STS-51-A
Mission Specialist Dale Gardner holds up a "For Sale" sign, referring to the malfunctioning Palapa B2 and Westar 6 satellites.
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| Mission type | Satellite deployment Satellite retrieval |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | NASA | ||||
| COSPAR ID | 1984-113A | ||||
| SATCAT № | 15382 | ||||
| Mission duration | 7 days, 23 hours, 44 minutes, 56 seconds | ||||
| Distance travelled | 5,293,786 kilometers (3,289,406 mi) | ||||
| Orbits completed | 127 | ||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Discovery | ||||
| Launch mass | 119,442 kilograms (263,324 lb) | ||||
| Landing mass | 94,123 kilograms (207,505 lb) | ||||
| Payload mass | 17,375 kilograms (38,305 lb) | ||||
| Crew | |||||
| Crew size | 5 | ||||
| Members |
Frederick Hauck David M. Walker Joseph P. Allen Anna Lee Fisher Dale Gardner |
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| EVAs | 2 | ||||
| EVA duration | 11 hours, 42 minutes First: 6 hours, 0 minutes Second: 5 hours, 42 minutes |
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| Start of mission | |||||
| Launch date | November 8, 1984, 12:15:00 UTC | ||||
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A | ||||
| End of mission | |||||
| Landing date | November 16, 1984, 11:59:56 UTC | ||||
| Landing site | Kennedy SLF Runway 15 | ||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||
| Reference system | Geocentric | ||||
| Regime | Low Earth | ||||
| Perigee | 332 kilometers (179 nmi) | ||||
| Apogee | 354 kilometers (191 nmi) | ||||
| Inclination | 28.4 degrees | ||||
| Period | 90.4 minutes | ||||
| Epoch | November 10, 1984 | ||||
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L-R: Gardner, Walker, Fisher, Hauck, Allen
STS-51-A was the 14th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the second flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 8, 1984, and landed just under eight days later on November 16.
STS-51-A marked the first time a shuttle deployed two communications satellites, and retrieved from orbit two other communications satellites. The Canadian Anik D2 and Syncom IV-1 satellites were both successfully deployed by the crew of Discovery. Palapa B2 and Westar 6, meanwhile, had been deployed during the STS-41-B mission earlier in the year, but had been placed into improper orbits due to the malfunctioning of their kick motors; they were both safely recovered and returned to Earth during STS-51-A.
STS-51-A was launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 7:15 am EST, November 8, 1984, less than a month after the STS-41-G flight. A launch attempt the day before was scrubbed at T-minus 20 minutes due to high shear winds in the upper atmosphere.
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