STS-61-M
| Names | Space Transportation System |
|---|---|
| Mission type | TDRS-D satellite deployment (planned) |
| Operator | NASA |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Challenger (planned) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 6 |
| Members | Loren J. Shriver Bryan D. O'Connor Mark C. Lee Sally K. Ride William Frederick Fisher Robert Wood |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | July 15, 1986 (planned) Not launched |
| Rocket | Space Shuttle Challenger |
| Launch site | Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A |
| Contractor | Rockwell International |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit (planned) |
| Regime | Low Earth orbit |
| Perigee altitude | 285 km (177 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 295 km (183 mi) |
| Inclination | 28.45° |
| Period | 90.40 minutes |
Space Shuttle patch Cancelled Shuttle missions | |
STS-61-M was a proposed NASA Space Shuttle program mission, planned for July 1986 but canceled following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (STS-51-L).
The payload manifest was to have been TDRS-D, INSAT-1C, and EOS-1 (Electrophoresis Operations in Space). EOS-1 was a payload developed by McDonnell Douglas that would have demonstrated the production in space of ultra-pure erythropoietin through electrophoresis. Robert Wood, a McDonnell Douglas engineer, was assigned as the payload specialist for EOS-1 with fellow engineer Charles D. Walker assigned as his backup.
If flown, this would have been Sally Ride's third space mission. After the Challenger disaster, Ride was named to the Rogers Commission investigating the disaster and left NASA afterwards in 1987.