STS-8

Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission:	STS-8
COSPAR-ID :	1983-089A
Crew:	5
Begin:	August 30, 1983, 06:32:00  UTC
Starting place:	Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A
Landing:	September 5, 1983, 07:40:43 UTC
Landing place:	Edwards Air Force Base , Runway 22
Flight duration:	6d 1h 8m 43s
Earth orbits:	98
Track height:	313 km
Orbit inclination :	28.5 °
Covered track:	4.0 million km
Payload:	INSAT 1-B
Team photo
v. l. No. Daniel Brandenstein, Dale Gardner, Richard Truly, William Thornton, Guion Bluford
◄ Before / After ►
STS-7 STS-9

STS-8 ( 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 August 30, 1983. It was the eighth space shuttle mission and the third flight of the space shuttle Challenger.

team

• Richard Truly (2nd space flight), commander
• Daniel Brandenstein (1st space flight), pilot
• Dale Gardner (1st spaceflight), mission specialist
• Guion Bluford (1st space flight), mission specialist
• William Thornton (1st spaceflight), mission specialist

Mission overview

STS-8 was the first space shuttle flight to both take off and land at night. The start took place with a 17 minute delay due to the weather.

The payload was essentially the Indian multipurpose satellite Insat 1-B . Furthermore, stress tests were carried out on the shuttle itself. The shuttle cockpit was kept facing away from the sun for 14 hours in order to investigate the effects of the intense cold on the life support systems.

Various scientific experiments were also carried out. Among other things, the behavior of six rats in weightlessness was examined.

With Guion Bluford, an African American came into space for the first time in NASA history .

See also

• List of space shuttle missions
• List of manned space flights

Web links

Commons : STS-8  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• NASA Mission overview (English)
• Video summary with comments of the crew (English)