Launch from Cape Canaveral (KSC); landing on Edwards AFB.

Mission "Space Radar Laboratory" (SRL-1). The crew took radar images of the Earth and Earth observations photography (more than 14,000 still photographs). In addition experiments in the areas of biology and physics were carried out.

During the initial activation of the X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (X-SAR), controllers reported they were unable to fully power up the amplifier that provides power to the radar. The problem was in the low voltage circuit internal to the power amplifier. Engineers were not immediately able to explain the problem, so they turned off the power amplifier for about three hours. The problem was traced to an oversensitive protection circuit, a type of circuit breaker. The radar lab engineers bypassed the protection circuit and turned on the instrument. It worked then without any incident.

The data recorded during the STS-59 mission would fill the equivalent of 20,000 encyclopedia volumes. Payload managers reported that more than 70 million square kilometers of the Earth's surface, including land and sea, have been mapped on this flight. This figure represents about 12 percent of Earth's total surface. The Space Radar Laboratory obtained radar images of approximately 25 percent of the planet's land surfaces.

Due to clouds and high winds at Cape Canaveral the mission was extended one day and finally diverted to the Edwards AFB.