STS-61-A (Challenger)
STS-61-A (Challenger)
Launch Date
October 30, 1985
Craft
Space Shuttle
Status
Past
Crew
8
STS-61-A (Challenger)
STS-61-A (Challenger)
Launch Date
October 30, 1985
Craft
Space Shuttle
Status
Past
Crew
8
Overview
A Space Shuttle mission funded completely by West Germany. This marked the first time payload operations on a U.S. mission were not conducted from NASA centers but from West Germany instead. Challenger flew with the Spacelab module, containing 76 scientific experiments. With eight crewmembers, this mission holds the record for "most people on a single spacecraft for launch and landing."
Crafts
Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.