Launch from Cape Canaveral (KSC); landing on Cape Canaveral (KSC). Mission Spacehab-SM. During the launch the orbiter lost a flap of the parachute box. So the Discovery had to land without using the Drag Chute.

Astronaut veteran John Glenn (77) returned into space after more than 36 years. Up to date he is the oldest person to go in space. Experiments on and with John Glenn (how do older humans work and feel in space?) were done.

The SPARTAN 201-5 free-flyer was deployed and retrieved using the Shuttle's mechanical arm. It was designed to investigate physical conditions and processes of the hot outer layers of the Sun's atmosphere, or solar corona. While deployed from the Shuttle, SPARTAN gathered measurements of the solar corona and solar wind. The Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test (HOST) platform carried experiments to validate components planned for installation during the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and to evaluate new technologies in an earth orbiting environment. The International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH) payload involves a half dozen different experiments mounted on a support structure which was carried in Discovery's payload bay.