‘86 Shuttle Plans Include Teacher, California Launch

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Here is NASA’s 1986 space shuttle launch schedule.

Jan. 4-- Columbia: Five-day mission with a crew of seven, including Rep. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) The veteran shuttle, which was grounded 15 seconds before launch Thursday because of mechanical problems, is to launch an RCA Americom communications satellite.

Jan. 22-- Challenger : Seven days with a crew of seven, including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Cargo includes a shuttle-tracking satellite and a Spartan satellite to study Halley’s comet.

March 6-- Columbia : Nine days with a crew of seven, including three astronomers. Payload consists of an assembly of telescopes to study Halley’s comet and deep space.

May 15-- Challenger: Four days with a crew of four to send the Ulysses spacecraft to the sun by way of Jupiter.

May 20-- Atlantis: Sets out on its first flight of the year to send the Galileo probe to Jupiter. The four-day mission will have a crew of four.

June 24-- Columbia: Second flight of 1986 is scheduled to last seven days and to launch three communications satellites. Its crew of seven includes Pratiwi Sudarmono of Indonesia and Nigel Wood of Britain.

July-- Discovery: With the exact date a secret, takes off on the first shuttle flight from the military launch complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with a crew of seven, including Air Force undersecretary Edward C. Aldridge Jr.

July 22-- Challenger: Makes its third flight of the year on a five-day mission with a crew of six to launch the third shuttle-tracking satellite.

Aug. 18-- Atlantis: Five-day mission with a crew of five commanded by John Young, the only man to fly in space six times. It is to orbit NASA’s $1.1-billion Hubble Space Telescope.

Sept. 4-- Columbia: A secret Department of Defense mission.

Sept. 27-- Challenger: Five-day mission with a crew of seven, including one from India and the first journalist to fly in space. The cargo is a communications satellite for India. The crew also will retrieve an experiment package dropped off in orbit in 1984.

Sept. 29-- Discovery: Takes off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on another classified military mission.

Oct. 27-- Atlantis: Seven days with a crew of seven to conduct the first of 12 planned scientific Earth observation missions.

Nov. 6-- Columbia: A seven-day mission carrying two communications satellites and a materials science laboratory.

Dec. 6-- Challenger: A secret military mission.