Launch from Cape Canaveral (
KSC);
landing in Cape Canaveral (
KSC).
The deployment of the communications
satellite Westar-VI (USA) and Palapa B2 (Indonesia) occured on flight day 1.
Both satellites did reach only a radical low Earth orbit because of a Payload
Assist Module-D (PAM-D) malfunction. Both satellites were retrieved
successfully during the mission
STS-51A.
Bruce
McCandless and Robert
Stewart tested in two
EVAs
on February 07, 1984 (5h 55m) and February 09, 1984 (6h 17m) the "Manned
Maneuvering Unit" (
MMU). It was the first untethered spacewalk, Bruce
McCandless ventured out about 98 m from the orbiter. The crew
tested procedures to retrieve and repair the "Solar Maximum Satellite" during
the next Shuttle mission. The deploying of the "balloon satellite"
IRT (Integrated Rendezvous Target) failed due to
internal failure. Experiments in Earth sciences, space technologies and
navigation were performed. It was the first reflight of the West German
sponsored
SPAS-1 pallet/satellite.
Challenger made the
first landing in Cape Canaveral (
KSC).
