STS-37

STS-37 was a Space Shuttle Atlantis mission flown in April 1991 to deploy NASA's Gamma Ray Observatory, later named the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The five-person crew was commanded by Steven Nagel, with Kenneth Cameron as pilot and Linda Godwin, Jerry Ross, and Jay Apt as mission specialists. After deployment, the observatory's high-gain antenna failed to release normally, so Ross and Apt performed an unscheduled EVA to free it by hand. The next day they completed a planned EVA to test crew and equipment movement methods for future space-station work. The mission also carried secondary experiments in protein crystal growth, radiation monitoring, Shuttle amateur radio, biomedical materials processing, contamination monitoring, and Space Station Freedom thermal-control concepts. Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39B on April 5, 1991 and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on April 11 after 5 days, 23 hours, 32 minutes, and 44 seconds.