STS-6

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

18:30:00

Monday April 4, 1983

Watch Replay

Official Livestream

Mission Details

Launch Notes

The first flight of Challenger and the first Space Shuttle Extravehicular activity.

STS-6

Wiki

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

Rocket

Retired
Space Shuttle Challenger

Active 1983 to 1986

National Aeronautics and Space Administration logo

Agency

NASA

Price

$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

Launch Site

LC-39A

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA

Fastest Turnaround

5 days 6 hours

Stats

Space Shuttle


6th

Mission

1st

Mission of 1983

1983


27th

Orbital launch attempt