Launch from Cape Canaveral (KSC); landing on Edwards AFB. Maiden voyage of orbiter Challenger.

Originally the launch was planned for January 30, 1983 but a hydrogen leak in one of the main engines forced to delay the launch. An additional delay was caused by contamination to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-1 (TDRS-1 / TDRS-A respectively) during a severe storm.

The crew deployed the communications satellite TDRS-A, but it reached only an elliptical orbit. Using it's own thrusters, it was able to reach the planned orbit after a few months.

The first EVA of the Shuttle program was performed by Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson on April 07, 1983 (3h 52m), testing tools for a later planned repair of a satellite and of the new developed EVA suits. Other STS-6 cargo included three GAS canisters and continuation of the Monodisperse Latex Reactor and the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis experiments. Other experiments were on the fields of materials science, earth observations and navigation.