Launch from Cape Canaveral (
KSC);
landing on Edwards
AFB.
The launch originally was scheduled for
December 18, 1985, but had to be delayed for several times because of technical
and weather problems.
The communications satellite Satcom-KU1 was
successfully deployed. The flight also carried a large number of small
experiments, including 13 GAS canisters devoted to investigations involving the
effect of microgravity on materials processing, seed germination, chemical
reactions, egg hatching, astronomy and atmospheric physics. Other cargo
included a Materials Science Laboratory-2 structure for experiments involving
liquid bubble suspension by sound waves, melting and resolidification of
metallic samples and containerless melting and solidification of electrically
conductive specimens.
Finally, an experiment called the Comet Halley
Active Monitoring Program (CHAMP), consisting of a 35 mm camera to photograph
Comet Halley through the aft flight deck overhead window, was not successful
because of battery problems. Congressman William
Nelson became the second poltician in space.
It was
planned to shorten the mission for one day, to have more time for maintenance
work between the Shuttle missions, but bad weather in Florida forced to extend
the mission duration about two more days.