STS-9
View of Columbia's payload bay, showing Spacelab.
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| Mission type | Microgravity research |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 1983-116A |
| SATCAT № | 14523 |
| Mission duration | 10 days, 7 hours, 47 minutes, 24 seconds |
| Distance travelled | 6,913,504 kilometres (4,295,852 mi) |
| Orbits completed | 167 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Columbia |
| Launch mass | 112,318 kilograms (247,618 lb) |
| Landing mass | 99,800 kilograms (220,021 lb) |
| Payload mass | 15,088 kilograms (33,263 lb) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 6 |
| Members |
John W. Young Brewster H. Shaw, Jr. Owen K. Garriott Robert A. Parker Ulf Merbold Byron K. Lichtenberg |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | November 28, 1983, 16:00:00 UTC |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | December 8, 1983, 22:47:24 UTC |
| Landing site | Edwards Runway 17 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee | 240 kilometres (149 mi) |
| Apogee | 253 kilometres (157 mi) |
| Inclination | 57.0 degrees |
| Period | 89.5 min |
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 L-R: Garriott, Lichtenberg, Shaw, Young, Merbold, Parker |
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STS-9 (also referred to as STS-41A and Spacelab 1) was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Launched on November 28, 1983, the ten-day mission carried the first Spacelab laboratory module into orbit, and was Columbia's last flight until STS-61-C in January 1986.
STS-9 was also the last time the original STS numbering system was used until STS-26, which was designated in the aftermath of the 1986 Challenger disaster of STS-51-L. Under the new system, STS-9 would have been designated as STS-41-A. STS-9's originally planned successor, STS-10, was cancelled due to payload issues; it was instead followed by STS-41-B.
STS-9 sent the first Non-U.S. citizen into space on the Shuttle, Ulf Merbold, becoming the first ESA and first West German citizen to go into space.
STS-9's six-member crew, the largest of any manned space mission at the time, included John W. Young, commander, on his second shuttle flight; Brewster H. Shaw, pilot; Owen Garriott and Robert A. Parker, both mission specialists; and Byron K. Lichtenberg and Ulf Merbold, payload specialists – the first two non-NASA astronauts to fly on the Space Shuttle. Merbold, a citizen of West Germany, was the first foreign citizen to participate in a shuttle flight. Lichtenberg was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to STS-9, the scientist-astronaut Garriott had spent 56 days in orbit in 1973 aboard Skylab. Commanding the mission was veteran astronaut John Young, making his sixth and final flight over an 18-year career that saw him fly twice each in Gemini, Apollo, and the Shuttle, which included two journeys to the Moon and making him the most experienced space traveler to date.
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