Watch the Launch

STS-41

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Heliophysics

Low Earth Orbit Launch Complex 39B Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

STS-41 was the eleventh mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The four-day mission with a primary objective the launch the Ulysses probe as part of the International Solar Polar Mission.

Space Shuttle

Family: Space Shuttle
Configuration:

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.

Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    56.1 m
  • Diameter
    8.0 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    2030 T
  • Thrust
    28200 kN
Family
  • Name
    Space Shuttle
  • Family
    Space Shuttle
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Space Shuttle
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $450000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    27500 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Space Shuttle Discovery


In-active Human Rated Crew On-board: 5 Crew Capacity: 7 Payload Capacity: 27500 kg
Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Serial Number: OV-103

Space Shuttle Discovery (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, gathering more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. Discovery became the third operational orbiter to enter service, preceded by Columbia and Challenger. It embarked on its last mission, STS-133, on February 24, 2011 and touched down for the final time at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, having spent a cumulative total of almost a full year in space. Discovery performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions. It also carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. Discovery was the first operational shuttle to be retired, followed by Endeavour and then Atlantis.

Space Shuttle Details

Crew


William Shepherd

Mission Specialist - American - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: July 26, 1949
Age: 73

Richard N. Richards

Commander - American - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: Aug. 24, 1946
Age: 76

Robert D. Cabana

Pilot - American - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: Jan. 23, 1949
Age: 74

Bruce E. Melnick

Mission Specialist - American - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: Dec. 5, 1949
Age: 73

Thomas Akers

Mission Specialist - American - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: May 20, 1951
Age: 72

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Circle Image
Administrator: Bill Nelson Founded: 1958 Successes: 115 Failures: 20 Pending: 6

Agency Type: Government

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

INFO WIKI

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39B


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 17 hours ago
BADR-8
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Geostationary communications satellite built by Airbus Defense and Space and based on the Eurostar Neo platform for Arabsat.


Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M
Success
5 days, 1 hour ago
Kondor-FKA No.1
Cosmodrome Site 1S - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation

The Kondor-FKA is a small civilian radar Earth observation satellite designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a civilian counterpart to the Kondor-E sate…


Electron
Success
5 days, 18 hours ago
TROPICS-3
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Onenui Station, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Last two operational (TROPICS-06 & TROPICS-07) satellites for NASA's Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a…


SpaceShipTwo
Success
6 days, 6 hours ago
VSS Unity 25
Spaceport America - Air launch to Suborbital flight

Virgin Galactic return to space mission ahead of the first commercial flight.


Nuri
Success
6 days, 13 hours ago
NEXTSat-2 & SNIPE
LC-2 - Naro Space Center, South Korea

Third flight of the KSLV-II "Nuri" launch vehicle, carrying NEXTSat-2 as well as SNIPE A through D.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week ago
Progress MS-23 (84P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
Axiom Space Mission 2
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

This is a Crew Dragon flight for a private company Axiom Space. The mission will carry a professionally trained commander alongside three private ast…


Long March 2
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
MUST-1A/B & Luojia-2 01
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan, People's Republic of China

Macau Science Satellite-1 (MUST-1A/B) are 2 magnetosphere research satellites from the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) aiming to st…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Iridium-9 & OneWeb 19
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

5 spare satellites for the Iridium NEXT constellation and 16 satellites for the OneWeb constellation (15 of current generation and 1 demonstration sa…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
Starlink Group 6-3
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.