STS-61
Sign in to saveSTS-61 was NASA's first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission launched on December 2, 1993, from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The mission restored the spaceborne observatory's vision (marred by spherical aberration in its mirror) with the installation of a new main camera and a corrective optics package (COSTAR). This correction occurred more than three and a half years after the Hubble was launched aboard STS-31 in April 1990. The flight also brought instrument upgrades and new solar arrays to the telescope. With i
Key facts
- Spaceflight.name
- STS-61
- Spaceflight.names_list
- Space Transportation System-61
- Spaceflight.image
- STS061-98-050 - Astronauts Musgrave and Hoffman during servicing of HST (Retouched).jpg
- Spaceflight.image_caption
- Musgrave being raised to the top of Hubble by Canadarm, as it sits in Endeavours payload bay.
- Spaceflight.mission_type
- First Hubble Space Telescope servicing
- Spaceflight.operator
- NASA
- Spaceflight.mission_duration
- 10 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes, 33 seconds (achieved)
- Spaceflight.orbits_completed
- 163
- Spaceflight.crew_size
- 7
- Spaceflight.launch_date
- December 2, 1993, 09:27:00 UTC
- Spaceflight.launch_rocket
- Space Shuttle Endeavour
- Spaceflight.launch_site
- Kennedy Space Center, LC-39B
- Spaceflight.launch_contractor
- Rockwell International
- Spaceflight.landing_date
- December 13, 1993, 05:25:33UTC
- Spaceflight.landing_site
- Kennedy Space Center,SLF Runway 33
- Spaceflight.orbit_reference
- Geocentric orbit
- Spaceflight.orbit_regime
- Low Earth orbit
- Spaceflight.orbit_inclination
- 28.45°
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 935917
- Mass
- 10949
- Orbital period
- 93.3
- Image
- STS061-98-050 - Astronauts Musgrave and Hoffman during servicing of HST (Retouched).jpg
Show 8 more facts
- orbits completed
- 163
- Commons category
- STS-61
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1993-12-02
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1993-12-13
- Commons gallery
- STS-61
- orbital inclination
- 28.45
- periapsis
- 291
- apoapsis
- 576
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Article
18 sectionsContents
- Crew
- Backup crew
- Spacewalks
- Crew seat assignments
- Mission highlights
- Launch
- Flight Day 2
- Flight Day 3
- Spacewalk #1 (Flight Day 4)
- Spacewalk #2
- Spacewalk #3 (Flight Day 6)
- Spacewalk #4 (Flight Day 7)
- Spacewalk #5 (Flight Day 8)
- Release of Hubble and landing
- Post-landing crew appearances
- See also
- References
- External links
STS-61 was NASA's first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission launched on December 2, 1993, from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The mission restored the spaceborne observatory's vision (marred by spherical aberration in its mirror) with the installation of a new main camera and a corrective optics package (COSTAR). This correction occurred more than three and a half years after the Hubble was launched aboard STS-31 in April 1990. The flight also brought instrument upgrades and new solar arrays to the telescope. With its very heavy workload, the STS-61 mission was one of the most complex in the Shuttle's history.
STS-61 lasted almost 11 days, and crew members made five spacewalks (extravehicular activities (EVAs)), an all-time record; even the re-positioning of Intelsat VI on STS-49 in May 1992 required only four. The flight plan allowed for two additional EVAs, which could have raised the total number to seven; the final two contingency EVAs were not made. In order to complete the mission without too much fatigue, the five EVAs were shared between two pairs of different astronauts alternating their shifts. During the flight, mission specialist Jeffrey A. Hoffman also spun a dreidel for the holiday of Hanukkah to a live audience watching via satellite.