Space Shuttle
Challenger
STS-41B
Mission Summary
LAUNCH
FEBRUARY 3, 1984
LANDING
FEBRUARY 11, 1984
DAVID HEWITT
3rd Grader
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McNair
McCandless
Stewart
NASA Astronauts bio
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/
Commander: Vance Brand
Pilot: Robert “Hoot” Gibson
Mission Specialists:
Robert L. Stewart
Ronald McNair
Bruce McCandless
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Brand
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Gibson
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Astronaut Data
 Commander: Vance D. Brand (1931 - )
◦ Command Module Pilot of Apollo Soyuz Test Project (1975)
◦ Third Spaceflight
◦ Biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_D._Brand
 Pilot: Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson (1946 - )
◦ First Spaceflight
◦ Biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Gibson
 Mission Specialist 1: Bruce McCandless (1937 - )
◦ First Spaceflight
◦ First Untethered Spacewalk
◦ Biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McCandless_II
 Mission Specialist 2: Robert L. Stewart (1942 - )
◦ First Spaceflight
◦ Biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Stewart
 Mission Specialist 3: Ronald E. McNair (1950 – 1986)
◦ First Spaceflight
◦ Member of Challenger STS-51L crew
◦ Biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_McNair
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The Mission
YouTube Video (5m 30s): Launch & Landing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogbWeHPyVO0
10th Space Shuttle
mission
Fourth flight of
Challenger
Distance Traveled:
3.3 million miles
Mission Duration:
7 days, 23 hour, 15 min.
Orbits Completed: 128
February 3, 1984 at 8 am
Launch Pad 39A in Kennedy Space Center
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Kennedy Space Center
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Wake-Up Calls
Flight Day
Song
Artist/Composer
Day 3
A Train
Contraband
Day 4
Glory, Glory, Colorado
The University of
Colorado Band
Day 5
Armed Forces Medley
Day 7
Theme from TV Show “The Greatest
American Hero” [Believe It or Not]
Joey Scarbury
Day 8
The Air Force Song
Air Force CAPCOMs
Day 9
In the Mood
Contraband
Play for
Vance Brand
NASA first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15.
Each song 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
“Contraband” is a musical group composed of NASA JSC employees and would have featured Ron
NcNair on tenor sax
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Some Interesting Experiments
 Deployment of WESTAR-VI and PALAPA-B2 satellites
 Reflight of SPAS-1 pallet/satellite
 Five Getaway Special (GAS) canisters – including first
experiment flown in space by a high school team
 Rats!
 Test flight of Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) jet pack
 Test of satellite repair tools on spacewalk
 Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (reflight)
 Monodisperse Latex Reactor (reflight)
 Cinema-360 camera
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Time in Space
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Deploying Satellites
 STS-41B deployed two satellites
 WESTAR-VI
 PALAPA-B2
 Both satellites were stranded in
useless orbits due to malfunctions
in their PAM-D rocket motors
 Both were later retrieved by Space
Shuttle Discovery on STS-51A eight
months later
Pictured: PALAPA-B2 being deployed
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Flying Jet Packs
 Two spacewalks were conducted on this
mission on Flight Days 5 and 7
 Major objectives included testing new tools
and restraints for future satellite repair
missions as well as test flying the Manned
Maneuvering Unit (MMU) jet pack.
 Bruce McCandless took the MMU for a spin
on the first spacewalk and Robert Stewart
flew it on the second one.
 YouTube Video from post flight press
conference:
https://youtu.be/S4zjroAbOas
Pictured: Astronaut Bruce McCandless free
flying the MMU on the first untethered
spacewalk.
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Landing at Kennedy Space Center
Landing of STS-41-B
Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF)
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Key Challenger Facts
• Second Space Shuttle orbiter built and has a tag number of OV-099
• Name after British Naval research vessel HMS Challenger that sailed
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870’s
• Built between 1975 – 1981
• Flew 10 times and completed 9 missions
• Time spent in space: 62 days, 7 hours, and 56 minutes
• Number of orbits around Earth: 995
• Distance travelled: 23,661,290 miles
• First night launch and night landing of a Space Shuttle
• Destroyed on January 28, 1986 shortly after launch
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