STS-7

STS-7 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission, during which Space Shuttle Challenger deployed several satellites into orbit. The shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center on 18 June 1983, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on 24 June. STS-7 was the seventh shuttle mission, and was Challenger's second mission. It was also the first American spaceflight involving a female astronaut.

Crew

Mission parameters

• Mass:
  • Orbiter Liftoff: 113,025 kilograms (249,180 lb)
  • Orbiter Landing: 92,550 kilograms (204,000 lb)
  • Payload: 16,839 kilograms (37,120 lb)
• Perigee: 299 kilometres (186 mi)
• Apogee: 307 kilometres (191 mi)
• Inclination: 28.3°
• Period: 90.6 min

Mission summary

Challenger’s second flight began at 7:33 am EDT, 18 June 1983, with an on-time liftoff. It was the first spaceflight of an American woman (Sally K. Ride), the largest crew to fly in a single spacecraft up to that time (five people), and the first flight that included members of NASA's Group 8 astronaut class selected in 1978 to fly the Space Shuttle.

The crew of STS-7 included Robert L. Crippen, commander, making his second Shuttle flight; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman Thagard, all mission specialists. Thagard conducted medical tests of the Space Adaptation Syndrome, a bout of nausea frequently experienced by astronauts during the early phase of a space flight.

Two communications satellites – Anik C-2 for Telesat of Canada, and Palapa B-l for Indonesia – were successfully deployed during the first two days of the mission. The mission also carried the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS-l) built by Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm, a West German aerospace firm. SPAS-l was unique in that it was designed to operate in the payload bay or be deployed by the RMS as a free-flying satellite. It carried 10 experiments to study formation of metal alloys in microgravity, the operation of heat pipes, instruments for remote sensing observations, and a mass spectrometer to identify various gases in the payload bay. It was deployed by the RMS and flew alongside and over Challenger for several hours, performing various maneuvers, while a U.S.-supplied camera took pictures from the SPAS-1 of the orbiter. The RMS later grappled the pallet and returned it to the payload bay.

STS-7 also carried seven GAS canisters, which contained a wide variety of experiments, as well as the OSTA-2 payload, a joint U.S.-West German scientific pallet payload. Finally, the orbiter's K_u-band antenna was able to relay data through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to a ground terminal for the first time.

STS-7 was scheduled to make the first Shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center's then-new Shuttle Landing Facility. However, unacceptable weather forced a change to Runway 23 at Edwards AFB. The landing took place on 24 June 1983, at 6:57 am PDT. The mission lasted 6 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 59 seconds, and covered about 2.2 million miles during 97 orbits of the Earth. Challenger was returned to KSC on 29 June.

Incidents

While Challenger was on-orbit, one of its windows was damaged by space debris.^[1]

Mission insignia

The seven white stars in the black field of the mission patch, as well as the arm extending from the shuttle in the shape of a 7, indicate the flight's numerical designation in the Space Transportation System's mission sequence. The five-armed symbol on the right side illustrates the four male/one female crew.

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, 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.^[2]

See also

• Spaceflight
• Space Shuttle program
• Space Shuttle Challenger
• List of space shuttle missions
• List of human spaceflights chronologically

References

External links

• STS-7 Mission Data
• STS-7 Mission Chronology
• STS-7 Video Highlights