STS-51-B

1985 American crewed spaceflight

STS-51-B
Spacecraft properties
Overmyer, Lind, van den Berg, and Thornton in Spacelab Module LM1 during flight
Names	Space Transportation System-17 Spacelab 3

Mission type	Microgravity research
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1985-034A
SATCAT no.	15665
Mission duration	7 days, 0 hour, 8 minutes, 46 seconds (achieved)
Distance travelled	4,651,621 km (2,890,383 mi)
Orbits completed	111


Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Challenger
Launch mass	111,980 kg (246,870 lb)
Landing mass	96,373 kg (212,466 lb)
Payload mass	15,610 kg (34,410 lb)


Crew
Crew size	7
Members	Robert F. Overmyer Frederick D. Gregory Don L. Lind Norman E. Thagard William E. Thornton Lodewijk van den Berg Taylor G. Wang


Start of mission
Launch date	April 29, 1985, 16:02:18 UTC
Rocket	Space Shuttle Challenger
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A
Contractor	Rockwell International


End of mission
Landing date	May 6, 1985, 16:11:04 UTC
Landing site	Edwards Air Force Base, Runway 17


Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	346 km (215 mi)
Apogee altitude	352 km (219 mi)
Inclination	57.00°
Period	91.50 minutes

STS 51-B mission patch (Sitting): Robert F. Overmyer, Frederick D. Gregory (Standing): Don L. Lind, Taylor G. Wang, Norman E. Thagard, William E. Thornton, Lodewijk van den Berg Space Shuttle program ← STS-51-D (16) STS-51-G (18) →

STS-51-B was the 17th flight of the NASA Space Shuttle program and the seventh flight of Space Shuttle Challenger. The launch of Challenger on April 29, 1985, was delayed by 2 minutes and 18 seconds, due to a launch processing failure. Challenger was initially rolled out to the pad to launch on the STS-51-E mission. The shuttle was rolled back when a timing issue emerged with the TDRS-B satellite. When STS-51-E was canceled, Challenger was remanifested with the STS-51-B payloads. The shuttle landed successfully on May 6, 1985, after a week-long mission.

Crew


Position	Astronaut
Commander	Robert F. Overmyer Second and last spaceflight
Pilot	Frederick D. Gregory First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1	Don L. Lind Only spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2	Norman E. Thagard Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3	William E. Thornton Second and last spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1	Lodewijk van den Berg Only spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Taylor G. Wang Only spaceflight

Backup crew


Position	Astronaut
Payload Specialist 1	Mary Helen Johnston
Payload Specialist 2	Eugene H. Trinh

Crew seating arrangements

Seat^[1]	Launch	Landing	Seats 1–4 are on the Flight Deck. Seats 5–7 are on the Middeck.
S1	Overmyer	Overmyer
S2	Gregory	Gregory
S3	Lind	Lind
S4	Thagard	Thagard
S5	Thornton	Thornton
S6	van den Berg	van den Berg
S7	Wang	Wang

Mission insignia

The mission insignia features the Challenger with her payload doors open, to show the onboard Spacelab 3. The orbiter rides over the American flag. The seven crewmembers are represented by the 7 stars on the patch, that indirectly refer to the Mercury Seven as a nod to their legacy. Behind the orbiter, the contours of Pegasus can be seen, as a reference to the European Space Agency (ESA). The white board surrounding it all has the appearance of a space suit helmet, with the names of the two respective teams grouped around them on a round band encircling the insignia , and the two mission specialists on an added section below. To further create some sort of contrast, the team colors are reprised for each member's name.

Mission summary

Overmyer using a treadmill on *Challenger's* middeck.

Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC)'s launch pad 39A at 12:02:18 p.m. EDT on April 29, 1985. The crew members included Robert F. Overmyer, commander; Frederick D. Gregory, pilot; Don L. Lind, Norman E. Thagard and William E. Thornton, mission specialists; and Lodewijk van den Berg, of EG&G Energy Management, Inc., and Taylor G. Wang, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), both payload specialists.^[2] Average age of 48.6 was the oldest for an American space mission.^[3] Similar to the previous Spacelab mission (STS-9), the crew was divided roughly in half to cover 12-hour shifts, with Overmyer, Lind, Thornton and Wang forming the Gold team, and Gregory, Thagard and van den Berg as the Silver team.

STS-51-B was the second flight of the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Spacelab pressurized module, and the first with the Spacelab module in a fully operational configuration. Spacelab's capabilities for multi-disciplinary research in microgravity were successfully demonstrated. The gravity gradient attitude of the orbiter proved quite stable, allowing the delicate experiments in materials processing and fluid mechanics to proceed normally. The crew operated around the clock in two 12-hour shifts. Two squirrel monkeys and 24 rats were flown in special cages,^[4] the second time American astronauts flew live non-human mammals aboard the shuttle. The crew members in orbit were supported 24 hours a day by a temporary Payload Operations Control Center, located at the Johnson Space Center.

On the mission, Spacelab carried 15 primary experiments, of which 14 were successfully performed. Two Getaway Special (GAS) experiments required that they be deployed from their canisters, a first for the program. These were NUSAT (Northern Utah Satellite) and GLOMR (Global Low Orbiting Message Relay satellite). NUSAT deployed successfully, but GLOMR did not deploy, and was returned to Earth.

A Cosmic Ray Experiment by Indian Space Research Organisation, named Anuradha was launched onboard the mission. It measured the ionization states of low energy cosmic rays in near-earth space. It consisted of a Barrel shaped recorder consisting of plastic sheets. It detected cosmic rays at the rate of seven a minute for 64 hours and produced 10000 sheets of data

Challenger landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base at 12:11:04 p.m. EDT on May 6, 1985, after a mission lasting 7 days, 0 hour, 8 minutes, and 46 seconds.

Connection to the Challenger disaster

While participating in the investigation into the destruction of Challenger during STS-51L in 1986, Overmyer discovered that a problem with the shuttle's O-rings, similar to that which led to the disaster, had emerged during the launch of STS-51B. Morton-Thiokol engineers told Lind after the mission that "you came within three-tenths of one second of dying".^[5] It was the problem with the O-rings on the left solid rocket motor (SRM) on this launch (SRM-16A) that prompted Roger Boisjoly to write a memo to Bob Lund about the potential for the O-rings to cause catastrophic failure.^[6]

References

^ "STS-51B". Spacefacts. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
^ Fichtl, George H.; Theon, John S.; Hill, Charles K.; Vaughan, Otha H. (February 1987). "Spacelab 3 Mission Science Review". Proceedings of a symposium held at NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama December 4, 1985. Marshall Space Flight Center. hdl:2060/19870012670 – via NASA Technical Reports Server. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Kennedy, J. Michael (April 29, 1985). "Shuttle Flight Is Lind's First Mission: Astronaut's 19-Year Wait for Space Trip Ends Today". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
^ Programs, Missions, and Payloads STS-51B/Spacelab 3 Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, NASA This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ "NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project". Don L. Lind oral history transcript. May 27, 2005. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ See "Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident". This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to STS-51-B.

NASA mission summary Archived February 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
STS-51B Video Highlights Archived September 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine

Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099)

Flights

Status

Out of service - Challenger disaster (destroyed) - January 28, 1986 (STS-51-L)

Rogers Commission
STS-61-F
STS-61-M
Challenger flag
The Dream Is Alive (1985 documentary)
Challenger (1990 film)
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (2008 documentary miniseries)
The Challenger Disaster (2013 film)
Challenger: The Final Flight (2020 documentary miniseries)

U.S. Space Shuttle missions

Completed
(crews)

1970s	1977 Approach and Landing Tests
1980s	1981 STS-1 STS-2 1982 STS-3 STS-4 STS-5 1983 STS-6 STS-7 STS-8 STS-9 1984 STS-41-B STS-41-C STS-41-D STS-41-G STS-51-A 1985 STS-51-C STS-51-D STS-51-B STS-51-G STS-51-F STS-51-I STS-51-J STS-61-A STS-61-B 1986 STS-61-C STS-51-L† 1988 STS-26 STS-27 1989 STS-29 STS-30 STS-28 STS-34 STS-33
1990s	1990 STS-32 STS-36 STS-31 STS-41 STS-38 STS-35 1991 STS-37 STS-39 STS-40 STS-43 STS-48 STS-44 1992 STS-42 STS-45 STS-49 STS-50 STS-46 STS-47 STS-52 STS-53 1993 STS-54 STS-56 STS-55 STS-57 STS-51 STS-58 STS-61 1994 STS-60 STS-62 STS-59 STS-65 STS-64 STS-68 STS-66 1995 STS-63 STS-67 STS-71 STS-70 STS-69 STS-73 STS-74 1996 STS-72 STS-75 STS-76 STS-77 STS-78 STS-79 STS-80 1997 STS-81 STS-82 STS-83 STS-84 STS-94 STS-85 STS-86 STS-87 1998 STS-89 STS-90 STS-91 STS-95 STS-88 1999 STS-96 STS-93 STS-103
2000s	2000 STS-99 STS-101 STS-106 STS-92 STS-97 2001 STS-98 STS-102 STS-100 STS-104 STS-105 STS-108 2002 STS-109 STS-110 STS-111 STS-112 STS-113 2003 STS-107† 2005 STS-114 2006 STS-121 STS-115 STS-116 2007 STS-117 STS-118 STS-120 2008 STS-122 STS-123 STS-124 STS-126 2009 STS-119 STS-125 STS-127 STS-128 STS-129
2010s	2010 STS-130 STS-131 STS-132 2011 STS-133 STS-134 STS-135

Cancelled

Orbiters

^† indicates failure missions.

v t e ← 1984 Orbital launches in 1985 1986 →
January	STS-51-C (USA-8)
February	USA-9 Arabsat-1A Brasilsat A1
March	Geosat Intelsat VA F-10
April	STS-51-D (Anik C1, Leasat 3) STS-51-B (Nusat)
May	GStar-1 Telecom 1B
June	Soyuz T-13 STS-51-G (Morelos 1, Arabsat-1B, Telstar 3D, SPARTAN-101) Progress 24 Intelsat VA F-11
July	Giotto Kosmos 1669 STS-51-F (PDP)
August	STS-51-I (Aussat A1, ASC-1, Leasat 4)
September	Spacenet 3 Soyuz T-14 Kosmos 1686 Intelsat VA F-12
October	STS-51-J (USA-11, USA-12) USA-10 STS-61-A (GLOMR)
November	STS-61-B (Morelos 2, Aussat A2, Satcom K2, OEX, EASE/ACCESS)
Unknown month	Sakigake Kosmos 1616 Kosmos 1617 Kosmos 1618 Kosmos 1619 Kosmos 1620 Kosmos 1621 Kosmos 1622 Molniya-3 No.36 Kosmos 1623 Kosmos 1624 Gorizont No.21L Kosmos 1625 Kosmos 1626 Kosmos 1627 Kosmos 1628 Meteor-2 No.13 Kosmos 1629 Kosmos 1630 Kosmos 1631 Kosmos 1632 Kosmos 1633 Kosmos 1634 Kosmos 1635 Kosmos 1636 Kosmos 1637 Kosmos 1638 Kosmos 1639 Kosmos 1640 Kosmos 1641 Kosmos 1642 Ekran No.28L Kosmos 1643 Kosmos 1644 Unnamed Kosmos 1645 Kosmos 1646 Kosmos 1647 Kosmos 1648 Prognoz 10 Kosmos 1649 Kosmos 1650 Kosmos 1651 Kosmos 1652 Kosmos 1653 Kosmos 1654 Molniya-3 No.39 Kosmos 1655 Kosmos 1656 Kosmos 1657 Kosmos 1658 Kosmos 1659 Kosmos 1660 Kosmos 1661 Kosmos 1662 Kosmos 1663 Unnamed Kosmos 1664 Kosmos 1665 Kosmos 1666 Kosmos 1667 Kosmos 1668 Molniya-3 No.37 Kosmos 1670 Kosmos 1671 Transit-O 24 Transit-O 30 Kosmos 1672 Kosmos 1672 Kosmos 1673 Kosmos 1674 Gran' No.26L Kosmos 1675 Kosmos 1676 Suisei Molniya-1 No.61 Kosmos 1677 Unnamed Kosmos 1678 Kosmos 1679 Kosmos 1680 Kosmos 1681 ECS-3 Kosmos 1682 Kosmos 1683 Kosmos 1684 Kosmos 1685 Kosmos 1687 Kosmos 1688 Kosmos 1689 Molniya-3 No.38 Kosmos 1690 Kosmos 1695 Kosmos 1692 Kosmos 1693 Kosmos 1694 Kosmos 1691 Kosmos 1696 Fanhui Shi Weixing 8 Kosmos 1697 Kosmos 1698 Molniya-1 No.73 Unnamed Meteor-3 No.2 Kosmos 1699 Kosmos 1700 Molniya-1 No.56 Kosmos 1701 Kosmos 1702 Gran' No.28L Kosmos 1703 Kosmos 1704 Kosmos 1705 Kosmos 1706 Kosmos 1707 USA-13 USA-14 Kosmos 1708 Kosmos 1709 Molniya-3 No.40 Kosmos 1710 Kosmos 1711 Kosmos 1712 Meteor-2 No.14 Kosmos 1713 Kosmos 1714
Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( \| ). Crewed flights are indicated in underline. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in (brackets).