STS-51-G

STS-51-G (formerly STS-25) was the 18th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the fifth flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. The seven-day mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 17, 1985, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 24. Sultan bin Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was on board as a payload specialist; Al Saud became the first Arab, the first Muslim, and the first member of a royal family to fly into space.[2] It was also the first Space Shuttle mission which flew without at least one astronaut from the pre-Shuttle era among its crew.

STS-51-G

Discovery deploys Morelos 1
Mission type	Satellite deployment
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1985-048A
SATCAT no.	15823
Mission duration	7 days, 1 hour, 38 minutes, 52 seconds
Distance travelled	4,693,051 kilometres (2,916,127 mi)
Orbits completed	112
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch mass	116,357 kilograms (256,524 lb)
Landing mass	92,610 kilograms (204,169 lb)
Payload mass	17,280 kilograms (38,096 lb)
Crew
Crew size	7
Members	Daniel C. Brandenstein John O. Creighton John M. Fabian Steven R. Nagel Shannon W. Lucid Patrick Baudry Sultan Salman Al Saud
Start of mission
Launch date	June 17, 1985, 11:33:00 UTC
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Landing date	June 24, 1985, 13:11:52 UTC
Landing site	Edwards Runway 23
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee altitude	353.3 kilometres (219.5 mi)
Apogee altitude	354.9 kilometres (220.5 mi)
Inclination	28.45 degrees
Period	91.8 minutes
Epoch	June 19, 1985[1]
Back L-R: Lucid, Nagel, Fabian, Al-Saud, Baudry, Front L-R: Brandenstein, Creighton Space Shuttle program

Crew

Position	Astronaut
Commander	Daniel C. Brandenstein Second spaceflight
Pilot	John O. Creighton First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1	John M. Fabian Second and last spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2	Steven R. Nagel First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3	Shannon W. Lucid First spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1	Patrick Baudry, CNES Only spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Prince Sultan Salman Al Saud, RSAF Only spaceflight
Al Saud became the first member of royalty to fly into space, as well as the first Arab and the first Muslim.

Backup crew

Position	Astronaut
Payload Specialist 1	Jean-Loup Chrétien, CNES Second spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Abdulmohsen Al-Bassam, RSAF First spaceflight

Crew seating arrangements

Seat[3]	Launch	Landing	Seats 1–4 are on the Flight Deck. Seats 5–7 are on the Middeck.
S1	Brandenstein	Brandenstein
S2	Creighton	Creighton
S3	Lucid	Fabian
S4	Nagel	Nagel
S5	Fabian	Lucid
S6	Baudry	Baudry
S7	Al Saud	Al Saud

Mission summary

Discovery lifted off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), at 7:33 am EDT on June 17, 1985. The mission's crew members included Daniel C. Brandenstein, commander; John O. Creighton, pilot; Shannon W. Lucid, Steven R. Nagel, and John M. Fabian, mission specialists; and Patrick Baudry, of France, and Prince Sultan Salman Al Saud, of Saudi Arabia, both payload specialists.

STS-51-G carried three communications satellites as its primary cargo. These were Arabsat-1B (Arab Satellite Communications Organization); Morelos I (Mexico); and Telstar 3D (AT&T Corporation). All three successfully utilized PAM-D booster stages to achieve geosynchronous transfer orbits after being deployed from Discovery.

Also carried was the Spartan 1 carrier module, designed to be deployed from the orbiter and fly free in space before being retrieved. Spartan 1 included 140 kilograms (300 lb) of astronomy experiments. It was deployed and operated successfully, independent of the orbiter, before being retrieved. Discovery furthermore carried an experimental materials-processing furnace, several French biomedical experiments, and six Getaway Special experiments, which were all successfully performed, although the GO34 Getaway Special shut down prematurely. This mission was also the first flight test of the OEX advanced autopilot which gave the orbiter capabilities above and beyond those of the baseline system.

The mission's final payload element was a High Precision Tracking Experiment (HPTE) for the Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed "Star Wars"); the HPTE failed to deploy properly during its first try on the mission's 37th orbit, because the orbiter was not at the correct attitude. It was successfully deployed on orbit 64.

Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base at 9:12 am EDT on June 24, 1985, after a mission duration of 7 days, one hour, 38 minutes and 52 seconds.

Mission Insignia

The STS-51G insignia illustrates the advances in aviation technology in the United States within a relatively short span of the twentieth century with Discovery flying over the Wright Flyer. A gold-and-orange-flame eagle forms the base of the insigna. The surnames of the crewmembers for the Discovery's mission appear near the center edge of the circular design, with the French and Saudi crewmembers added below, with a respective flag icon along their name. Although Baudry was the first French citizen to fly with a Space Shuttle mission into space, he was only the second Frenchman to go to space, following Jean-Loup Chrétien's earlier missions with Soyuz capsules.

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. Each track is specially chosen, often by the astronauts' families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.[4]

Flight Day	Song	Artist/Composer
Day 2	"I Feel the Earth Move"	Carole King
Day 3	"Proud Mary"	Creedence Clearwater Revival
Day 4	"Sailing"	Christopher Cross
Day 5	"Jonathan Livingston Seagull"	Neil Diamond
Day 6	"Wedding March"	Felix Mendelssohn

Gallery

• 
  Arabsat-1B deployment
• 
  Morelos I deployment
• 
  Telstar 3D deployment
• 
  Spartan 1 after deployment

See also

• List of human spaceflights
• List of Space Shuttle missions

References

1. McDowell, Jonathan. "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Pages. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
2. "A prince in space" at Saudi Aramco World. January/February 1986 edition. p.20–29. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
3. "STS-51G". Spacefacts. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
4. Fries, Colin (June 25, 2007). "Chronology of Wakeup Calls" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved August 13, 2007. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links

• NASA mission summary
• STS-51G Video Highlights