Pad Flyby of Shuttle Discovery, 1993

**Shuttle Discovery, STS-51, is readied on Pad 39B on Aug. 18, 1993. The Vehicle Assembly Building rises in the background. (photo by author)**

On Aug. 18, 1993, I was flying a Cessna Citation II down to Kennedy Space Center for some test work on our upcoming mission, STS-59, when Rick Hieb and I arrived for landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility. We requested a pad flyby, and permission granted, swung out over the shoreline to circle the two shuttle pads of Launch Complex 39. Less than a week before, Discovery STS-51 had suffered a pad abort at T-3 seconds due to faulty fuel flow sensors in one of the space shuttle main engines. That was STS-51’s third launch scrub with the crew already strapped in, so we took several snapshots of Discovery as we banked past Pad 39B, then headed for the runway for touchdown and parking.

STS-51 Discovery rests on pad 39B. The crawlerway and ramp up to the pad show up well, as do the water suppression system tower and two propellant spheres for the shuttle’s external tank. The rotating service structure nestles against the orbiter, protecting most of its surfaces from weather and providing access to the payload bay. Photo by author, 8-18-93.

**STS-51 Discovery rests atop its mobile launch platform. At ignition, solid rocket motor exhaust will vent largely from this end of the flame trench. Photo by author, 8-18-93**

**STS-51 Discovery on pad 39B**, with empty Pad 39A at rear. The pad’s personnel blast bunker is the square-topped structure at far right, below the crawlerway. Launch complexes 41 and 40 are visible on the distant shoreline. Photo by author, 8-18-93.

Discovery did launch successfully on September 12, 1993. My astronaut classmates Dan Bursch, Carl Walz, and Jim Newman helped crew STS-51, along with Frank Culbertson and Bill Readdy. Dan came back in August 1994 to join me on STS-68, but first Dan had to suffer through another pad abort, on Aug. 18, ’94. We got off the ground, finally, on Pad 39A on September 30, 1994. But STS-68 is another story.

Read the STS-51 story in my new book, “Space Shuttle Stories,” due out from Smithsonian Books in October. It’s available now for pre-order on Amazon.

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