STS-51-G

STS-51-G
	Discovery deploys Morelos-1.
Names	Space Transportation System-18
Mission type	Satellites deployment
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1985-048A
SATCAT no.	15823
Mission duration	7 days, 1 hour, 38 minutes, 52 seconds (achieved)
Distance travelled	4,693,051 km (2,916,127 mi)
Orbits completed	112
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch mass	116,357 kg (256,523 lb)
Landing mass	92,610 kg (204,170 lb)
Payload mass	17,280 kg (38,100 lb)
Crew
Crew size	7
Members	Daniel C. Brandenstein; John O. Creighton; John M. Fabian; Steven R. Nagel; Shannon W. Lucid; Patrick Baudry; Sultan bin Salman Al Saud;
Start of mission
Launch date	June 17, 1985, 11:33:00 UTC
Rocket	Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A
Contractor	Rockwell International
End of mission
Landing date	June 24, 1985, 13:11:52 UTC
Landing site	Edwards Air Force Base,; Runway 23
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	353 km (219 mi)
Apogee altitude	359 km (223 mi)
Inclination	28.45°
Period	91.70 minutes
Instruments
	Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF); French Echocardiograph Experiment (FEE); French Postural Experiment (FPE); High Precision Tracking Experiment (HPTE); Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for AstroNomy (SPARTAN-1);
	; STS-51-G mission patch; ; Back: Shannon W. Lucid, Steven R. Nagel, John M. Fabian, Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, Patrick Baudry,; Front: Daniel C. Brandenstein, John O. Creighton Space Shuttle program ← STS-51-B (17) STS-51-F (19) →

STS-51-G was the 18th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the fifth flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. The seven-day mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 17, 1985, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 24, 1985. Sultan bin Salman Al Saud from Saudi Arabia was on board as a payload specialist; Al Saud became the first Arab, the first Muslim, and the first member of a royal family to fly into space.^[2] It was also the first Space Shuttle mission which flew without at least one astronaut from the pre-Shuttle era among its crew.

Crew[edit]


Position	Astronaut
Commander	Daniel C. Brandenstein Second spaceflight
Pilot	John O. Creighton First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1	John M. Fabian Second and last spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2	Steven R. Nagel First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3	Shannon W. Lucid First spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1	Patrick Baudry, CNES Only spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, RSAF Only spaceflight
Al Saud became the first member of royalty to fly into space, as well as the first Arab and the first Muslim.

Backup crew[edit]


Position	Astronaut
Payload Specialist 1	Jean-Loup Chrétien, CNES Second spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Abdulmohsen Al-Bassam, RSAF First spaceflight

Crew seating arrangements[edit]

Seat^[3]	Launch	Landing	Seats 1–4 are on the Flight Deck. Seats 5–7 are on the Middeck.
S1	Brandenstein	Brandenstein
S2	Creighton	Creighton
S3	Lucid	Fabian
S4	Nagel	Nagel
S5	Fabian	Lucid
S6	Baudry	Baudry
S7	Al Saud	Al Saud

Mission summary[edit]

Discovery lifted off from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), at 7:33 a.m. EDT on June 17, 1985. The mission's crew members included Daniel C. Brandenstein, commander; John O. Creighton, pilot; Shannon W. Lucid, Steven R. Nagel, and John M. Fabian, mission specialists; and Patrick Baudry, from France, and Prince Sultan Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, from Saudi Arabia, both payload specialists.

STS-51-G carried three communications satellites as its primary cargo. These were Arabsat-1B (Arab Satellite Communications Organization); Morelos-1 (Mexico); and Telstar-303 (AT&T Corporation); all three were Hughes-built satellites. All three successfully utilized Payload Assist Module (PAM-D) booster stages to achieve geostationary transfer orbits (GTO) after being deployed from Discovery.

Also carried was the SPARTAN-1 (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for AstroNomy) a deployable/retrievable carrier module, designed to be deployed from the orbiter and fly free in space before being retrieved. SPARTAN-1 included 140 kg (310 lb) of astronomy experiments. It was deployed and operated successfully, independent of the orbiter, before being retrieved. Discovery furthermore carried an experimental materials-processing furnace, two French biomedical experiments (French Echocardiograph Experiment (FEE) and French Postural Experiment (FPE)),^[3] and six Getaway Special (GAS) experiments, which were all successfully performed, although the GO34 Getaway Special shut down prematurely. This mission was also the first flight test of the OEX advanced autopilot which gave the orbiter capabilities above and beyond those of the baseline system.

The mission's final payload element was a High Precision Tracking Experiment (HPTE) for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (nicknamed "Star Wars"); the HPTE failed to deploy properly during its first try on the mission's 37th orbit, because the orbiter was not at the correct attitude. It was successfully deployed on orbit 64.

Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base at 9:11:52 a.m. EDT on June 24, 1985, after a mission duration of 7 days, 1 hour, 38 minutes, and 52 seconds.

Mission Insignia[edit]

The STS-51-G insignia illustrates the advances in aviation technology in the United States within a relatively short span of the twentieth century with Discovery flying over the Wright Flyer. A gold-and-orange-flame eagle forms the base of the insigna. The surnames of the crewmembers for the Discovery's mission appear near the center edge of the circular design, with the French and Saudi crewmembers added below, with a respective flag icon along their name. Although Baudry was the first French citizen to fly with a Space Shuttle mission into space, he was only the second Frenchman to go to space, following Jean-Loup Chrétien's earlier missions with Soyuz capsule, Soyuz T-6.

Wake-up calls[edit]

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during Project Gemini, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. Each track is specially chosen, often by the astronauts' families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.^[4]

Flight Day	Song	Artist/Composer
Day 2	“Eye in the Sky (song)”	The Alan Parsons Project
Day 3	"Proud Mary"	Creedence Clearwater Revival
Day 4	"Sailing"	Christopher Cross
Day 5	"Jonathan Livingston Seagull"	Neil Diamond
Day 6	"Wedding March"	Felix Mendelssohn

Gallery[edit]

Arabsat-1B deployment
Morelos-1 deployment
Telstar-303 deployment
SPARTAN-1 after deployment

References[edit]

^ "Trajectory: STS-51G (1985-048A)". NASA. January 7, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "A prince in space" (January/February 1986 ed.). pp. 20–29. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
^ ^a ^b "STS-51G". Spacefacts. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
^ Fries, Colin (June 25, 2007). "Chronology of Wakeup Calls" (PDF). NASA. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2023. Retrieved August 13, 2007. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links[edit]

NASA mission summary Archived October 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
STS-51G Video Highlights Archived September 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine

[Trajectory-1] "Trajectory: STS-51G (1985-048A)". NASA. January 7, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[ARAMCO-2] "A prince in space" (January/February 1986 ed.). pp. 20–29. Retrieved January 23, 2022.

[SF51G-3] "STS-51G". Spacefacts. Retrieved January 23, 2021.

[chronology-4] Fries, Colin (June 25, 2007). "Chronology of Wakeup Calls" (PDF). NASA. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2023. Retrieved August 13, 2007. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103)
Completed flights	STS-41-D STS-51-A STS-51-C STS-51-D STS-51-G STS-51-I STS-26 STS-29 STS-33 STS-31 STS-41 STS-39 STS-48 STS-42 STS-53 STS-56 STS-51 STS-60 STS-64 STS-63 STS-70 STS-82 STS-85 STS-91 STS-95 STS-96 STS-103 STS-92 STS-102 STS-105 STS-114 STS-121 STS-116 STS-120 STS-124 STS-119 STS-128 STS-131 STS-133
Status	Retired
On display	Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Washington, D.C.
Related	Destiny in Space (1994 documentary)

v t e ← 1984 Orbital launches in 1985 1986 →
January	STS-51-C (USA-8)
February	USA-9 Arabsat-1A Brasilsat A1
March	Geosat Intelsat VA F-10
April	STS-51-D (Anik C1, Leasat 3) STS-51-B (Nusat)
May	GStar-1 Telecom 1B
June	Soyuz T-13 STS-51-G (Morelos 1, Arabsat-1B, Telstar 3D, SPARTAN-101) Progress 24 Intelsat VA F-11
July	Giotto Kosmos 1669 STS-51-F (PDP)
August	STS-51-I (Aussat A1, ASC-1, Leasat 4)
September	Spacenet 3 Soyuz T-14 Kosmos 1686 Intelsat VA F-12
October	STS-51-J (USA-11, USA-12) USA-10 STS-61-A (GLOMR)
November	STS-61-B (Morelos 2, Aussat A2, Satcom K2, OEX, EASE/ACCESS)
Unknown month	Sakigake Kosmos 1616 Kosmos 1617 Kosmos 1618 Kosmos 1619 Kosmos 1620 Kosmos 1621 Kosmos 1622 Molniya-3 No.36 Kosmos 1623 Kosmos 1624 Gorizont No.21L Kosmos 1625 Kosmos 1626 Kosmos 1627 Kosmos 1628 Meteor-2 No.13 Kosmos 1629 Kosmos 1630 Kosmos 1631 Kosmos 1632 Kosmos 1633 Kosmos 1634 Kosmos 1635 Kosmos 1636 Kosmos 1637 Kosmos 1638 Kosmos 1639 Kosmos 1640 Kosmos 1641 Kosmos 1642 Ekran No.28L Kosmos 1643 Kosmos 1644 Unnamed Kosmos 1645 Kosmos 1646 Kosmos 1647 Kosmos 1648 Prognoz 10 Kosmos 1649 Kosmos 1650 Kosmos 1651 Kosmos 1652 Kosmos 1653 Kosmos 1654 Molniya-3 No.39 Kosmos 1655 Kosmos 1656 Kosmos 1657 Kosmos 1658 Kosmos 1659 Kosmos 1660 Kosmos 1661 Kosmos 1662 Kosmos 1663 Unnamed Kosmos 1664 Kosmos 1665 Kosmos 1666 Kosmos 1667 Kosmos 1668 Molniya-3 No.37 Kosmos 1670 Kosmos 1671 Transit-O 24 Transit-O 30 Kosmos 1672 Kosmos 1672 Kosmos 1673 Kosmos 1674 Gran' No.26L Kosmos 1675 Kosmos 1676 Suisei Molniya-1 No.61 Kosmos 1677 Unnamed Kosmos 1678 Kosmos 1679 Kosmos 1680 Kosmos 1681 ECS-3 Kosmos 1682 Kosmos 1683 Kosmos 1684 Kosmos 1685 Kosmos 1687 Kosmos 1688 Kosmos 1689 Molniya-3 No.38 Kosmos 1690 Kosmos 1695 Kosmos 1692 Kosmos 1693 Kosmos 1694 Kosmos 1691 Kosmos 1696 Fanhui Shi Weixing 8 Kosmos 1697 Kosmos 1698 Molniya-1 No.73 Unnamed Meteor-3 No.2 Kosmos 1699 Kosmos 1700 Molniya-1 No.56 Kosmos 1701 Kosmos 1702 Gran' No.28L Kosmos 1703 Kosmos 1704 Kosmos 1705 Kosmos 1706 Kosmos 1707 USA-13 USA-14 Kosmos 1708 Kosmos 1709 Molniya-3 No.40 Kosmos 1710 Kosmos 1711 Kosmos 1712 Meteor-2 No.14 Kosmos 1713 Kosmos 1714
Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( \| ). Crewed flights are indicated in underline. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in (brackets).