Crewed spacecraftExpended
STS-34 flight stack
Mission-specific Space Shuttle flight stack
Vehicle and mission dossier
STS-34
STS-34 deployed the Galileo spacecraft and its Inertial Upper from Atlantis, beginning a gravity-assist journey that ultimately reached Jupiter. The crew also operated Earth-observation, student, communications, and medical experiments during the five-day flight while controllers completed the critical planetary-spacecraft release sequence.
Flight profile
- Launch
- October 18, 1989
- Landing
- October 23, 1989
- Mission duration
- 4d 23h 39m
Places and recovery
Vehicle record
- Orbiter
- Space Shuttle Atlantis
- Mission or test
- STS-34
- Configuration
- , external tank, two , and three main engines
- Status
- Mission hardware disposition recorded by component
- Mission type
- Satellite or observatory deployment and operations
- Crew and station travelers
- 5
- Program
- Space Shuttle
- Crew complement
- 5
- Outcome
- Completed
- Archive classification
- Human spaceflight
- Primary objective
- Space Shuttle Atlantis mission that deployed the Galileo spacecraft toward Jupiter.
Flight objectives
- Launch Atlantis and its crew safely into .
- Space Shuttle Atlantis mission that deployed the Galileo spacecraft toward Jupiter.
- Complete the mission's assigned payload, , research, deployment, servicing, or logistics work.
- Return Atlantis and the landing crew safely to Earth.
Flight timeline
- October 18, 1989LaunchAtlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center with Galileo and its upper .
- About six hours after launchGalileo deployedThe spacecraft and Inertial Upper Stage left Atlantis's payload bay.
- Interplanetary injectionJourney to Jupiter beginsThe upper stage sent Galileo toward a Venus-Earth-Earth gravity-assist trajectory.
- October 23, 1989LandingAtlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base after completing the planetary-deployment mission.
