"6_2_2_3_11.TXT" (2717 bytes) was created on 01-02-89

STS 41-B

        Following STS-9, the flight numbering system for Space Shuttle
missions was changed.  Thus, the next flight, instead of being
designated STS-10, became STS 41-B.  The new numbering system was
designed to be more specific in that the first numeral stood for the
fiscal year in which the launch was to take place, the "4" being
1984.  The second numeral represented the launch site l for KSC and 2
for Vandenberg AFB, Calif.  The letter represented the order of
launch assignment, " B" was the second launch scheduled in that
fiscal year.  (Following the Challenger accident, NASA reestablished
the original numerical numbering system.  Thus the first flight
following 51-L is STS-26.)

        The mission was the fourth flight of the Challenger.  Liftoff
occurred at 8 a.m. EST, on Feb. 3, 1984.  Two communications
satellites were one for Western Union (WESTAR) and the other for
Indonesia (Palapa B-2) were deployed about 8 hours after launch.
However, the Payload Assist Modules (PAM) for both satellites
malfunctioned placing them into a lower than planned orbit.  Both
satellites were retrieved successfully the following November during
STS 51-A, the 14th mission, by the orbiter Discovery.

        The STS 41-B crew included commander Vance D. Brand, making his
second Shuttle flight; pilot Robert L. Gibson; and mission
specialists, Bruce McCandless II, Ronald E. McNair and Robert L.
Stewart.

        A highlight of the mission took place on the first day when
astronauts McCandless and Stewart performed the first untethered
space walk operating the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) for the first
time.  McCandless -- the first human Earth-orbiting satellite --
ventured out 320 feet from the orbiter, while Stewart tested the
"work station" foot restraint at the end of the RMS.  The seventh day
of the mission, both astronauts performed an EVA to practice capture
procedures for the Solar Maximum Mission satellite retrieval and
repair operation planned for the next mission, STS 41-C.

        Another important "first" for STS 41-B was the reflight of the West
German-sponsored SPAS-l pallet/satellite originally flown on STS-7.
This time, however, it remained in the payload bay because of an
electrical problem in the RMS.  The mission also carried five GAS
canisters, six live rats in the middeck area, a Cinema-360 camera and
continuation of the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System and the
Monodisperse Latex Reactor experiments.

        The 7-day, 23-hour, 15-minute, 55-second flight ended on Feb. ll, at
7:15 a.m. EST; at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility -- the first landing
of a spacecraft at its launch site.  Challenger completed 127 orbits
and traveled 2.8 million miles.