STS-61-H

STS-61-H

Mission type	Satellite deployment
Mission duration	7 days, 7 hours, 51 minutes, 51 seconds
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Columbia
Crew
Crew size	7
Members	Michael L. Coats John Blaha Robert C. Springer Anna L. Fisher James F. Buchli Pratiwi Sudarmono
Start of mission
Launch date	24 June 1986, 13:09:00 (1986-06-24UTC13:09Z) UTC
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39B
End of mission
Landing date	1 July 1986, 21:00:51 (1986-07-01UTC21:00:52Z) UTC
Landing site	Kennedy Runway 15
Orbital parameters
Inclination	28.5 degrees
Space Shuttle program ← STS-51-L ← STS-61-G STS-26 → STS-62-A →

STS-61-H was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch on 24 June 1986 using Columbia. However, it was cancelled after the Challenger disaster.

Crew[]

Position	Astronaut
Commander	Michael L. Coats Would have been second spaceflight
Pilot	John E. Blaha Would have been first spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1	Robert C. Springer Would have been first spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2	Anna L. Fisher Would have been second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3	James F. Buchli Would have been third spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1	Pratiwi Sudarmono Would have been first spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Nigel R. Wood Would have been first spaceflight

Backup crew[]

Position	Astronaut
Payload Specialist 1	Taufik Akbar Would have been first spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Richard Farrimond Would have been first spaceflight

Crew notes[]

Before James Buchli was assigned to STS-61-H, Norman Thagard was the potential Mission Specialist 3 for this flight.

Mission objectives[]

The main task of the mission was to bring two commercial satellites into orbit – Palapa B3 and Westar 6S, and military communication satellite - Skynet 4A, The British Skynet and the Indonesian Palapa were supposed to be accompanied by an astronaut from the two countries.

After the Challenger disaster the deployment of commercial satellites by the Space Shuttle was stopped, and for several years no international astronauts were nominated. Thus, neither the British nor the Indonesian payload specialists got a second chance for a spaceflight. The NASA crew however stayed together and participated in a 56-hour-long simulated mission known as STS-61-M(T) in 1987. The crew finally flew on STS-29, with Anna Fisher being replaced by James Bagian.

Skynet 4A was launched on 1 January 1990 with a Titan III, Westar 6S was renamed Galaxy 6 and launched on 12 October 1992 by an Ariane 44L. Palapa B3 was renamed to Palapa B2P and was launched on 20 March 1987 with a Delta-3920.

See also[]

• Cancelled Space Shuttle missions
• STS-29

External links[]

• http://www.mach25.nl/~jacques/shuttle/STS61H.html