. STS-26 Commander Frederick H. Hauck, Pilot Richard Covey, Mission Specialists Mike Lounge, Pinky Nelson and David Hilmers received the traditional wake-up call on their first day in orbit on a mission to deploy NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-3, part of a network of satellites that support numerous NASA satellites and human spacecraft, including the International Space Station. Astronaut spacecraft communicators, or CAPCOMS, Kathy Sullivan (currently the leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and Kathy Thornton, relayed the message from Mission Control in Houston.