STS-31 was the 35th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The primary purpose of this mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) into low Earth orbit. The mission used the Space Shuttle Discovery (the tenth mission for this orbiter), which lifted off from Launch Complex 39B on April 24, 1990, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Quick Facts Names, Mission type ...

STS-31

Discovery deploys the Hubble Space Telescope.
Names	Space Transportation System-31 STS-31R
Mission type	Hubble Space Telescope deployment
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1990-037A
SATCAT no.	20579
Mission duration	5 days, 1 hour, 16 minutes, 6 seconds (achieved)
Distance travelled	3,328,466 km (2,068,213 mi)
Orbits completed	80
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch mass	117,586 kg (259,233 lb)
Landing mass	85,947 kg (189,481 lb)
Payload mass	11,878 kg (26,187 lb)
Crew
Crew size	5
Members	Loren Shriver Charles Bolden Bruce McCandless II Steven Hawley Kathryn D. Sullivan
Start of mission
Launch date	April 24, 1990, 12:33:51 UTC
Rocket	Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center, LC-39B
Contractor	Rockwell International
End of mission
Landing date	April 29, 1990, 13:49:57 UTC
Landing site	Edwards Air Force Base, Runway 22
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	613 km (381 mi)
Apogee altitude	615 km (382 mi)
Inclination	28.45°
Period	96.70 minutes
Instruments
Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) Ascent Particle Monitor (APM) IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC) In-flight Radiation Dose Distribution (IDRD) Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) Radiation Monitoring Equipment III (RME III)
STS-31 mission patch Charles Bolden, Steven Hawley, Loren Shriver, Bruce McCandless II, Kathryn D. Sullivan Space Shuttle program ← STS-36 (34) STS-41 (36) →

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Following the Challenger accident clarification was required on mission numbering. As STS-51-L was also designated STS-33, future flights with the previous STS-26 through STS-33 designators would require the R in their documentation to avoid conflicts in tracking data from one mission to another.

Discovery's crew deployed the Hubble Space Telescope on April 25, 1990, and then spent the rest of the mission tending to various scientific experiments in the Shuttle's payload bay as well as operating a set of IMAX cameras to record the mission. Discovery's launch marked the first time since January 1986 that two Space Shuttles had been on the launch pad at the same time – Discovery on 39B and Columbia on 39A.

STS-31 was launched on April 24, 1990, at 8:33:51 a.m. EDT. A launch attempt on April 10, 1990, was scrubbed at T-4 minutes for a faulty valve in auxiliary power unit (APU) number one. The APU was eventually replaced and the Hubble Space Telescope's batteries were recharged. On launch day, the countdown was briefly halted at T-31 seconds when Discovery's computers failed to shut down a fuel valve line on ground support equipment. Engineers ordered the valve closed and the countdown continued.^[4]

The main purpose of this mission was to deploy Hubble. It was designed to operate above the Earth's turbulent and obscuring atmosphere to observe celestial objects at ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The Hubble mission was a joint NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) effort going back to the late 1970s.^[5] The rest of the mission was devoted to photography and onboard experiments. To launch HST into an orbit that guaranteed longevity, Discovery entered an orbit of around 613 × 615 km (381 × 382 mi). At one point during the mission, Discovery briefly reached an apogee of 621 km (386 mi), the highest altitude ever reached by a Shuttle orbiter.^[6] The record height also permitted the crew to photograph Earth's large-scale geographic features not apparent from lower orbits. Motion pictures were recorded by two IMAX cameras, and the results appeared in the 1994 IMAX film Destiny in Space.^[7] Experiments on the mission included a biomedical technology study, advanced materials research, particle contamination and ionizing radiation measurements, and a student science project studying zero gravity effects on electronic arcs. Discovery's reentry from its higher than usual orbit required a deorbit burn of 4 minutes and 58 seconds, the longest in Shuttle history up to that time.^[8] Discovery also orbited the Earth 80 times during the mission.^[8]

During the deployment of Hubble, one of the observatory's solar arrays stopped as it unfurled. While ground controllers searched for a way to command HST to unreel the solar array, Mission Specialists McCandless and Sullivan began preparing for a contingency spacewalk in the event that the array could not be deployed through ground control. The array eventually came free and unfurled through ground control, while McCandless and Sullivan were pre-breathing inside the partially depressurized airlock.^[9]

Secondary payloads included the IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC) to document operations outside the crew cabin, and a handheld IMAX camera for use inside the orbiter. Also included were the Ascent Particle Monitor (APM) to detect particulate matter in the payload bay; a Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) experiment to provide data on growing protein crystals in microgravity, Radiation Monitoring Equipment III (RME III) to measure gamma ray levels in the crew cabin; Investigations into Polymer Membrane Processing (IPMP) to determine porosity control in the microgravity environment, and an Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment.^[8]

The mission marked the flight of an 5 kg (11 lb) human skull, which served as the primary element of "Detailed Secondary Objective 469", also known as the In-flight Radiation Dose Distribution (IDRD) experiment. This joint NASA/DoD experiment was designed to examine the penetration of radiation into the human cranium during spaceflight. The female skull was seated in a plastic matrix, representative of tissue, and sliced into ten layers. Hundreds of thermo-luminescent dosimeters were mounted in the skull's layers to record radiation levels at multiple depths. This experiment, which also flew on STS-28 and STS-36, was located in the shuttle's mid-deck lockers on all three flights, recording radiation levels at different orbital inclinations.^[10]

Discovery landed on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California April 29, 1990, at 6:49:57 a.m. PDT. The landing had a rollout distance of 2,705 m (8,875 ft) took 61 seconds, and marked the first use of carbon brakes on a shuttle. Discovery was returned to Kennedy Space Center after STS-31 on May 7, 1990.^[11]

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Project Gemini, which was first used to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. Each track is specially chosen, often by their families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.^[12]

• Hubble at the pad
• Liftoff of Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope on board
• Low hover position
• High over Cuba
• Solar array deployment
• Hubble drifts away over Peru.
• Florida and The Bahamas
• Discovery returns home.

• List of human spaceflights
• List of Space Shuttle missions
• Outline of space science
• Space Shuttle