1991, NASA Space Shuttle STS 40 launched

On this day during on June 05, 1991, NASA Space Shuttle STS 40 (Columbia 12) launched successfully at 9:24:51 A.M from the Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, the STS 40, the eleventh launch of Space Shuttle Columbia, was a nine-day mission in June 1991.

The STS 40 has landed during on 14 June 1991 at Edwards Air Force Base. At that time Space Shuttle carried the Spacelab module for Spacelab Life Sciences 1 (SLS-1), the fifth Spacelab mission, and the first dedicated solely to biology. STS-40 was the first spaceflight that included three women crew members.

STS 40 was crewed by Bryan D. O’Connor (Commander), Sidney M. Gutierrez (Pilot), James P. Bagian (Mission Specialist), Tamara E. Jernigan (Mission Specialist), M. Rhea Seddon (Mission Specialist), F. Drew Gaffney (Payload Specialist), and Millie Hughes-Fulford (Payload Specialist).

However, on May 22, 1991, STS 40, originally set for launch. Meanwhile, the mission was postponed less than 48 hours before launch when it became known that a leaking liquid hydrogen transducer in the orbiter main propulsion system which was removed and replaced during leak testing in 1990, had failed an analysis by the vendor.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-40