Launch from Cape Canaveral (KSC); landing on Edwards AFB. The launch was originally scheduled for August 18, 1994, but a Redundant Sequence Launch Sequencer (ESLS) abort due of technical problems occured and a new launch date was set.

STS-68 was the mission "Space Radar Laboratory" (SRL-2). Radar images of Earth's surface and volcanic eruption observations were taken. The SRL payload is comprised of the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR), and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellite (MAPS). The German Space Agency (DARA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) are providing the X-SAR instrument.

The imaging radar of the SIR-C/X-SAR instruments has the ability to make measurements over virtually any region at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. The radar waves can penetrate clouds, and under certain conditions, also can "see" through vegetation, ice and extremely dry sand. In many cases, radar is the only way scientists can explore inaccessible regions of the Earth's surface.

The SIR-C/X-SAR radar data provide information about how many of Earth's complex systems - those processes that control the movement of land, water, air and life - work together to make this a livable planet. The science team particularly wants to study the amount of vegetation coverage, the extent of snow packs, wetlands areas, geologic features such as rock types and their distribution, volcanic activity, ocean wave heights and wind speed.

In addition there have been carried out experiments in biology and materials science, as Biological Research in Canister (BRIC), flying for the first time, to examine the effects of microgravity on a wide range of physiological processes in higher order plants and arthropod animals (e.g., insects, spiders, centipedes, crustaceans) and Military Applications of Ship Tracks (MAST), to examine the effects of ships on the marine environment

Due to clouds over the KSC the Space Shuttle was diverted to the Edwards AFB.