STS-41 Lapel Pin

STS-41 Mission Summary

Mission: Ulysses; SSBUV; ISAC
Space Shuttle: Discovery
Launch Pad: 39B
Launch Weight: 259,593 pounds
Launched: Oct. 6, 1990, 7:47:15 a.m. EDT
Landing Site: Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Landing: Oct. 10, 1990, 6:57:18 a.m. PDT
Landing Weight: 196,869 pounds
Runway: 22
Rollout Distance: 8,276 feet
Rollout Time: 61 seconds
Revolution: 66
Mission Duration: 4 days, 2 hours, 10 minutes, 4 seconds
Returned to KSC: Oct. 16, 1990
Orbit Altitude: 160 nautical miles
Orbit Inclination: 28.45 degrees
Miles Traveled: 1.7 million

Crew Members

                   

Image above: STS-41 Crew photo with Commander Richard N. Richards, Pilot Robert D. Cabana, Mission Specialists William M. Shepherd, Bruce E. Melnick and Thomas D. Akers. Image Credit: NASA

Mission Highlights

The primary payload, ESA-built Ulysses spacecraft to explore polar regions of Sun, deployed. Two upper stages, Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) and a mission-specific Payload Assist Module-S (PAM-S), combined together for first time to send Ulysses toward out-of-ecliptic trajectory. Other payloads and experiments: Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) experiment; INTELSAT Solar Array Coupon (ISAC); Chromosome and Plant Cell Division Experiment (CHROMEX); Voice Command System (VCS); Solid Surface Combustion Experiment (SSCE), Investigations into Polymer Membrane Processing (IPMP); Physiological Systems Experiment (PSE); Radiation Monitoring Experiment III (RME III); Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) and Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment.

NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center