From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cancelled 1986 Space Shuttle mission
STS-61-F
Names
| Space Transportation System
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Mission type
| Ulysses
spacecraft deployment
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Operator
| NASA
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Mission duration
| 4 days, 1 hour, 11 minutes (planned)
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Spacecraft
| Space Shuttle
Challenger
(planned)
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Launch mass
| 117,749 kg (259,592 lb)
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Landing mass
| 89,298 kg (196,868 lb)
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Payload mass
| 15,362 kg (33,867 lb)
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Crew size
| 4 (planned)
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Members
| Frederick H. Hauck
Roy D. Bridges Jr.
John M. Lounge
David C. Hilmers
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Launch date
| 15 May 1986, 20:10:00
UTC
(planned)
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Rocket
| Space Shuttle
Challenger
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Launch site
| Kennedy Space Center
,
LC-39B
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Contractor
| Rockwell International
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Landing date
| 19 May 1986, 21:21:00 UTC (planned)
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Landing site
| Kennedy Space Center
,
SLF Runway 15
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Reference system
| Geocentric orbit
(planned)
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Regime
| Low Earth orbit
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Perigee altitude
| 300 km (190 mi)
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Apogee altitude
| 307 km (191 mi)
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Inclination
| 28.45°
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Period
| 90.60 minutes
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|
STS-61-F mission patch
John M. Lounge
,
Roy D. Bridges Jr.
,
Frederick H. Hauck
,
David C. Hilmers
|
STS-61-F
was a
NASA
Space Shuttle
mission planned to launch on 15 May 1986 using
Challenger
. It was canceled after
Challenger
was
destroyed earlier that year
.
Crew
[
edit
]
Mission objectives
[
edit
]
The main objective of STS-61-F was to deploy the
Ulysses
solar probe, which would travel to
Jupiter
and use it as a
gravitational slingshot
in order to be placed into
polar orbit
around the
Sun
. This mission would have marked the first use of the
Centaur-G
liquid-fueled payload booster, which would also be used on
the subsequent mission
to send the
Galileo
probe in orbit around Jupiter.
Due to the use of the Centaur-G and its volatile propellants, this mission was considered to be one of the most dangerous
Space Shuttle
flights attempted, with the
Chief of the Astronaut Office
John W. Young
referring to the two Centaur flights as the "
Death Star
" flights.
[1]
The flight was risky enough that Commander Hauck gave his crewmates an option to leave the crew if they considered the mission to be too unsafe.
[2]
After the loss of
Challenger
, most of the crew (without
Roy D. Bridges Jr.
, who left NASA in 1986) would fly as the crew of the first post-
Challenger
mission,
STS-26
. Bridges was replaced by
Richard O. Covey
and a third Mission Specialist (
George D. "Pinky" Nelson
) was added to the crew.
Ulysses
was eventually deployed from
Discovery
on
STS-41
, using the
solid-fueled
Inertial Upper Stage
(IUS) and
Payload Assist Module
(PAM-S) instead of the Centaur-G, which had been canceled after the
Challenger
disaster.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Bergin, Chris (26 October 2005).
"Flights of the 'Death Star'
"
. NASASpaceFlight.com
. Retrieved
18 July
2013
.
"'John Young called it the 'Death Star'. Behind the dark humour, however, lay real concern for the then-chief of NASA's astronaut corps".
- ^
Bergin, Chris (26 October 2005).
"Flights of the 'Death Star'
"
. NASASpaceFlight.com
. Retrieved
18 July
2013
.
'Safety is being compromised and, if any of you want to take yourself off this flight, I will support you'.
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Completed
(crews)
| 1970s
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1980s
|
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1988
- 1989
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1990s
|
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
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2000s
|
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
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2010s
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Cancelled
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Orbiters
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- †
indicates failure missions.
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