thebeakerblog: Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Space...

thebeakerblog:

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger’s last mission. The craft exploded just over a minute into its tenth flight, killing all seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, a 37-year-old social studies teacher. To mark the occasion I thought it would be interesting to examine Challenger’s other nine flights, which played host to many key milestones in the history of NASA’s space program.

• STS-6 (launched April 4, 1983): As the maiden flight of Challenger, this was the first Space Shuttle mission during which a spacewalk was conducted.
• STS-7 (launched June 18, 1983): The first spaceflight of an American woman, Sally K. Ride. 
• STS-8 (launched Aug. 30, 1983): Notable for the participation of Guion “Guy” Bluford, the first African-American to fly in space. Also marked the first night launch and night landing of a space shuttle. 
• STS-41-B (launched Feb. 3, 1984): Featured the first untethered spacewalk. (Pictured above is Bruce McCandless demonstrating the Manned Maneuvering Unit.)
• STS-41-C (launched April 6, 1984): Alternate mission patch featured a shuttle landing underneath a black cat, which marked the flight’s landing date of Friday the 13th. Onboard experiments discovered honeybees can make honeycomb cells in microgravity.
• STS-41-G (launched Oct. 5, 1984): With a crew of seven, the mission featured the largest flight crew ever on a single spacecraft at that time. It hosted the first EVA involving a woman, Kathryn Sullivan and also carried the first Australian-born man into space (Paul D. Scully-Power) – who was the first astronaut with a beard. 
• STS-51-B (launched April 29, 1985): A problem with O-rings on this flight led to discussions warning of possible later O-ring failures.
• STS-51-F (launched July 29, 1985): Astronauts aboard this mission participated in a heavily-publicized experiment where they drank carbonated beverages provided by Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Astronauts concluded Tang was better and easier to manage in space.
• STS-61-A / D-1 (launched Oct. 30, 1985): Funded and directed by West Germany (D-1 means ‘Deutschland-1′), this mission carried eight astronauts from launch to landing, which makes it the largest crew for a single spaceflight.

(Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons / Source NASA, Wikimedia Commons)

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