Payload
Three satellites were deployed during the mission: AUSSAT-2, Morelos-B, and SATCOM Ku-2. The first two were the second in their series, the first examples having been deployed during STS-51-I and STS-51-G. Both were Hughes HS-376 satellites equipped with a PAM-D booster to reach geosynchronous transfer orbit. SATCOM Ku-2, meanwhile, was a version of the RCA 4000 series. RCA American Communications owned and operated the satellite system of which SATCOM Ku-2 was a part. The satellite was deployed using a PAM-D2 booster, a larger version of the PAM-D. This was the first flight of this booster stage on a Space Shuttle.
All three satellites were successfully deployed, one at a time, and their booster stages fired automatically to lift them to geosynchronous transfer orbits. Their respective owners assumed charge, and later fired the onboard kickmotors at apogee, to circularize the orbits and align them with the equator.
Read more about this topic: STS-61-B