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Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
18:30:00
Monday April 4, 1983
Watch Replay
Official Livestream
The first flight of Challenger and the first Space Shuttle Extravehicular activity.
STS-6 carried a crew of four – Paul J. Weitz, commander; Karol J. Bobko, pilot; Story Musgrave and Donald H. Peterson, both mission specialists. Using new spacesuits designed specifically for the Space Shuttle program, Musgrave and Peterson successfully accomplished the program's first extravehicular activity (EVA) on 7–8 April 1983, performing various tests in the orbiter's payload bay. Their spacewalk lasted 4 hours and 17 minutes. Although the 2,300-kilogram (5,000 lb) TDRS satellite was successfully deployed from Challenger, its two-stage booster rocket, the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), tumbled out of control, placing the satellite into a low elliptical orbit.
Low Earth Orbit
1 Payload
21,305 kilograms
Agency
NASAPrice
$450.00 million
Rocket
Height: 56.1m
Payload to Orbit
LEO: 27,500 kg
GTO: 3,810 kg
Liftoff Thrust
30,250 Kilonewtons
Stages
2
Strap-ons
2
6th
Mission
1st
Mission of 1983
27th
Orbital launch attempt