STS-51-G Mission

Launch Service Provider

Lockheed Space Operations Company

Vehicle

Space Shuttle

Crew

Daniel Brandenstein

John Oliver Creighton

Patrick Baudry

Sultan bin Salman Al Saud

John M. Fabian

Steven R. Nagel

Shannon Lucid

STS-51-G was the eighteenth flight of the shuttle program and fifth for Space Shuttle Discovery. Sultan Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was on board as a payload specialist; he became the first Arab, the first Muslim and first member of a royal family to fly into space. It was the first shuttle flight to fly without an astronaut from the pre-Shuttle era. Its mission was to deploy 3 10 satellites.