STS-41-B

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STS-41-B
Mission insignia
Mission statistics
Mission name	STS-41-B
Space shuttle	Challenger
Launch pad	39-A
Launch date	February 3, 1984, 13:00:00 UTC
Landing	February 11, 1984, 12:15:55 UTC Kennedy Space Center
Mission duration	7d/23:15:55
Number of orbits	128
Orbital altitude	350 km
Orbital inclination	28.5°
Distance traveled	5,329,150 km
Crew photo
L-R: Seated, Vance Brand, Commander, Robert Gibson, Pilot. Standing, L-R: Mission Specialists Robert L. Stewart, Ronald McNair and Bruce McCandless. Stewart and McCandless are wearing extravehicular mobility units (EMU).
Related missions
Previous mission Next mission STS-9 STS-41-C

STS-41-B was the tenth space shuttle mission, and the fourth flight for Challenger. Following STS-9, the flight numbering system for Space Shuttle missions was changed. Thus, the next flight, instead of being designated STS-11, became STS 41-B. STS-10 was cancelled due to payload delays.

The new numbering system was designed to be more specific in that the first numeral stood for the fiscal year offset into the shuttle program, the "4" being 1984. The second numeral represented the launch site; 1 for KSC, and 2 for Vandenberg AFB, Calif. (the latter was never used). The letter represented the order of launch assignment, "B" was the second launch scheduled in that fiscal year. (Following the Challenger accident, NASA reestablished the original numerical numbering system. Thus the only numbers according to this scheme were 41, 51, and 61. The first flight following STS-51-L is STS-26. If the numbering scheme had been kept, then the fourth flight in FY 1997 would have been 171-D, for example.)

[edit] Crew

[edit] Mission parameters

• Mass:
  • Orbiter liftoff: 113,527 kg
  • Orbiter landing: 91,278 kg
  • Payload: 15,362 kg
• Perigee: 307 km
• Apogee: 316 km
• Inclination: 28.5°
• Period: 90.8 min

[edit] Space walks

• McCandless and Stewart - EVA 1
• EVA 1 Start: February 7, 1984
• EVA 1 End: February 7, 1984
• Duration: 5 hours, 55 minutes

• McCandless and Stewart - EVA 2
• EVA 2 Start: February 9, 1984
• EVA 2 End: February 9, 1984
• Duration: 6 hours, 17 minutes

[edit] Mission highlights

Palapa B-2 after deployment.

Astronaut Bruce McCandless exercises the Manned Maneuvering Unit.

Bruce McCandless demonstrates the MMU floating in space above a clouded Earth.

McCandless approaches his maximum distance from Challenger.

The mission was the fourth flight of the Challenger. Liftoff occurred at 8 a.m. EST, on February 3, 1984. Two communications satellites were deployed about 8 hours after launch. One was for Western Union (WESTAR) and the other for Indonesia (Palapa B-2). However, the Payload Assist Modules (PAM) for both satellites malfunctioned placing them into a lower than planned orbit. Both satellites were retrieved successfully the following November during STS-51-A, the 14th mission, by the orbiter Discovery.

The STS 41-B crew included commander Vance D. Brand, making his second Shuttle flight; pilot Robert L. Gibson; and mission specialists, Bruce McCandless II, Ronald E. McNair and Robert L. Stewart.

A highlight of the mission took place on the fourth day when astronauts McCandless and Stewart performed the first untethered space walk operating the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) for the first time. McCandless -- the first human Earth-orbiting satellite -- ventured out 320 feet (98 m) from the orbiter, while Stewart tested the "work station" foot restraint at the end of the Remote Manipulator System. The seventh day of the mission, both astronauts performed an EVA to practice capture procedures for the Solar Maximum Mission satellite retrieval and repair operation planned for the next mission, STS-41-C.

Another important "first" for STS 41-B was the reflight of the West German-sponsored SPAS-l pallet/satellite originally flown on STS-7. This time, however, it remained in the payload bay because of an electrical problem in the RMS. The mission also carried five GAS canisters, six live rats in the middeck area, a Cinema-360 camera and continuation of the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System and the Monodisperse Latex Reactor experiments.

This flight marked the first untethered space walks by McCandless and Stewart, using the manned maneuvering unit. WESTAR-VI and PALAPA-B2 satellites deployed, unsuccessfully because the Payload Assist Module-D (PAM-D) rocket motors failed, leaving them in radical low-Earth orbits. The German-built Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS), first flown on STS-7, became the first satellite to be refurbished and flown again. SPAS remained in the payload bay since there was an electrical problem with the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). This flight marked the first use of the RMS manipulator foot restraint and offered astronauts an opportunity to practice procedures for the Solar Maximum satellite retrieval and repair conducted on STS-41-C. An internal failure scrubbed the Integrated Rendezvous Target (IRT) exercise. Five Get Away Special canisters flew in the cargo bay and the crew used a Cinema-360 camera to document their flight. Other payloads: Acoustic Containerless Experiment System (ACES); Monodisperse Latex Reactor (MLR); and Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME), and Isoelectric Focusing (IEF) payload.

The 7-day, 23-hour, 15-minute, 55-second flight ended on February 11, at 7:15 a.m. EST; at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility -- the first landing of a spacecraft at its launch site. Challenger completed 127 orbits and traveled 2.8 million miles.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Space science
• Space shuttle
• List of space shuttle missions
• List of spacewalks and moonwalks
• List of human spaceflights chronologically

[edit] External links

• NASA mission description
• Additional information
• STS-41B Video Highlights