The main task of the mission was to bring two commercial satellites into orbit –
Palapa B3 and
Westar-6S, and military communication satellite -
Skynet-4A, The
British Skynet and the
Indonesian Palapa were supposed to be accompanied by an astronaut from the two countries. After the
Challenger disaster, the deployment of commercial satellites by the Space Shuttle was stopped, and for several years no international astronauts were nominated. Thus, neither the British nor the Indonesian payload specialists got a second chance for a spaceflight. The NASA crew however stayed together and participated in a 56-hour-long simulated mission known as STS-61-M(T) in 1987. The crew finally flew on
STS-29, with Anna L. Fisher being replaced by
James P. Bagian.
Skynet 4A was launched on 1 January 1990 with a
Titan III, Westar-6S was renamed
Galaxy-6 and launched on 12 October 1992 by an
Ariane 44L. Palapa-B3 was renamed to
Palapa B2P and was launched on 20 March 1987 with a
Delta-3920. == See also ==