posted 07-07-2017 08:36 AM               

I am seeing different crew listings for the mission on different sites. The NASA astronaut crew is consistent (Brewster Shaw, Mike McCulley, David Leestma, Jim Adamson, Mark Brown) and they also include MSE Frank Casserno. However, I have also seen Lawrence Skantze assigned to the mission (but only on Wikipedia).

posted 07-07-2017 10:06 AM               

I also came across the Skantze reference long after I spoke with Casserino, but never found any indication that he was actually assigned to the crew. He never mentioned it during the course of our discussions.

posted 07-07-2017 11:19 AM               

Now Sec. Aldridge got his seat on 62-A at the expense of Randy Odle, who was originally assigned with Brett Watterson for the multi-payload mission. Only Casserino was assigned to fly 61-N on what was to be another "plain vanilla" deployment mission. So there may have been a seat available for a "dignitary" like Skantze, and he could have been brought in later in the year for the standard short payload specialist training curriculum.

posted 07-07-2017 10:15 PM               

• CDR: Brewster Shaw
  
• Pilot: Michael McCulley
  
• MS: David Leestma
  
• MS: James Adamson
  
• MS: Mark Brown
  
• MSE: Frank Casserino

• Backup MSE: Daryl Joseph

Also, one additional question: The majority of the NASA crew flew this mission as STS-29, the one exception being Michael McCulley was replaced by Richard Richards. From what I have read, a lot of the crews kept together and flying on later missions were kept together unless someone retired or changed jobs. McCulley seems to be one of the exceptions to this. He remained on active flight status but was not assigned to STS-29 with the rest of the 61N crew. He was instead assigned to STS-34, which ended up being the very next mission.

posted 07-08-2017 01:19 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by RichieB16:
there was some discussion for Skantze to possibly join the crew is possible, but nothing became official prior to the suspensions of flights following 51L. Is that a fair thing to say?

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As for the Richards/McCulley swap, Richards makes no mention of how he came to be on the crew in his oral history. He does mention training with Scobee in the sims for awhile and Mike Smith training with Crippen for 62A, but suddenly Smith and Scobee were paired and he was moved off. So there was a lot of movement in those days.

posted 07-10-2017 12:27 PM               

Casserino was definitely the prime PS/MSE for this mission when it was 61-N, Joseph was backup. Post-Challenger NASA and Air Force space (Space Division and Special Projects) chose to eliminate PS assignments for the most part.

One of the MSEs said that while this debate was going on, Brewster Shaw weighed in: "I like Frank [Casserino], but if he's on the mission, I can't guarantee that he'll get out of the mid-deck." A hint, surely, that he wasn't in favor of a PS.

Skantze as a military VIP PS ala Aldridge — that was definitely under discussion pre-Challenger, but then went away. I may have been the original source for those early reports, anyway, and wish to correct at least one 30-year-old error: had he flown, it would almost surely NOT have been on 62-B or 61-N or ANY Special Projects/NRO mission. Skantze was head of Systems Command, parent org of Space Division... he would have flown with, say, a DSP payload.

posted 07-10-2017 10:04 PM               

I guess it makes sense for Richards vs. McCulley. He had simply been waiting longer. I suppose when the return to flight missions were manifested originally, they were done in order. This would have given Richards a flight six missions before McCulley. As it turned out that was not to be. I assume due to payload delays and other issues, STS-29 moved back a little and STS-34 moved up. The end result, they were flown back to back two months apart.

posted 07-11-2017 02:09 PM               

Pailes was fine, and I met with him, but Payton... "He's a spook," I was told. So no.

That is, there was a wall between the "white" Air Force Space Division and the "black" SP/NRO element.

In 1985, Aldridge was not only Sec AF but also Director NRO. So he could fly on any mission (and the 62-A TEAL RUBY payload began as a Special Project, I believe).

But Skantze, head of Systems Command and its Space Division unit, would surely not have had any authority over ORION, QUASAR or ONYX-LACROS payloads and thus no real reason to observe them in flight. He would, however, have had a reason to take part in deployment of DSCS, DSP, GPS and other Space Division satellites.