STS-51-G

Daniel Brandenstein

• Birthday: 01/17/1943
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 08/30/1983
• Last Flight: 05/07/1992

Daniel Charles Brandenstein is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of United Space Alliance. He is a for...

John Oliver Creighton

• Birthday: 04/28/1943
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 06/17/1985
• Last Flight: 09/12/1991

John Oliver Creighton is a former NASA astronaut who flew three Space Shuttle missions.

Patrick Baudry

• Birthday: 03/06/1946
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: France
• First Flight: 06/17/1985
• Last Flight: 06/17/1985

Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry (born March 6, 1946 in Cameroon), is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the French Air Force and a f...

Sultan bin Salman Al Saud

• Birthday: 06/27/1956
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: Saudi Arabia
• First Flight: 06/17/1985
• Last Flight: 06/17/1985

Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (born 27 June 1956) is a former Royal Saudi Air Force pilot who flew aboard the Ameri...

John M. Fabian

• Birthday: 01/28/1939
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 06/18/1983
• Last Flight: 06/17/1985

John McCreary Fabian is a former NASA astronaut, Air Force officer, and director who flew two space shuttle missions and on t...

Steven R. Nagel

• Birthday: 10/27/1946
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 06/17/1985
• Last Flight: 04/26/1993

Steven Ray Nagel was an American astronaut, aeronautical and mechanical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force p...

Shannon Lucid

• Birthday: 01/14/1943
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 06/17/1985
• Last Flight: 03/22/1996

Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid is an American biochemist and a retired NASA astronaut. At one time, she held the record for the ...

Mission

STS-51-G

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

STS-51-G was the eighteenth flight of the shuttle program and fifth for Space Shuttle Discovery. Sultan Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was on board as a payload specialist; he became the first Arab, the first Muslim and first member of a royal family to fly into space. It was the first shuttle flight to fly without an astronaut from the pre-Shuttle era. Its mission was to deploy 3 10 satellites.

Location

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Find the best place to watch the launch from Florida

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 208 rockets, including 207 orbital launch attempts. While Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 266 rocket launches.

The John F. Kennedy Space Center, located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of NASA's ten field centers. Since 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

Rocket

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.

Learn more about the Space Shuttle