STS-41-C

STS-41-C

Mission Specialists George Nelson and James van Hoften repair the captured Solar Maximum Mission Satellite on 11 April 1984.
Mission type	Satellite deployment Satellite repair
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1984-034A
SATCAT №	14897
Mission duration	6 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes, 7 seconds
Distance travelled	4,620,000 kilometres (2,870,000 mi)
Orbits completed	108
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Challenger
Launch mass	115,328 kilograms (254,254 lb)
Landing mass	89,346 kilograms (196,975 lb)
Payload mass	15,345 kilograms (33,831 lb)
Crew
Crew size	5
Members	Robert L. Crippen Francis R. Scobee Terry J. Hart James D. A. van Hoften George D. Nelson
EVAs	2
EVA duration	10 hours, 6 minutes First: 2 hours, 59 minutes Second: 7 hours, 7 minutes
Start of mission
Launch date	April 6, 1984, 13:58:00 (1984-04-06UTC13:58Z) UTC
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Landing date	April 13, 1984, 13:38:07 (1984-04-13UTC13:38:08Z) UTC
Landing site	Edwards Runway 17
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee	222 kilometres (138 mi)
Apogee	468 kilometres (291 mi)
Inclination	28.5 degrees
Period	91.4 min
Epoch	April 8, 1984
Left to right: Crippen, Hart, van Hoften, Nelson, Scobee Space Shuttle program ← STS-41-B STS-41-D →

Left to right: Crippen, Hart, van Hoften, Nelson, Scobee

STS-41-C was NASA's 11th Space Shuttle mission, and the fifth mission of Space Shuttle Challenger. The launch, which took place on April 6, 1984, marked the first direct ascent trajectory for a shuttle mission. During the mission, Challenger's crew captured and repaired the malfunctioning Solar Maximum Mission ("Solar Max") satellite, and deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) experimental apparatus. STS-41-C was extended one day due to problems capturing the Solar Max satellite, and the landing on April 13 took place at Edwards Air Force Base, instead of at Kennedy Space Center as had been planned. The flight was originally numbered STS-13.

STS-41-C launched successfully at 8:58 am EST on April 6, 1984. The mission marked the first direct ascent trajectory for the Space Shuttle; Challenger reached its 288-nautical-mile-(533-km)-high orbit using its Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) engines only once, to circularize its orbit. During the ascent phase, the main computer in Mission Control failed, as did the backup computer. For about an hour, the controllers had no data on the orbiter.

The flight had two primary objectives. The first was to deploy the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), a passive, retrievable, 12-sided experimental cylinder. The 21,300-pound (9,700 kg) LDEF was 14 feet (4.3 m) in diameter and 30 feet (9.1 m) long, and carried 57 scientific experiments. The second objective of STS-41-C was to capture, repair and redeploy the malfunctioning Solar Maximum Mission satellite ("Solar Max"), which had been launched in 1980.