STS-61-F was a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

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 na ...

mission planned to launch on 15 May 1986 using ''Challenger''. It was canceled after ''Challenger'' was destroyed earlier that year.

Crew

Mission objectives

The main objective of STS-61-F was to deploy the ''Ulysses'' solar probe, which would travel to

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

and use it as a

gravitational slingshot In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the p ...

in order to be placed into

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

around the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. This mission would have marked the first use of the

Centaur-G Shuttle-Centaur was a version of the Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage rocket designed to be carried aloft inside the Space Shuttle and used to launch satellites into high Earth orbits or probes into deep space. Two variants were dev ...

liquid-fueled payload booster, which would also be used on the subsequent mission to send the ''

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

'' probe in orbit around Jupiter. Due to the use of the Centaur-G and its volatile propellants, this mission was considered to be one of the most dangerous

flights attempted, with the

Chief of the Astronaut Office The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active astronauts at the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the NASA Astronaut Corps and is the principal ...

John W. Young referring to the two Centaur flights as the "

Death Star The Death Star is a fictional space station and Weapon of mass destruction, superweapon featured in the ''Star Wars'' Space opera, space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire (Star Wars), Galactic Empire, the Death Star ...

" flights. The flight was risky enough that Commander Hauck gave his crewmates an option to leave the crew if they considered the mission to be too unsafe. After the loss of ''Challenger'', most of the crew (without

Roy D. Bridges Jr. Roy Dubard Bridges Jr. (born July 19, 1943) is an American pilot, engineer, retired United States Air Force officer, test pilot, former NASA astronaut and the former director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center and Langley Research Center. ...

, who left NASA in 1986) would fly as the crew of the first post-''Challenger'' mission,

STS-26 STS-26 was the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter ''Discovery''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 29, 1988, and landed four days later on October 3, 1988. STS-26 was decla ...

. Bridges was replaced by

Richard O. Covey Richard Oswalt Covey (born August 1, 1946) is a retired United States Air Force officer, former NASA astronaut, and a member of the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. Early life Born August 1, 1946, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he considers F ...

and a third Mission Specialist ( George D. "Pinky" Nelson) was added to the crew. ''Ulysses'' was eventually deployed from ''Discovery'' on STS-41, using the

solid-fueled Solid fuel refers to various forms of solid material that can be burnt to release energy, providing heat and light through the process of combustion. Solid fuels can be contrasted with liquid fuels and gaseous fuels. Common examples of solid fuel ...

Inertial Upper Stage The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), originally designated the Interim Upper Stage, was a two-stage, solid-fueled space launch system developed by Boeing for the United States Air Force beginning in 1976 for raising payloads from low Earth orbit to h ...

(IUS) and

Payload Assist Module The Payload Assist Module (PAM) is a modular upper stage designed and built by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing), using Thiokol Star-series solid propellant rocket motors. The PAM was used with the Space Shuttle, Delta, and Titan launchers and carri ...

(PAM-S) instead of the Centaur-G, which had been canceled after the ''Challenger'' disaster.

References

{{All U.S. Space Shuttle Missions Cancelled Space Shuttle missions

Crew

Mission objectives

See also

References