STS-41-B was NASA's tenth Space Shuttle mission and the fourth flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger. It launched on February 3, 1984, and landed on February 11, 1984, after deploying two communications satellites. It included the first untethered spacewalk. After STS-9, the flight numbering system for the Space Shuttle program was changed. Because the original successor to STS-9, STS-10, was canceled for payload delays, the next flight, originally and internally designated STS-11, became STS-41-B in the new numbering system.
Crew
Spacewalks EVA 1 Personnel: McCandless and Stewart Date: February 7, 1984 Duration: 5 hours, 55 minutes EVA 2 Personnel: McCandless and Stewart Date: February 9, 1984 Duration: 6 hours, 17 minutes
Crew seat assignments
Mission summary
Crew 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.
Launch and satellite deployment Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 08:00:00 a.m. EST on February 3, 1984. It was estimated that 100,000 people attended the launch. Two communications satellites were deployed about 8 hours after launch; one, Westar 6, was for America's Western Union, and the other, Palapa B2, for Indonesia; both were Hughes-built HS-376-series satellites. However, the Payload Assist Modules (PAM) for both satellites malfunctioned, placing them into a lower-than-planned orbit. Both satellites were retrieved successfully in November 1984 during STS-51-A, which was conducted by the orbiter Discovery.
Untethered EVA On February 7, the fourth day of the mission, astronauts McCandless and Stewart performed the first untethered spacewalk, operating the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) for the first time. At 8:25 a.m. EST, pulsing the MMU's thrusters, McCandless ventured out of Challenger's payload bay, and reached 98 m (322 ft) from the orbiter. Stewart tested the "work station" foot restraint at the end of the Remote Manipulator System (Canadarm). On the seventh day of the mission, both astronauts performed another extravehicular activity (EVA) to practice capture procedures for the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite retrieval and repair operation, which was planned for the next mission, STS-41-C.
Scientific experiments STS-41-B also achieved the reflight of the West German-sponsored SPAS-1 pallet/satellite, which had originally flown on STS-7. This time, however, it remained in the payload bay due to an electrical problem in the RMS (Canadarm). The mission also carried five Get Away Special (GAS) canisters, six live rats in the middeck area, a Cinema-360 camera and a continuation of the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System and Monodisperse Latex Reactor experiments. Included in one of the GAS canisters was the first experiment designed and built by a high school team to fly in space. The experiment, on seed germination and growth in zero gravity, was created and built by a team of four students from Brighton High School in Utah through a partnership with Utah State University.
Problems with the orbiter During the mission, the nozzles of Challenger's supply and wastewater venting systems reached temperatures below freezing, after which the supply water dump valve failed to open, so excess water was dumped through the flash evaporator for the remainder of the mission. During re-entry, ice from the dump valves broke off their nozzles, near the nose of the orbiter, and struck the left Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod, damaging three Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles and leading to a burn-through, but the damage was little enough that Challenger and its crew were unharmed. During the post-flight inspection it was found that the dump line upstream of the two nozzles had ruptured because the wastewater had expanded as it froze, and insulation was missing around both nozzles. The TPS tiles near the nozzles were also discolored, indicating ice had built up before re-entry.
Return to Earth The 7 days, 23 hours, 15 minutes, and 55 seconds flight ended on February 11, 1984 with a successful landing at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. This marked the first landing of a spacecraft at its launch site. Challenger completed 128 orbits and traveled 5,329,150 km (3,311,380 mi).
Mission insignia Designed by artist Robert McCall, the eleven stars in the blue field symbolize the mission's original designation as STS-11. The left panel shows the deployment of a satellite, and the right panel shows an astronaut using the MMU.
Wake-up calls NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Project Gemini, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. 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.
After the mission Astronaut Bruce McCandless II sued singer Dido in 2010 over the use of a public domain photo of him in space on this mission on her 2008 album Safe Trip Home. Two years after this mission, Ronald E. McNair was a crew member of the ill-fated STS-51-L. He and his six colleagues were killed when Challenger disintegrated 14 km (8.7 mi) above the Atlantic Ocean 73 seconds after liftoff.
See also
List of human spaceflights List of Space Shuttle missions Lists of spacewalks and moonwalks
Notes
References
External links Mission summary Archived 4 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine and additional information Archived 16 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine NASA STS-41-B Post-flight video summary with crew narration NASA Video – Astronaut Bruce McCandless II Floats Free in Space STS-41-B In-flight Photographs at the National Archives and Records Administration
