Posts: 313
From: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 09-11-2023 05:12 AM            

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In his Johnson Space Center oral history, Jack Lousma makes a very passing reference to having begun training for a second shuttle mission after STS-3, but it was "a few years down the track," which I take to be in the 1984-1985 time frame, and it was a satellite deployment mission which didn't overly appeal to him.

Does anybody know which flight it was? It could have been 41-D or the 51-E cancelled mission, given that the early shuttle commanders flew again as soon as late 1983.

Does anybody know?

Posts: 1706
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000

Posts: 142
From: Eugene, OR
Registered: May 2006

Posts: 1107
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Jan 2014

posted 09-14-2023 03:21 PM               

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I am not sure if anyone is aware but Jack Lousma was not the original commander for the STS-3 mission.

Fred Haise was slated to command the STS-3 "Skylab rescue" mission but after Skylab fell out of orbit due to delays in the shuttle program Fred Retired.

Jack Lousma was moved from the pilot to the commander's seat with Gordon Fullerton moving from STS-4 pilot to STS-3 pilot and Hank Heartsfield moved from back up to pilot the STS-4 mission.