Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 16:33:49 EST on December 3, 1985, after 6 days, 21 hours, 4 minutes, and 49 seconds in orbit.

[2] Atlantis was mated with the External Tank (ET) and Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) stack and was rolled out to launch LC-39A on November 12, 1985.

Both of these were Hughes Space and Communications HS-376 satellites and were equipped with a Payload Assist Module (PAM-D) booster to reach geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).

Their respective owners assumed charge, and later fired the onboard kick motors at apogee, to circularize the orbits and align them with the equator.

Astronauts Ross and Spring performed two spacewalks on the mission, which marked the 50th, and 51st extravehicular activity (EVAs) for the United States, and the 12th and the 13th for the Shuttle program.

The astronauts judged that performing six-hour spacewalks every other day over a five or six-day period was feasible, and recommended glove changes to reduce hand fatigue.

Ross said in the EVA debrief that the crew had tried to have the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) manifested for use in the second spacewalk, because "for certain applications it would be very useful.

He added that the MMU could be used to attach cable runs and instruments in places that were out of reach of the shuttle's robotic arm (Canadarm).

[6] Astronaut Charles Walker again operated the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES), the third flight of this larger and improved equipment, to produce commercial pharmaceutical products in microgravity.

One Getaway Special (GAS) canister stored in Atlantis's payload bay carried a Canadian student experiment, which involved the fabrication of mirrors in microgravity with higher performance than ones made on Earth.

Atlantis landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base at 16:33:49 EST on December 3, 1985, after a mission lasting 6 days, 21 hours, 4 minutes, 49 seconds.