STS-61 was the 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 in Florida.
With its very heavy workload, the STS-61 mission was one of the most sophisticated in the Shuttle's history. It lasted almost 11 days, and crew members made five EVAs, an all-time record. Even the retrieval of Intelsat IV on STS-49 in May 1992 required on...
more
STS-61 was the 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 in Florida.
With its very heavy workload, the STS-61 mission was one of the most sophisticated in the Shuttle's history. It lasted almost 11 days, and crew members made five EVAs, an all-time record. Even the retrieval of Intelsat IV 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 EVAs. The final two contingency EVAs were not made. In order to complete the mission without too much fatigue, the five extravehicular working sessions were shared between two alternating shifts of two astronauts.
The mission was originally scheduled for launch from Pad 39A, and the shuttle was rolled out and placed on that pad, but due to contamination, a "rollaround" to Pad 39B was made.
After launch on December 2, 1993, the astronauts...
less
