STS-61-G


STS-61-G was a United States Space Shuttle mission planned to launch on May 20, 1986, using Atlantis. The main objective of this mission was to launch the Galileo spacecraft toward Jupiter using the Centaur-G upper stage. It was canceled after the Challenger disaster.

Crew

Crew notes

was scheduled to fly as Mission Specialist 1 on his third trip to space, but he took advice from his wife who had earlier told him that "his marriage had a two-flight limit", he soon resigned from this mission. His replacement was Norman E. Thagard. Most of the crew sans van Hoften flew on STS-30 in May 1989, with Mary Cleave taking the place of van Hoften and the addition of rookie Mark Lee. Galileo was launched on STS-34 in October 1989, using the Inertial Upper Stage booster instead of the Centaur-G.