STS-61-H

STS-61-H was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch in 1986 using "Columbia", however, it was cancelled after the "Challenger" disaster. The flight was scheduled to take place June 24 through July 1.

Crew

* Commander: Michael L. Coats
* Pilot: John Blaha
* Mission Specialist 1: Anna L. Fisher
* Mission Specialist 2: James F. Buchli
* Mission Specialist 3: Robert C. Springer
* Payload Specialist 1: Nigel Wood (United Kingdom)
* Payload Specialist 2: Pratiwi Sudarmono (Indonesia)

Backup Crew

* Payload Specialist 1: Richard Farrimond (United Kingdom)
* Payload Specialist 2: Taufik Akbar (Indonesia)

Mission objectives

The main task of the mission was to bring three commercial satellites into orbit - Skynet 4A, Palapa B3 and Westar 6S. 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, also for several years no international astronauts were nominated anymore. Thus neither the British nor the Indonesian payload specialists got a second chance for a spaceflight. The NASA crew however stayed together and finally flew on STS-29, only Anna Fisher was replaced by James Bagian on that flight.

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

ee also

*Cancelled Shuttle missions
*STS-61-M

External links

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