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

In September 1996 Jeffrey Ashby was assigned to serve as a pilot on STS-85. He trained with the crew until March 1997 when he was named as an assistant to the Director, Flight Crew Operations. At that time Ashby withdrew from STS-85 to take care of his wife, who was dying of cancer.

A few hours after the launch the German built satellite CRISTA-SPAS-02 (Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere) was deployed. CRISTA-SPAS consists of three telescopes and four spectrometers that measured trace gases and dynamics of the Earth's middle atmosphere. Later the crew retrieved the satellite with the help of the shuttle robot arm.

Several scientific experiments like tests with Utraviolet Spectrograph Telescope and Camera were performed. Several Hitchhiker payloads, including the Technology Applications and Science Payload (TAS-01), the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (SEH), and the Ultraviolet Spectrograph Telescope for Astronomical Research (UVSTAR) were housed in Discovery's payload bay, operating independently of crew support during the flight. Another experiment onboard STS-85 was the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS-01) from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) along with scientific collaborators from JPL, APL, and the University of Maryland. Finally the crew tested tools for the ISS (e.g. Japanese-built robot-arm).