Odessa is one of the strongest circular storm patterns seen by shuttle crews to date and has a superb tightly formed eye. The tighter the eye in a circular storm, the stronger the winds underneath. Mission 51-I came to be known as the mission of all the hurricanes, tracking no less than four circular storms around the globe. Live pictures from Discovery of Hurricane Elena in the Gulf of Mexico were transmitted directly from Mission Control in Houston to the National Hurricane Center in Florida for correlation with conventional weather satellite and high-level aircraft data.

STS 51-I, August-September 1985. Picture #27-35-077.

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