STS-8
Space Shuttle Challenger begins its third mission on 30 August 1983, conducting the first night launch of the shuttle program.
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| Mission type | Satellite deployment | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | NASA | ||||
| COSPAR ID | 1983-089A | ||||
| SATCAT № | 14312 | ||||
| Mission duration | 6 days, 1 hour, 8 minutes, 43 seconds | ||||
| Distance travelled | 4,046,660 kilometres (2,514,480 mi) | ||||
| Orbits completed | 98 | ||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Challenger | ||||
| Launch mass | 110,108 kilograms (242,747 lb) | ||||
| Landing mass | 92,508 kilograms (203,945 lb) | ||||
| Payload mass | 12,011 kilograms (26,480 lb) | ||||
| Crew | |||||
| Crew size | 5 | ||||
| Members |
Richard H. Truly Daniel C. Brandenstein Guion S. Bluford, Jr. Dale A. Gardner William E. Thornton |
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| Start of mission | |||||
| Launch date | August 30, 1983, 06:32:00 UTC | ||||
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A | ||||
| End of mission | |||||
| Landing date | September 5, 1983, 07:40:43 UTC | ||||
| Landing site | Edwards Runway 22 | ||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||
| Reference system | Geocentric | ||||
| Regime | Low Earth | ||||
| Perigee | 348 kilometres (216 mi) | ||||
| Apogee | 356 kilometres (221 mi) | ||||
| Inclination | 28.512 degrees | ||||
| Period | 90.6 min | ||||
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Seated (L-R): Daniel C. Brandenstein, Pilot, Richard H. Truly, Commander, and Guion S. Bluford, Jr., Mission Specialist. Standing (L-R): Dale A. Gardner, Mission Specialist, and William E. Thornton, Mission Specialist.
STS-8 was the eighth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the third flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger. It launched on August 30, 1983 and landed on September 5, conducting the first night launch and night landing of the Space Shuttle program. It also carried the first African-American astronaut, Guion Bluford. The mission successfully achieved all of its planned research objectives, but was marred by the subsequent discovery that a solid-fuel rocket booster had almost malfunctioned catastrophically during the launch.
The mission's primary payload was INSAT-1B, an Indian communications and weather observation satellite, which was released by the orbiter and boosted into a geostationary orbit. The secondary payload, replacing a delayed NASA communications satellite, was a four-metric-ton dummy payload, intended to test the use of the shuttle's "Canadarm" remote manipulator system. Scientific experiments carried onboard Challenger included the environmental testing of new hardware and materials designed for future spacecraft, the study of biological materials in electric fields under microgravity, and research into space adaptation syndrome (also known as "space sickness"). The flight furthermore served as shakedown testing for the previously launched TDRS-1 satellite, which would be required to support the subsequent STS-9 mission.
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