---

Al-Saud Baudry Brandenstein Creighton Fabian Lucid Nagel

---

STS-51-G Credit - NASA Media Gallery

17 June 1985 11:31 GMT. Landing Date: 1985-06-24 13:10:10. Flight Time: 7.07 days. Flight Up: STS-51-G. Flight Back: STS-51-G. Call Sign: Discovery. Crew: Al-Saud, Baudry, Brandenstein, Creighton, Fabian, Lucid, Nagel. Program: STS.

Of note: First Saudi astronaut.

On the lighter side: The Frog and the Prince mission, so called for its inclusion of French and Saudi payload specialists. Prince Al-Saud, had one experiment where the Prince wanted to observe the new moon from space at the beginning of the month of Ramadan. NASA gave the experiment an acronym (Lunar Crescent Observation, LCO), evidently unaware of its religious significance. Only when the mission commander pointed out the storm of protest that would result when the Prince announced the beginning of Ramadan from space, as the first Muslim to sight the crescent moon, did NASA clamp down. The observation went ahead, but the Prince was not allowed to make any public announcements concerning it during the flight. On the same flight the crew was asked not to dress in usual shorts, for fear pictures of the female crewmember's naked legs would offend Saudi sensibilities.

What went wrong: Experienced blow-by and erosion in both nozzle joints. There was blow-by, although none of the secondary O-rings were damaged. Deployed and retrieved Spartan 1; launched Morelos 1, Arabsat 1B, Telstar 3D.Payloads: Shuttle Pointed Autono-mous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN)-1; Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF); High Precision Tracking Experiment (HPTE); Orbiter Experiments (OEX); French Echocardiograph Experiment (FEE) and French Pocket Experiment (FPE).

Orbits of Earth: 111. Distance traveled: 4,693,051 km. Orbiter Liftoff Mass: 116,310 kg. Orbiter Mass at Landing: 92,607 kg. Payload to Orbit: 20,174 kg. Payload Returned: 9,818 kg. Landed at: Runway 23 dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, . Landing Speed: 366 kph. Touchdown miss distance: 340 m. Landing Rollout: 2,265 m.

Mission Name: 51-G (18)
DISCOVERY (5)
Pad 39-A (30)
18th Shuttle mission
5th Flight OV-103

Crew:
Daniel C. Brandenstein (2), Commander
John O. Creighton (1), Pilot
Shannon W. Lucid (1), Mission Specialist 1
John M. Fabian (2), Mission Specialist 2
Steven R. Nagel (1), Mission Specialist 3
Patrick Baudry (1), Payload Specialist 1
Sultan Salman Al-Saud (1), Payload Specialist 2

Milestones:
OPF - April 19, 1985
VAB - May 29, 1985
PAD - June 4,1985

Payload:
MORELOS-A,ARABSAT-1B,TELSTAR-3D,SPARTAN-1,FEE,FPE,ADSF
Mission Objectives:

Launch:
Jun. 17,1985,7:33:00 a.m, EDT. Launch proceeded as scheduled with no delays. Launch Weight: 256,524 lbs.
Orbit:
Altitude: 209nm
Inclination: 28.45 degrees
Orbits: 112
Duration: Seven days, one hour, 38 minutes, 52 seconds.
Distance: 2,916,127 miles

Hardware:
SRB: BI-019
SRM: M018(HPM)
ET : 20/LWT-13
MLP : 1
SSME-1: SN-2109
SSME-2: SN-2018
SSME-3: SN-2012

Landing:
June 24, 1985, 6:11:52 a.m. PDT, Runway 23, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Rollout distance: 7,433 feet. Rollout time: 42 seconds. Orbiter returned to KSC June 28, 1985. Landing Weight: 204,169 lbs

Mission Highlights:
Three communications satellites, all attached to Payload Assist Module-D (PAM-D) motors, were deployed: MORE LOS-A, for Mexico; ARABSAT-A, for Arab Satellite Communications Organization; and TELSTAR-3D, for AT&T. Also flown: deployable/retrievable Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN-1); six Get Away Special canisters; Strategic Defense Initiative experiment called the High Precision Tracking Experiment (HPTE); a materials processing furnace called Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF); and two French biomedical experiments.

• 1985 Jun 17 - STS-51-G  Crew: Al-Saud, Baudry, Brandenstein, Creighton, Fabian, Lucid, Nagel. Spacecraft: Discovery. Payload: Discovery F05 / Morelos 1[PAM-D] / Telstar 303. Mass: 20,174 kg (44,476 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Duration: 7.07 days. Perigee: 358 km (222 mi). Apogee: 369 km (229 mi). Inclination: 28.50 deg. Period: 91.80 min.

  Deployed and retrieved Spartan 1; launched Morelos 1, Arabsat 1B, Telstar 3D.Payloads: Shuttle Pointed Autono-mous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN)-1; Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF); High Precision Tracking Experiment (HPTE); Orbiter Experiments (OEX); French Echocardiograph Experiment (FEE) and French Pocket Experiment (FPE).

• 1985 Jun 24 - Landing of STS-51-G 

  STS-51-G landed at 13:10 GMT.

• NASA Report, The Spartan 1 mission, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19900000761_1990000761.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Press Kit, . Accessed at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/shuttle_pk/pk/Flight_018_STS-51G_Press_Kit.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• Furniss, Tim, Manned Spaceflight Log, Jane's, London, 1986. ISBN: 0710604025. Summary of all manned spaceflights up to 1986. Pre-Glasnost, so many 'war stories' of Soviet manned spaceflight are not included. More at amazon.com...

• NASA Shuttle Mission Press Kits, NASA, 1981-present. Accessed at: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/presskit/presskit.htm.

• JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Accessed at: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.

• Krebs, Gunter, Gunter's Space Page, University of Frankfurt, 1996. Accessed at: http://www.skyrocket.de/space.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• USAF Satellite Database, USAF Institute of Technology, 1995. Accessed at: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/.