Circle Image

Gary Payton

American - (USAF)

Retired

Date of Birth: June 20, 1948
Age: 76


Colonel Gary Eugene Payton, USAF, (born June 20, 1948) is an American former astronaut. Payton flew on the STS-51-C mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in January 1985 which launched and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. STS-51C was the first dedicated Space Shuttle Department of Defense mission. Payton traveled over 1.2 million miles in 48 Earth orbits, and logged more than 73 hours in space.

Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-51-C

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Jan. 24, 1985, 7:50 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

STS-51-C was the fifteenth flight of the shuttle program and third for the Space Shuttle Discovery. It was the first space shuttle mission dedicated to the United States Department of Defense and therefore, the mission details remain classified.

Low Earth Orbit
Explore Share

Commander-in-Chief: President of the US

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the United States Armed Forces in 1947 with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947.


Kinetica 1
Success
1 day, 11 hours ago
6 satellites
Launch Area 130 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Carried 6 satellites to Sun-synchronous orbit, including commercial Earth observation satellites Taijing-3-04 & Taijing-4-02A: * Taijing-3-04 * T…


Falcon 9
Success
1 day, 11 hours ago
Starlink Group 12-15
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 7A
Success
2 days, 3 hours ago
ChinaSat 3B
201 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

Chinese communication geostationary satellite for unknown purposes.


Ceres-1S
Success
3 days, 7 hours ago
Tianqi 16-18 & 20
Oriental Spaceport mobile launch ship - Sea Launch

4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.


PSLV-XL
Failure
4 days, 14 hours ago
EOS-09 (RISAT-1B)
Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

RISAT-1B is the third in the series of radar imaging RISAT-1 satellites of ISRO using an active C-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), providing all-…