STS-51-I

Name: Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-51-I
Start: 1985-08-27T10:58:00+00:00
End: 1985-08-27T11:58:00+00:00
Location: Launch Complex 39A

Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103

Lockheed Space Operations Company

Launch Status

Success

Tue • Aug 27th, 1985
10:58 AM UTC

Crew

Joe Engle

Status: Retired
8/26/1932 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 6/29/1965
Last Flight: 8/27/1985

Joe Henry Engle is an American pilot who served in the United States Air Force, test pilot for the North American X-15 program, aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. As of 2018, he is the last living pilot of the X-15 program.

Engle test-flew the joint NASA-Air Force X-15 rocket airplane. During the course of testing, Engle earned his USAF Astronaut Wings, a Distinguished Flying Cross and other awards. Engle was selected by NASA in 1966 for the Apollo program, and was originally scheduled to land on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 17, but was bumped when later flights were cancelled, so that geologist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt could fly.

He subsequently became one of the first astronauts in the Space Shuttle program, having flight tested the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977. He was Commander of the second orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981.

Richard O. Covey

Status: Retired
8/1/1946 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 8/27/1985
Last Flight: 12/2/1993

Richard Oswalt Covey is a retired United States Air Force officer and former NASA astronaut.

William Frederick Fisher

Status: Retired
4/1/1946 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 8/27/1985
Last Flight: 8/27/1985

William Frederick Fisher is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. Fisher went into space in 1985 on board the Space Shuttle. He retired from NASA in 1992 and returned to the full-time practice of medicine. His time at NASA coincided with that of his former wife and fellow astronaut Anna Lee Fisher.

James van Hoften

Status: Retired
6/11/1944 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 4/6/1984
Last Flight: 8/27/1985

James Dougal Adrianus "Ox" van Hoften, Ph.D. is an American civil and hydraulic engineer, retired U.S. Navy officer and aviator, and a former astronaut for NASA.

John M. Lounge

Status: Deceased
6/28/1946 - 3/1/2011
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 8/27/1985
Last Flight: 12/2/1990

ohn Michael "Mike" Lounge was an American engineer, a United States Navy officer, a Vietnam War veteran, and a NASA astronaut. A veteran of three Space Shuttle flights, Lounge logged over 482 hours in space. He was a mission specialist on STS-51-I (1985) and STS-26 (1988) and was the flight engineer on STS-35 (1990).

Mission

STS-51-I

Type: Communications

STS-51-I was the twentieth of the shuttle program and sixth of Space Shuttle Discovery. It deployed three 10 satellites and then repaired a malfunctioning satellite. This mission required two EVAs.