The third flight for the ATLAS package of atmospheric experiments for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program was launched aboard Atlantis on November 3, 1994, at 11:59 a.m. The mission also deployed and retrieved the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometer Telescope for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTA-SPAS). The was commanded by Don McMonagle, with pilot Curt Brown and mission specialists Ellen Ochoa, Scott Parazynski, Joe Tanner and Jean-Francois Clervoy.