William A. Pailes
American - (USAF)
Retired
Date of Birth: June 26, 1952
Age: 74
William Arthur Pailes (Colonel, USAF) (born June 26, 1952) was a USAF astronaut in the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program during the mid-1980s. He served as a Payload Specialist on STS-51-J Atlantis (October 3–7, 1985).
Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-51-J
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of AmericaKennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Oct. 3, 1985, 3:15 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:
STS-51-J was the twenty-first space shuttle mission and the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was the second mission dedicated to deploying a Department of Defence payload. It was a classified mission however we do know that it deployed two 10 satellites.
Low Earth OrbitThe United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the United States Armed Forces in 1947 with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947.
Falcon 9
Starlink Group 17-51
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USAA batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Starship
Flight 13
Orbital Launch Pad 2 - SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA13th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Second flight of Starship V3. For the first time, Starship will carry 20 V3 Starlink sa…
Kinetica 1
5 satellites
Launch Area 130 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaShare-ride of 5 commercial Earth observation and technology demonstration satellites to SSO, including SpaceTY's TY-48. Details TBD.
Long March 3B/E
Tianlian 2-06
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of ChinaTianlian is a Chinese data tracking and relay communications geostationary satellite series. The TL 2 (Tian Lian 2) satellites represent the second g…
Gravity-1
9 satellites
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental SpaceportCarried 9 satellites on a share-ride to sun-synchronous orbit. Details TBD.
