STS-61C

STS-61C was Space Shuttle Columbia's seventh flight and the twenty-fourth mission of NASA's Shuttle program. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on January 12, 1986, with Robert L. Gibson commanding, Charles F. Bolden Jr. piloting, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Steven Hawley, and George D. Nelson serving as mission specialists, and Robert J. Cenker plus U.S. Representative Bill Nelson serving as payload specialists. Its primary payload was the RCA Americom SATCOM KU-1 communications satellite, deployed with a Payload Assist Module upper stage. The crew also carried materials-processing, astrophysics, medical, infrared-imaging, Hitchhiker, student, and Get Away Special experiments. Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base on January 18, 1986, after weather prevented a Kennedy Space Center landing; it became the final Shuttle mission before the Challenger accident.