Columbia lifted off at 7:35 a.m. January 9, 1990, on a dual mission to deploy and retrieve satellites. The shuttle first deployed the Syncom 4-5 communications satellite, then retrieved NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility, which had been left in orbit by Challenger six years earlier. The crew was led by Dan Brandenstein, with pilot Jim Wetherbee and mission specialists Bonnie Dunbar, David Low and Marsha Ivins.