STS-51-D

Name: Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-51-D
Start: 1985-04-12T13:59:00+00:00
End: 1985-04-12T14:59:00+00:00
Location: Launch Complex 39A

Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103

Lockheed Space Operations Company

Launch Status

Success

Fri • Apr 12th, 1985
1:59 PM UTC

Crew

Karol J. Bobko

Status: Deceased
12/23/1937 - 8/17/2023
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/4/1983
Last Flight: 10/3/1985

Karol Joseph "Bo" Bobko is an American aerospace engineer, retired U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and a former USAF and NASA astronaut.

Donald E. Williams

Status: Deceased
2/13/1942 - 2/23/2016
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/12/1985
Last Flight: 10/18/1989

Captain Donald Edward Williams was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, mechanical engineer and NASA astronaut. He logged a total of 287 hours and 35 minutes in space.

Edwin Jacob Garn

Status: Retired
10/12/1932 -
Nationality: American
Type: Non-Astronaut Passenger
First Flight: 4/12/1985
Last Flight: 4/12/1985

Edwin Jacob "Jake" Garn (born October 12, 1932) is an American astronaut and politician, a member of the Republican Party, who served as a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1974 to 1993. Garn became the first sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-51-D (April 12–19, 1985).

S. David Griggs

Status: Died While In Active Service
9/7/1939 - 6/17/1989
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/12/1985
Last Flight: 4/12/1985

Stanley David Griggs was a United States Navy officer and a NASA astronaut. He is credited with conducting the first unscheduled extra-vehicular activity of the space program during Space Shuttle mission STS-51-D. Griggs was killed when the vintage World War II-era training aircraft he was piloting – a North American AT-6D (registration N3931S) – crashed near Earle, Arkansas.

Charles D. Walker

Status: Retired
8/29/1948 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 8/30/1984
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.

Margaret Rhea Seddon

Status: Retired
11/8/1947 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/12/1985
Last Flight: 10/18/1993

Margaret Rhea Seddon is a physician and retired NASA astronaut. After being selected as part of the first group of astronauts to include women, she flew on three Space Shuttle flights: as mission specialist for STS-51-D and STS-40, and as payload commander for STS-58. Both before and after her career in the astronaut program, she has been active in the medical community in Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas.

Jeffrey Hoffman

Status: Retired
11/2/1944 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/12/1985
Last Flight: 2/22/1996

Jeffrey Alan Hoffman is an American former NASA astronaut and currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Hoffman made five flights as a space shuttle astronaut, including the first mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, when the orbiting telescope's flawed optical system was corrected.

Mission

STS-51-D

Type: Communications

STS-51-D was the sixteenth flight of the shuttle and fourth for the Space Shuttle Discovery. Its mission was to deploy a number of 10 satellites. The landing suffered extensive brake damaged and a ruptured tire. All subsequent landings had to be done at the Edwards Air Force Base until the development and implementation of nose steering.