STS-61-B

Brewster H. Shaw

• Birthday: 05/16/1945
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/28/1983
• Last Flight: 08/08/1989

Brewster Hopkinson Shaw Jr. is a former NASA astronaut, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and former executive at Boeing. Shaw was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 6, 2006.[1]

Shaw is a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and has logged 533 hours of space flight. He was Pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia in November 1983, Commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis in November 1985 and Commander of Columbia in August 1989.

Following the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986, he supported the Roger’s Presidential Commission[2] investigating the accident. Shaw subsequently led the Space Shuttle Orbiter return-to-flight team chartered to enhance the safety of the vehicles’ operations.

Shaw worked as a manager at NASA until 1996 when he left the agency, retired from the Air Force and went to work in the private sector as an aerospace executive.

Bryan D. O’Connor

• Birthday: 09/06/1946
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/27/1985
• Last Flight: 06/05/1991

Bryan Daniel O’Connor is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel and former NASA astronaut.

Rodolfo Neri Vela

• Birthday: 02/19/1952
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: Mexican
• First Flight: 11/27/1985
• Last Flight: 11/27/1985

Rodolfo Neri Vela (born 19 February 1952) is a Mexican scientist and astronaut who flew aboard a NASA Space Shuttle mission in the year 1985. He is the first Mexican, and the second Latin American to have traveled to space.

Sherwood C. Spring

• Birthday: 09/03/1944
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/27/1985
• Last Flight: 11/27/1985

Sherwood Clark “Woody” Spring is a retired United States Army colonel and former NASA astronaut. Spring is married with two children. He is the father of United States Olympian Justin Spring. Sherwood Spring has logged 165 hours in space, 12 of which were spent conducting spacewalks. Spring has also accumulated 3,500 hours in 25 different military and civilian aircraft; over 1,500 of those hours were spent in jet aircraft.

Mary L. Cleave

• Birthday: 02/05/1947
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/27/1985
• Last Flight: 05/04/1989

Mary Louise Cleave was an American engineer and NASA astronaut. She also served from 2004 to 2007 as NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate.

Charles D. Walker

• Birthday: 08/29/1948
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 08/30/1984
• Last Flight: 11/27/1985

Charles David “Charlie” Walker (born August 29, 1948) is an American engineer who flew on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984 and 1985 as a Payload Specialist for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. He is the first non-government individual to fly in space.

Jerry L. Ross

• Birthday: 01/20/1948
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/27/1985
• Last Flight: 04/08/2002

Jerry Lynn Ross is a retired United States Air Force officer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the joint record holder for most spaceflights (a record he shares with Franklin Chang-Diaz). His papers, photographs and many personal items are in the Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives at Purdue University. He was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame during ceremonies in May 2014.

Ross is the author of Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer (Purdue University Press, 2013) with John Norberg. In March 2014 it was announced “Spacewalker” will be available in a French translation through the specialist aerospace publisher Altipresse.

Fellow astronaut Chris Hadfield describes Ross in his autobiography, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, as “the embodiment of the trustworthy, loyal, courteous and brave astronaut archetype.”

STS-61-B

• Type: Communications
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-61-B was the twenty-third space shuttle mission and the second for the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The shuttle was launched for Kennedy Space Center and the shuttle deployed three communicates satellites. It also tested techniques for constructing structures in orbit. This mission marked the quickest turnaround of a shuttle, just 54 days elapsed beetween this launch and Atlantis’ previous mission.

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 183 rockets, including 182 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 241 rocket launches.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.