STS 51-G

Flight Crew

BRANDENSTEIN, Daniel Charles, 42, USN, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-8 (1983)

CREIGHTON, John Oliver, 42, USN, pilot

FABIAN, John McCreary, 43, USAF, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-7 (1983)

NAGEL, Steven Ray, 38, USAF, mission specialist 2

LUCID, Shannon Wells, 42, civilian, mission specialist 3

BAUDRY, Patrick, 39, French Air Force, payload specialist 1

AL-SAUD, Prince Sultan Salman Abdul Aziz, 28, civilian, payload specialist 2

Flight Log

The smoothest Space Shuttle to date, STS 51-G, with the orbiter Discovery in tow, made a majestic, on-time lift-off at 07: 33 hrs local time from Pad 39A, carrying a cargo of three large communications satellites and a crew of seven which for the first time included passengers (or, more correctly, payload specialists) from two other countries, France (CNES) and Saudi Arabia. Three days later, the Mexican satellite, Morelos, Saudia Arabia’s Arabsat, and the USA’s Telstar were safely deployed en route to geostationary orbit, with the aid of PAM-D stages.

Another satellite payload, called SPARTAN 1, was deployed for an autonomous flight to conduct X-ray observations of the Milky Way, before it was retrieved by the RMS. 51-G also conducted the first manned Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or “Star Wars’’)-related tests, attempting, eventually successfully, to reflect a laser beam directed at the Shuttle from Hawaii back to Earth via a small mirror mounted on the orbiter’s mid-deck side hatch window. French crew member Baudry completed a programme of biomedical experiments similar to those flown by his colleague Jean – Loup Chretien aboard Salyut 7 the previous year. Baudry had been Chretien’s back­up on that mission before completing an abbreviated Shuttle payload specialist

training programme in America. The experiments included studies in physiology, biology, materials processing, and astronomy. Al-Saud took photographs of his homeland, participated in several experiments (include assisting Baudry in his pro­gramme) and continued his religious commitments, fulfilling his Muslim customs as well as he could. He admitted that he could not totally “bend down” while floating, due to the tendency to cause space sickness; and facing Mecca created its own problems when he was orbiting Earth every 90 minutes.

Discovery came home to Edwards Air Force Base’s runway 23, making the shortest rollout so far, of 2,265 m (7,431 ft), only for its main landing gear to sink partially in the wet lake bed. It had to be rather ignominiously righted using a plank of wood. Flight time was T + 7 days 1 hour 38 minutes 52 seconds. Orbital inclination was 28.45° and maximum altitude was 334 km (208 miles).

Milestones

107th manned space flight

49th US manned space flight

18th Shuttle flight

5th flight of Discovery

1st flight by crew from three nations

1st flight by a Saudi Arabian

1st royalty in space (Al-Saud)

1st nation (France) to make space flights with both the USA and Russia