STS-51-D

STS-51-D
	The crew attempt to activate Syncom IV-3 via a "flyswatter" device attached to Discovery's Canadarm
Names	Space Transportation System-16
Mission type	Communications satellite deployment
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1985-028A
SATCAT no.	15641
Mission duration	6 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes, 23 seconds
Distance travelled	4,650,658 km (2,889,785 mi)
Orbits completed	110
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch mass	113,802 kg (250,890 lb)
Landing mass	89,818 kg (198,015 lb)
Payload mass	13,039 kg (28,746 lb)
Crew
Crew size	7
Members	Karol J. Bobko; Donald E. Williams; Margaret Rhea Seddon; S. David Griggs; Jeffrey A. Hoffman; Charles D. Walker; Jake Garn;
EVAs	1
EVA duration	3 hours, 6 minutes
Start of mission
Launch date	April 12, 1985, 13:59:05 UTC (8:59:05 am EST)
Launch site	Kennedy, LC-39A
Contractor	Rockwell International
End of mission
Landing date	April 19, 1985, 13:54:28 UTC (8:54:28 am EST)
Landing site	Kennedy, SLF Runway 33
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	300 km (190 mi)
Apogee altitude	452 km (281 mi)
Inclination	28.45°
Period	94.40 minutes
Instruments
	American Flight Echo-cardiograph (AFE); Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES-III); Getaway specials (GASs)Phase Partitioning Experiments (PPE);
	; STS 51-D mission patch; ; Back row: Griggs, Walker and Garn; Front row: Bobko, Williams, Seddon and Hoffman Space Shuttle program ← STS-51-C (15) STS-51-B (17) →

STS-51-D was the 16th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the fourth flight of Space Shuttle Discovery.^[2] The launch of STS-51-D from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, on April 12, 1985, was delayed by 55 minutes, after a boat strayed into the restricted Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) recovery zone. STS-51-D was the third shuttle mission to be extended.

On April 19, 1985, after a week-long flight, Discovery conducted the fifth shuttle landing at KSC. The shuttle suffered extensive brake damage and a ruptured tire during landing. This forced shuttle landings to be done at Edwards Air Force Base, California for the next five years until the development and implementation of nose wheel steering made landings at KSC more feasible.

Crew


Position	Astronaut
Commander	Karol J. Bobko Second spaceflight
Pilot	Donald E. Williams First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1	Rhea Seddon First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2 Flight Engineer	S. David Griggs Only spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3	Jeffrey A. Hoffman First spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1	Charles D. Walker Second spaceflight McDonnell Douglas
Payload Specialist 2	Jake Garn (U.S. Sen. R-UT) Only spaceflight Congressional observer
Garn was a Republican Senator from Utah acting as a congressional observer. He was the first sitting member of Congress in space. Representative Bill Nelson (D-FL) would fly on STS-61-C the next year.

Spacewalk

Personnel: Hoffman and Griggs
Date: April 16, 1985 (≈12:30–15:30 UTC)
Duration: 3 hours, 6 minutes

Crew seat assignments

Seat^[3]	Launch	Landing	Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck. Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck.
1	Bobko
2	Williams
3	Seddon	Hoffman
4	Griggs
5	Hoffman	Seddon
6	Walker
7	Garn

Mission summary

During STS-51-D, the shuttle crew deployed two communications satellites: Telesat-I (Anik C1) and Syncom IV-3 (also known as Leasat-3); both were Hughes-built satellites. Telesat-I was attached to a Payload Assist Module (PAM-D) motor and successfully deployed. Syncom IV-3, however, failed to initiate antenna deployment and spin-up, or ignite its perigee kick motor upon deployment. The mission was consequently extended by two days to ensure that the satellite's spacecraft sequencer start lever was in its proper position. Griggs and Hoffman performed an unscheduled Extravehicular Activity (EVA) to attach homemade "Flyswatter" devices to the shuttle's Remote Manipulator System (Canadarm). Seddon then engaged the satellite's start lever using the RMS, but again the post-deployment sequence did not begin.^[4] The satellite was subsequently retrieved, repaired and successfully redeployed during the STS-51-I mission later that year.

Discovery's other mission payloads included the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System III (CFES-III), which was flying for sixth time; two Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) experiments; the American Flight Echo-cardiograph (AFE); two Getaway specials (GASs); a set of Phase Partitioning Experiments (PPE); an astronomical photography verification test; various medical experiments; and "Toys in Space", an informal study of the behavior of simple toys in a microgravity environment, with the results being made available to school students upon the shuttle's return.^[5]

Discovery landed on Runway 33 of the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center at 13:54:28 UTC (8:54:28 am EST local time at the landing site). As the orbiter approached the runway, it was buffeted by a 10-mile-per-hour (16 km/h; 8.7 kn) crosswind from the right, which pushed the orbiter 19 feet (5.8 m) left of the runway's center line as the rear landing gear touched down. As the orbiter rolled out, the crosswind continued to push it towards the left, causing it to drift 65 feet (20 m) from the center line of the 300-foot-wide (91 m) runway. At this point, Commander Bobko began to counteract the drift by applying more pressure to the right-wheel brakes, a technique called differential steering, which brought the orbiter back to the center of the runway. However, he had to apply twice as much force to the right brakes and about 134 feet (41 m) before stopping the brakes on the right-side inboard tire locked up and 5 feet (1.5 m) before stopping the brakes on the right-side outboard tire locked up and the inboard tire blew. The incident prompted NASA to add nose wheel steering to the orbiters, which was complete by late 1985.^[6] Until that work was completed, NASA would land the orbiters at the Edwards Air Force Base which offered the option of landing on a long and wide dry lake bed from more directions. Nose wheel steering was also implemented shortly before the Challenger disaster, which would ground the shuttle program for a time. Ultimately, it would be five years until a mission would again land at the SLF, when STS-38 had to divert there due to bad weather at Edwards.

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the 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.^[7]

Flight Day	Song	Artist/Composer
Day 2	"Top of the World"	The Carpenters
Day 3	"Rescue Aid Society"	Song from the Disney film, The Rescuers

Gallery

Telesat-I during deployment
Syncom IV-3 during deployment
Hoffman and Griggs attach the flyswatter device to the end of the Canadarm.

References

^ "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
^ "STS-51D Press Kit" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved December 16, 2009. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "STS-41D". Spacefacts. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
^ Walker, Charles D. (April 14, 2005). "Oral History Transcript" (PDF) (Interview). Interviewed by Johnson, Sandra. NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. Retrieved December 29, 2011. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "STS-51D". NASA. February 18, 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2018. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Otto, Dixon P. (1986). On Orbit: Bringing on the Space Shuttle. Athens, Ohio: Main Stage.
^ 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

NASA mission summary
STS-51D Video Highlights Archived July 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

[satcat-1] "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved March 24, 2014.

[press_kit-2] "STS-51D Press Kit" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved December 16, 2009. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[3] "STS-41D". Spacefacts. Retrieved February 26, 2014.

[walker20050414-4] Walker, Charles D. (April 14, 2005). "Oral History Transcript" (PDF) (Interview). Interviewed by Johnson, Sandra. NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. Retrieved December 29, 2011. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[5] "STS-51D". NASA. February 18, 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2018. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[6] Otto, Dixon P. (1986). On Orbit: Bringing on the Space Shuttle. Athens, Ohio: Main Stage.

[chronology-7] 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.

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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).