STS-51-D

Karol J. Bobko

• Birthday: 12/23/1937
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/04/1983
• Last Flight: 10/03/1985

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

• Birthday: 02/13/1942
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/12/1985
• 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

• Birthday: 10/12/1932
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/12/1985
• Last Flight: 04/12/1985

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

• Birthday: 09/07/1939
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/12/1985
• Last Flight: 04/12/1985

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

• 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.

Margaret Rhea Seddon

• Birthday: 11/08/1947
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/12/1985
• 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

• Birthday: 11/02/1944
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/12/1985
• Last Flight: 02/22/1996

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.

STS-51-D

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

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.

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 174 rockets, including 173 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 232 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.