NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

STS-61-C

Launch Time
Sun Jan 12, 1986 11:55 UTC

Flight of US Representative Bill Nelson.

Rocket

Space Shuttle Columbia
NASA
Status: Retired
Price: $450.0 million
Liftoff Thrust: 30,250 kN
Payload to LEO: 27,500 kg
Payload to GTO: 3,810 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 2
Rocket Height: 56.1 m

Vehicles

Edwards Runway 22

OV-102

Flight #7
776 day turnaround

Mission Details

STS-61-C

The primary objective of the mission was to deploy the Satcom K1 communications satellite, second in a planned series of geosynchronous satellites owned and operated by RCA Americom; the deployment was successful. Columbia also carried a large number of small scientific experiments, including 13 Getaway Special (GAS) canisters devoted to investigations involving the effect of microgravity on materials processing, seed germination, chemical reactions, egg hatching, astronomy, atmospheric physics, and an experiment designed by Ellery Kurtz and Howard Wishnow of Vertical Horizons to determine the effects of the space environment on fine arts materials and original oil paintings. Also carried was a Materials Science Laboratory-2 structure for experiments involving liquid bubble suspension by sound waves, melting and resolidification of metallic samples and container-less melting and solidification of electrically conductive specimens. Another small experiment carrier located in the payload bay was the Hitchiker G-1 (HHG-1), which carried three experiments to study film particles in the orbiter environment, test a new heat transfer system and determine the effects of contamination and atomic oxygen on ultraviolet optics materials, respectively.

Total Mass: 14,724.0 kg
Low Earth Orbit

Location

LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA

Stats

1986

3rd orbital launch attempt

Space Shuttle

24th mission
1st mission of 1986
24th successful mission