Which U.S. Senator flew on the space shuttle in 1985?

Jake Garn was the U.S. senator who flew on the space shuttle in 1985, serving as a payload specialist aboard Discovery on mission STS-51-D.

Garn represented Utah in the Senate and had extensive aviation experience as a military pilot. He also chaired a Senate subcommittee overseeing NASA funding, giving him a direct interest in seeing the shuttle program firsthand. NASA selected him as a congressional observer and participant in medical experiments on space adaptation.

STS-51-D launched on April 12, 1985, and lasted nearly a week. The crew deployed two communications satellites, though one required troubleshooting after deployment. Garn experienced severe space sickness during the mission, inspiring the informal NASA expression “one Garn” for the highest level on a space-sickness scale.

A common mix-up is John Glenn, another senator and astronaut. Glenn flew in space earlier as a Mercury astronaut, but his return to space occurred in 1998 aboard Discovery—not in 1985. Bill Nelson also flew on a shuttle, but as a U.S. representative in 1986.