STS-51-J was NASA's 21st Space Shuttle mission and the first flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis. It launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 3, 1985, carrying a payload for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 7, 1985.
DSCS-III satellites in Atlantis' payload bay
Back row: David C. Hilmers, William A. Pailes Seated: Robert L. Stewart, Karol J. Bobko, Ronald J. GrabeSpace Shuttle program← STS-51-I (20)STS-61-A (22) →
Atlantis lifting off the pad.
Space Shuttle Atlantis lands on the dry desert lakebed of Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the STS-51-J mission.
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.
Discovery lifts off at the start of the STS-120 mission.
Columbia undergoing installation of its ceramic tiles
Enterprise during the Approach and Landing Tests
Columbia launching on STS-1
