STS-41-C (Challenger)
STS-41-C (Challenger)
Launch Date
April 6, 1984
Craft
Space Shuttle
Status
Past
Crew
5
STS-41-C (Challenger)
STS-41-C (Challenger)
Launch Date
April 6, 1984
Craft
Space Shuttle
Status
Past
Crew
5
Overview
The mission deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility (carrying 57 science experiments) and then rendezvoused with, captured, repaired, and re-released the Solar Max satellite, marking the first-ever in-space repair of an already-launched satellite.
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.