-3 satellite
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Mission type | Satellite deployment Satellite repair |
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Operator | NASA | ||||
COSPAR ID | 1985-076A | ||||
SATCAT № | 15992 | ||||
Mission duration | 7 days, 2 hours, 17 minutes, 42 seconds | ||||
Distance travelled | 4,698,602 kilometres (2,919,576 mi) | ||||
Orbits completed | 112 | ||||
Spacecraft properties | |||||
Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Discovery | ||||
Launch mass | 118,981 kilograms (262,309 lb) | ||||
Landing mass | 89,210 kilograms (196,674 lb) | ||||
Payload mass | 17,540 kilograms (38,660 lb) | ||||
Crew | |||||
Crew size | 5 | ||||
Members |
Joe H. Engle Richard O. Covey James D. A. van Hoften John M. Lounge William F. Fisher |
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EVAs | 2 | ||||
EVA duration | 11 hours, 46 minutes First: 7 hours, 20 minutes Second: 4 hours, 26 minutes |
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Start of mission | |||||
Launch date | August 27, 1985, 10:58:01 | UTC||||
Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A | ||||
End of mission | |||||
Landing date | September 3, 1985, 13:15:43 | UTC||||
Landing site | Edwards Runway 23 | ||||
Orbital parameters | |||||
Reference system | Geocentric | ||||
Regime | Low Earth | ||||
Perigee | 350 kilometres (220 mi) | ||||
Apogee | 465 kilometres (289 mi) | ||||
Inclination | 28.45 degrees | ||||
Period | 92 min | ||||
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Back row L-R: van Hoften, Lounge, Fisher
Front row L-R: Engle, Covey
STS-51-I was the 20th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the sixth flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. During the mission, Discovery deployed three communications satellites into orbit. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 27, 1985, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on September 3.
Discovery launched at 6:58 am EDT on August 27, 1985. Two earlier launch attempts, one on August 24 and another on August 25, were scrubbed – the first because of poor weather, and the second because the backup orbiter computer failed and had to be replaced. The successful launch on August 27 took place just as an approaching storm front reached the launch pad area.
The five-man STS 51-I crew included Joe H. Engle, commander; Richard O. Covey, pilot; and James van Hoften, John M. Lounge, and William F. Fisher, mission specialists. Their primary mission was to deploy three commercial communications satellites and retrieve and repair the Syncom IV-3 satellite, which had been deployed during the STS 51-D mission in April 1985, but had malfunctioned. In addition, a mid-deck materials processing experiment, the Physical Vapor Transport Organic Solid Experiment (PVTOS), was flown aboard Discovery.