Vintage NASA Mission Patch
These patches were created to promote the missions.
 
STS-61 was a space shuttle mission conducted by NASA's space shuttle Endeavour in December 1993. The primary objective of the mission was to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which had been launched into orbit in 1990 but had experienced technical issues that prevented it from operating at its full potential. The mission was a critical one, as the HST was considered to be one of NASA's most important scientific instruments and its repairs were necessary to ensure the success of future space-based observations.
 
The crew of STS-61 consisted of seven astronauts, including Commander Richard Covey and Pilot Ken Bowersox. The other crew members were Story Musgrave, Kathryn Thornton, Jeffrey Hoffman, Thomas Akers, and Claude Nicollier. They spent a total of 11 days in space, with most of that time dedicated to repairing the HST. The mission was highly successful, and the repairs made to the HST allowed it to operate at its full potential for many years to come.
 
The repairs to the HST involved the installation of several new components, including a new camera, a new spectrograph, and a new solar panel. The crew also replaced some of the HST's gyroscopes and other critical systems. In addition to the repairs, the crew conducted several other experiments and observations during the mission, including the deployment and retrieval of a number of smaller satellites. Overall, STS-61 was a highly successful mission that demonstrated NASA's ability to conduct complex and critical repairs in space.