STS-51-I

Mission emblem

Mission dates

Mission:

STS-51-I

COSPAR-ID :

1985-076A

Crew:

5

Begin:

August 27, 1985, 10:58:01 UTC

Starting place:

Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A

Number of EVA :

2

Landing:

September 3, 1985, 13:15:43 UTC

Landing place:

Edwards Air Force Base , Runway 23

Flight duration:

7d 2h 17m 42s

Earth orbits:

112

Track height:

389 km

Orbit inclination :

28.45 °

Covered track:

4.6 million km

Payload:

ASC-1, AUSSAT-1 and LEASAT-4

Team photo

v. l. No. Front: Joe Engle, Richard Covey;
Middle: John Lounge;
Back: James van Hoften, William Fisher

◄ Before / After ►

STS-51-F

STS-51-J

STS-51-I ( English S pace T ransportation S ystem ) is a mission designation for the US Space Shuttle Discovery ( OV -103) of NASA . The launch took place on August 27, 1985. It was the 20th space shuttle mission and the sixth flight of the space shuttle Discovery.

team

Joe Engle (2nd space flight), commander
Richard Covey (1st space flight), pilot
James van Hoften (2nd space flight), mission specialist
John Lounge (1st spaceflight), mission specialist
William Fisher (1st spaceflight), mission specialist

Mission overview

Two attempts to start this mission had to be canceled. On August 24th the decision was made due to the weather conditions at T-5 minutes, on August 25th the failure of the on-board computer no. 5 forced an abort. Finally, Discovery started on August 27, after a ship in the restricted sea area off Florida caused another three minutes delay.

The aim of the mission was to put the three communications satellites ASC-1, AUSSAT-1 and LEASAT-4 into orbit, as well as to capture, repair and relocate the defective LEASAT-3 satellite launched with the STS-51-D mission . Due to a manipulation problem, AUSSAT-1 had to be suspended one day earlier than planned. For this reason the mission has been shortened by one day. LEASAT-4 was brought into orbit as planned, but could not be put into operation there later because one of the UHF transmitting antennas was defective. The repair of the LEASAT-3 was successful, requiring outboard work by Fisher and van Hoften totaling eleven hours and 27 minutes.

The landing took place on schedule at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Discovery was transported back to Cape Canaveral , Florida five days later by special aircraft.