STS-41-B

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem STS-41-B
Mission dates
Mission: STS-41-B
COSPAR-ID : 1984-011A
Crew: 5
Begin: February 3, 1984, 13:00:00  UTC
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A
Number of EVA : 2
Landing: February 11, 1984, 12:15:55 UTC
Landing place: Kennedy Space Center, Lane 15
Flight duration: 7d 23h 15m 55s
Earth orbits: 128
Track height: 350 km
Orbit inclination : 28.5 °
Covered track: 5.2 million km
Payload: WESTAR-VI, PALAPA-B2
Team photo
v. l. No. Robert Stewart, Vance Brand, Ronald McNair, Robert Gibson, Bruce McCandless
v. l. No. Robert Stewart, Vance Brand, Ronald McNair, Robert Gibson, Bruce McCandless
◄ Before / After ►
STS-9 STS-41-C

STS-41-B ( English S pace T ransportation S ystem ) is a mission designation for the US Space Shuttle Challenger ( OV -99) of NASA . The launch took place on February 3, 1984. It was the tenth space shuttle mission and the fourth flight of the space shuttle Challenger.

team

Mission overview

STS-41-B was the first space shuttle flight to both take off and land at the Kennedy Space Center.

A highlight of the flight was the first free spacecraft operation without a safety line. The astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart used Manned Maneuvering Units and moved up to a hundred meters from the shuttle.

The shuttle had the two satellites WESTAR-VI and PALAPA-B2 on board as cargo. However, due to a failure of the Payload Assist Module-D (PAM-D), they entered an orbit that was too low. In the course of the STS-51-A mission , these two satellites were recovered in space and brought back to Earth.

Numbering system

With this mission, a new numbering system for shuttle flights was introduced. The number 4 stood for the US financial year 1984, which ran from October 1983 to September 1984, the 1 for the Kennedy Space Center launch site. The letter B indicated that it was scheduled for the second mission of the year. The first was STS-9 , which was still numbered under the old system.

This new system also avoided giving the number 13 to a shuttle flight. NASA was not officially superstitious, but the only manned flight with that number, Apollo 13 , had almost ended in disaster.

The new system was used until flight STS-51-L , which was planned for fiscal year 1985 but did not take off until January 1986. The space shuttle broke up shortly after take-off, resulting in a break of over two years.

From the next flight, STS-26 , they reverted to numbering.

See also

Web links

Commons : STS-41-B  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files