Launch from Cape Canaveral (KSC); landing on Edwards AFB. The launch was first scheduled for December 18, 1989, but was later postponed to complete and verify modifications to Pad 39-A. The second scheduled launch on January 8, 1990 was aborted due to weather conditions.

Deploying of defense communications satellite Syncom-IV-F5 on flight day 2. Retrieval of "Long Duration Exposure Facility" (LDEF), with 57 science, technology and applications long duration experiments on flight day 4. The retrieval had been delayed for 4 1/2 years by scheduling changes and the Challenger disaster. The retrieval of LDEF was filmed with an IMAX camera, and appeared in the IMAX film "Destiny in Space" in 1994. Earth observation footage from the camera also appeared in the 1991 film "Blue Planet".

Other middeck payloads were for example Protein Crystal Growth (PCG), Fluid Experiment Apparatus (FEA), American Flight Echocardiograph (AFE) and the Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment, which were always performed on earlier flights.