STS-61-E was a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, 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. ...

mission planned to launch on 6 March 1986 using ''Columbia''. It was canceled after the ''Challenger'' disaster.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission objectives

''Columbia'' was to carry the ASTRO-1 observatory, which would be used to make

astronomical observation Observational astronomy is a division of astronomy that is concerned with recording data about the observable universe, in contrast with theoretical astronomy, which is mainly concerned with calculating the measurable implications of physical ...

s including observations of

Halley's Comet Halley's Comet is the only known List of periodic comets, short-period comet that is consistently visible to the naked eye from Earth, appearing every 72–80 years, though with the majority of recorded apparitions (25 of 30) occurring after ...

. ASTRO-1 consisted of three

ultraviolet telescope Ultraviolet astronomy is the observation of electromagnetic radiation at ultraviolet wavelengths between approximately 10 and 320 nanometres; shorter wavelengths—higher energy photons—are studied by X-ray astronomy and gamma-ray astro ...

s mounted on two Spacelab pallets, controlled by the Instrument Pointing System (IPS) which was first tested on

STS-51-F STS-51-F (also known as Spacelab 2) was the 19th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. It launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on July 29, 1985, and landed eight days later on Au ...

. After the ''Challenger'' disaster, the flight was remanifested as

STS-35 STS-35 was the tenth flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia'', the 38th shuttle mission. It was devoted to astronomical observations with ASTRO-1, a Spacelab observatory consisting of four telescopes. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Cent ...

and several crew members were replaced. Both Richards and Leestma were reassigned to

STS-28 STS-28 was the 30th NASA Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle mission, the fourth shuttle mission dedicated to United States Department of Defense (DoD) purposes, and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The ...

while McBride left NASA in 1989.

Vance D. Brand Vance DeVoe Brand (born May 9, 1931) is a retired American naval officer, aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He served as command module pilot during the first U.S.-Soviet joint spaceflight in 1975, and as commander ...

replaced McBride as the commander while

Guy S. Gardner Guy Spence Gardner (born January 6, 1948) is a United States Air Force officer and a former astronaut. He holds the rank of colonel. He flew as pilot on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-27 and STS-35. Gardner was also the 12th president of the Wil ...

and

John M. Lounge John Michael "Mike" Lounge (June 28, 1946March 1, 2011) 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 ...

replaced Richards and Leestma, respectively.

References

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

Crew

Backup crew

Mission objectives

See also

References