STS-31 (Hubble)

Loren Shriver

• Birthday: 09/23/1944
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/24/1985
• Last Flight: 07/31/1992

Loren James Shriver is a former NASA astronaut, aviator, and a retired US Air Force Colonel.

Charles Bolden

• Birthday: 08/19/1946
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/12/1986
• Last Flight: 02/03/1994

Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former NASA astronaut.

A 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he became a Marine Aviator and test pilot. After his service as an astronaut, he became Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the Naval Academy.

On May 23, 2009, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Bolden as NASA Administrator and Lori Garver as Deputy NASA Administrator. Bolden was confirmed by the Senate on July 15, 2009. He was the first African American to head the agency on a permanent basis.

On January 12, 2017, Bolden announced his resignation from NASA during a town hall meeting at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. His last day would be January 19, and Robert M. Lightfoot Jr. was announced as acting NASA Administrator.

Bruce McCandless II

• Birthday: 06/08/1937
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 02/03/1984
• Last Flight: 04/24/1990

Bruce McCandless II was a U.S. naval officer and aviator, electrical engineer, and NASA astronaut. In 1984, during the first of his two Space Shuttle missions, he made the first untethered free flight by using the Manned Maneuvering Unit.

Kathryn D. Sullivan

• Birthday: 10/03/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/05/1984
• Last Flight: 03/24/1992

Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan is an American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. A crew member on three Space Shuttle missions, she was the first American woman to walk in space on October 11, 1984. She was Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 6, 2014. Sullivan’s tenure ended on January 20, 2017 with the swearing in of President Donald Trump. Following completion of her service at NOAA, she was designated as the 2017 Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, and has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Steven Hawley

• Birthday: 12/12/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 08/30/1984
• Last Flight: 07/23/1999

Steven Alan Hawley is a former NASA astronaut who flew on five U.S. Space Shuttle flights. He is professor of physics and astronomy and director of engineering physics at the University of Kansas.

Following an aborted attempt to launch STS-41-D where two main engines were stopped shortly after they started because the third failed to start, Hawley is reported to have broken the tense atmosphere in the shuttle cabin, saying, “I thought we’d be a lot higher at MECO!”

STS-31 (Hubble)

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

STS-31 was the thirty-fifth mission of the space shuttle program. Discovery’s tenth mission deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

Launch Complex 39B

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39B has witnessed the launch of 58 rockets, including 57 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 239 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.