STS-34

STS-34

Galileo and its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) in the payload bay of Atlantis
Names	Space Transportation System-34 STS-34
Mission type	Galileo spacecraft deployment
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1989-084A
SATCAT no.	20297
Mission duration	4 days, 23 hours, 39 minutes, 20 seconds
Distance travelled	2,900,000 km (1,800,000 mi)
Orbits completed	79
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Atlantis
Launch mass	116,831 kg (257,568 lb)
Landing mass	88,881 kg (195,949 lb)
Payload mass	22,064 kg (48,643 lb)
Crew
Crew size	5
Members	Donald E. Williams Michael J. McCulley Shannon Lucid Franklin Chang-Díaz Ellen S. Baker
Start of mission
Launch date	October 18, 1989, 16:53:40 (October 18, 1989, 16:53:40) UTC (12:53:40 pm EDT)
Launch site	Kennedy, LC-39B
Contractor	Rockwell International
End of mission
Landing date	October 23, 1989, 16:33:00 (October 23, 1989, 16:33:00) UTC (9:33 am PDT)
Landing site	Edwards, Runway 23
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	298 km (185 mi)
Apogee altitude	307 km (191 mi)
Inclination	34.33°
Period	90.60 minutes
Instruments
Growth Hormone Concentration and Distribution in Plants experiment Mesoscale Lightning Experiment (MLE) Polymer Morphology (PM) Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV)
STS-34 mission patch Back row: Williams and McCulley Front row: Lucid, Chang-Díaz and Baker Space Shuttle program ← STS-28 (30) STS-33 (32) →

STS-34 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission using Atlantis. It was the 31st shuttle mission overall, and the fifth flight for Atlantis.^[1] STS-34 launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 18, 1989, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 23, 1989. During the mission, the Jupiter-bound Galileo probe was deployed into space.