Discovery clears the pad on third try, storm closing in

Twice that week, Discovery had rolled to the edge of launch and stopped, once for weather, once for a balky backup computer. On August 27, 1985, at 6:58 a.m., commander Joe Engle and pilot Richard Covey finally rode it off the pad at Kennedy Space Center with a storm front visible behind them on the horizon. Aboard for the ride were mission specialists James van Hoften, John Lounge, and William Fisher, tasked with releasing three commercial communications satellites and, days later, going outside to fix a fourth that had failed on a mission four months earlier. All three new satellites reached orbit intact…