STS-6 was the sixth

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

mission and the maiden flight of the . Launched from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

on April 4, 1983, the mission deployed the first

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite A tracking and data relay satellite (TDRS) is a type of communications satellite that forms part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) used by NASA and other United States government agencies for communications to and fro ...

TDRS-1 TDRS-1, known before launch as TDRS-A, was an American communications satellite, operated by NASA as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. It was constructed by TRW and launched by on its maiden flight, STS-6. History While o ...

, into orbit, before landing at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...

on April 9, 1983. STS-6 was the first Space Shuttle mission during which a

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...

was conducted, and hence was the first in which the

Extravehicular Mobility Unit The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) is an independent anthropomorphic spacesuit that provides environmental protection, mobility, life support, and communications for astronauts performing extravehicular activity (EVA) in Earth orbit. Introduc ...

(EMU) was used.

Crew

STS-6 was the last shuttle mission with a four-person crew until

STS-135 STS-135 ( ISS assembly flight ULF7) was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter ''Atlantis'' and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 la ...

, the final shuttle mission, which launched on July 8, 2011. Commander Paul Weitz had previously served as Pilot on the first Skylab crewed mission (Skylab-2), where he lived and worked in Skylab for nearly a month from May to June 1973. After Skylab, Weitz became the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office under Chief Astronaut

John Young John Young may refer to: Academics * John Young (professor of Greek) (died 1820), Scottish professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow * John C. Young (college president) (1803–1857), American educator, pastor, and president of Centre Col ...

. Bobko originally became an astronaut for the Air Force's

Manned Orbiting Laboratory The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from early USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites, and was a s ...

(MOL) program but later joined NASA in 1969 after the MOL program's cancellation. Prior to STS-6 he participated in the

Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test The Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test, or SMEAT, was a 56-day simulation of an American Skylab space mission from 26 July-19 September 1972 at NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. The astronauts in the test were Bob Crippe ...

(SMEAT) and worked as a member of the support crew for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). Peterson was also a transfer from the MOL program, and was a member of the support crew for

Apollo 16 Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth crewed mission in the United States Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to land on the Moon. It was the second of Apollo's " J missions", with an extended sta ...

. Musgrave joined NASA in 1967 as part of the second scientist-astronaut group, and was the backup Science Pilot for the first Skylab mission. He also participated in the design of the equipment that he and Peterson used during their EVA on the STS-6 mission.

Support crew

* Roy D. Bridges Jr. (entry CAPCOM) *

Mary L. Cleave Mary Louise Cleave (born February 5, 1947) is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She also served from 2004 to 2007 as NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. Early life Cleave was born in Southampton, Ne ...

Richard O. Covey Richard Oswalt Covey (born August 1, 1946) is a retired United States Air Force officer, former NASA astronaut, and a member of the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. Early life Born August 1, 1946, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he considers F ...

(ascent CAPCOM) *

Guy Gardner Guy Gardner may refer to: * Guy Gardner (astronaut) (born 1948), United States Air Force officer and former astronaut * Guy Gardner (character) Guy Gardner, one of the characters known as Green Lantern, is a superhero appearing in American comic ...

Jon McBride Jon Andrew McBride (born August 14, 1943), is a retired NASA astronaut and American naval officer. Over the course of his career with the United States Navy, McBride served as an aviator, a fighter pilot, a test pilot, and an aeronautical engi ...

Bryan D. O'Connor Bryan Daniel O'Connor (born September 6, 1946) is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel and former NASA astronaut. He was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2008. Personal Born September 6, 1946, in Orange, Califor ...

Spacewalks

* '' Musgrave and Peterson '' * EVA Start: April 7, 1983 * EVA End: April 8, 1983 * Duration: 4hours, 17minutes

Crew seating arrangements

Mission background

The new orbiter was rolled out to

LC-39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle. Ty ...

in November 1982. On December 18, 1982, ''Challenger'' was given a PFRF (Pre Flight Readiness Firing) to verify the operation of the main engines. The PFRF lasted for 16seconds. Although engine operation was generally satisfactory, telemetry data indicated significant leakage of

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...

in the thrust section. However, it was not possible to determine the location of the leak with certainty, so program directors decided on a second PFRF with added telemetry probes. It was known that during the test run on December 18, 1982, that recirculated exhaust gases and vibration leaked into the thrust section and this was considered a potential cause of the leak. Therefore, the original planned launch in late January 1983 had to be postponed. On January 25, 1983, a second PFRF was conducted which lasted 23 seconds and exhibited more hydrogen leaks. Eventually, it was found that low pressure ducting in the No. 1 engine was cracked. The engine was replaced by a spare, which was found to also have leaks. A third engine had to be ordered from

Rocketdyne Rocketdyne was an American rocket engine design and production company headquartered in Canoga Park, California, Canoga Park, in the western San Fernando Valley of suburban Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, in southern California. The Rocke ...

, and after thorough testing, turned out to be in proper operating condition. The No. 2 and No. 3 engines turned out to have leaks as well, and were taken out of the orbiter for repairs. By mid-March, the engine problems had been completely resolved. While the engine repairs were underway on February 28, 1983, a severe storm caused contamination of the mission's primary cargo, the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-A (

), while it was in the

Payload Changeout Room Launch Complex 39 (LC-39) is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Merritt Island in Florida, United States. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built as the Apollo program's ...

on the Rotating Service Structure at the launch pad. Consequently, the satellite had to be taken back to its checkout facility, where it was cleaned and rechecked. The Payload Changeout Room and the payload bay also had to be cleaned. All of these events pushed the launch back from March 26, 1983, to early April 1983.

Mission summary

On April 4, 1983, STS-6, the first mission of the orbiter ''Challenger'', lifted off at 13:30:00 EST. It marked the first use of a new lightweight

external tank The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to ...

and lightweight

Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was the first solid-propellant rocket to be used for primary propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight. A pair of these provided 85% of the Space Shuttle's thrust at liftoff and for the first ...

(SRB) casings, first use of the

head-up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD (), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view informa ...

, and first

extravehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA in ...

(EVA) in the

Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its ...

. STS-6 carried a crew of four – Paul J. Weitz, commander; Karol J. Bobko, pilot; F. Story Musgrave and Donald H. Peterson, both mission specialists. Using new

spacesuit A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...

s designed specifically for the Space Shuttle program, Musgrave and Peterson successfully accomplished the program's first extravehicular activity (EVA) on April 7–8, 1983, performing various tests in the orbiter's payload bay. Their spacewalk lasted 4hours and 17minutes and was the first American EVA since the last of Skylab-4's 4 EVAs nearly a decade prior. Although the TDRS-A satellite was successfully deployed from ''Challenger'', its two-stage booster rocket, the

Inertial Upper Stage The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), originally designated the Interim Upper Stage, was a two-stage, solid-fueled space launch system developed by Boeing for the United States Air Force beginning in 1976 for raising payloads from low Earth orbit to h ...

(IUS), tumbled out of control, placing the satellite into a low

elliptical orbit In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics, an elliptic orbit or elliptical orbit is a Kepler orbit with an eccentricity of less than 1; this includes the special case of a circular orbit, with eccentricity equal to 0. In a stricter sense, it ...

. However, the satellite contained extra propellant beyond what was needed for its

attitude control Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc. Controlling vehicle ...

thrusters, and during the next several months, its thrusters were fired at carefully planned intervals, gradually moving TDRS-1 into its

geosynchronous A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

operating orbit, thus saving the US$100-million satellite. Other STS-6 payloads included three

Getaway Special Getaway Special was a NASA program that offered interested individuals, or groups, opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the Space Shuttle. Over the 20-year history of the program, over 170 individual missions were flown. The program, whi ...

(GAS) canisters and the continuation of the Mono-disperse Latex Reactor and Continuous Flow Electrophoresis experiments. ''Challenger'' returned to Earth on April 9, 1983, at 10:53:42a.m. PST, landing on Runway22 at

. During the mission, it completed 81 orbits, traveling in 5days, 23minutes, and 42seconds. It was flown back to KSC on April 16, 1983.

Mission insignia

The six white stars in the upper blue field of the mission patch, and its hexagonal shape, indicate the flight's numerical designation in the

Space Transportation System The Space Transportation System (STS), also known internally to NASA as the Integrated Program Plan (IPP), was a proposed system of reusable crewed space vehicles envisioned in 1969 to support extended operations beyond the Apollo program. ...

's mission sequence.

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...

, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a ...

. Each track is specially chosen, often by the astronauts' families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.

Gallery

Image:STS-6 TDRS-A deploy preparations.jpg, TDRS-A is deployed. Image:STS-6 EVA.jpg, Musgrave during the EVA Image:STS-6 Musgrave & Peterson Challenger Cargo Bay.jpg, Musgrave, left, and Peterson float in ''Challenger''s payload bay during the EVA. Image:Space_Shuttle_Challenger_lands_for_the_first_time,_completing_STS-6.jpg, ''Challenger'' lands at

on 9 April 1983.

References

External links

STS-6 mission summary
NASA.

. NSS. {{Orbital launches in 1983 Space Shuttle missions Edwards Air Force Base 1983 in spaceflight 1983 in the United States 1983 in science Spacecraft launched in 1983 Spacecraft which reentered in 1983 April 1983 events