Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-41-B
Launch Successful
L - -- : -- : -- : --
Instantaneous launch window.
Launch Window
Feb. 3, 1984, 1 p.m. - Feb. 3, 1984, 1 p.m.
Instantaneous launch window.
Feb. 3, 1984, 1 p.m. - Feb. 3, 1984, 1 p.m.
STS-41-B was the tenth Space Shuttle mission and the fourth of the Space Shuttle Challenger. It deployed 2 communication satellites and inluded the first untethered spacewalk. It was also the first shuttle mission to land at Kennedy Space Center.
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 name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.
Space Shuttle Challenger (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099) was the second orbiter of NASA's space shuttle program to be put into service, after Columbia. Challenger was built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division, in Downey, California. Its maiden flight, STS-6, began on April 4, 1983. The orbiter was launched and landed nine times before breaking apart 73 seconds into its tenth mission, STS-51-L, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members, including a civilian school teacher. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed in flight, the other being Columbia, in 2003. The accident led to a two-and-a-half-year grounding of the shuttle fleet; flights resumed in 1988, with STS-26 flown by Discovery. Challenger was replaced by Endeavour, which was built from structural spares ordered by NASA in the construction contracts for Discovery and Atlantis.
Space Shuttle Details
Date of
Birth: May 9, 1931
Age: 93
Date of
Birth: Oct. 30, 1946
Age: 78
Date of
Birth: June 8, 1937
Date of Death:
Dec. 21, 2017
Date of
Birth: May 10, 1942
Age: 82
Date of
Birth: Oct. 21, 1950
Date of Death:
Jan. 28, 1986
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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