SPACEPHOTOS

The Space Shuttle Discovery settles to the main runway at Edwards, California, at 2:13 p.m. (PDT) 20 September 1994, to conclude mission STS-64. The spacecraft, with a crew of six, was launched into a 57-degree high inclination orbit from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 3:23 p.m. (PDT), 9 September 1994. The mission featured the study of clouds and the atmosphere with a laser beaming system called Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment (LITE), and the first untethered space walk in over ten years. A Spartan satellite was also deployed and later retrieved in the study of the sun's corona and the solar wind. The mission was scheduled to end Sunday, 18 September, but was extended one day to continue science work. Bad weather at the Kennedy Space Center on September 19, forced a one-day delay to September 20, with a weather divert that day to Edwards. Mission commander was Richard Richards, the pilot Blaine Hammond, while mission specialists were Jerry Linenger, Susan Helms, Carl Meade, and Mark Lee.