STS-41-B

Name: Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-41-B
Start: 1984-02-03T13:00:00+00:00
End: 1984-02-03T14:00:00+00:00
Location: Launch Complex 39A

Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099

Lockheed Space Operations Company

Launch Status

Success

Fri • Feb 3rd, 1984
1:00 PM UTC

Crew

Vance D. Brand

Status: Retired
5/9/1931 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 7/15/1975
Last Flight: 12/2/1990

Vance DeVoe Brand is an American former naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He served as Command Module Pilot during the first U.S.-Soviet joint spaceflight in 1975, and as Commander of three Space Shuttle missions.

His flight experience includes 9,669 flying hours, which includes 8,089 hours in jets, 391 hours in helicopters, 746 hours in spacecraft, and checkout in more than 30 types of military aircraft. Vance Brand Airport in Longmont, Colorado, is named in his honor.

Robert L. Gibson

Status: Retired
10/30/1946 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 2/3/1984
Last Flight: 6/27/1995

Robert Lee "Hoot" Gibson is a former American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and a retired NASA astronaut, as well as a professional pilot who currently races regularly at the annual Reno Air Races.

Bruce McCandless II

Status: Deceased
6/8/1937 - 12/21/2017
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 2/3/1984
Last Flight: 4/24/1990

Bruce McCandless II was a U.S. naval officer and aviator, electrical engineer, and NASA astronaut. In 1984, during the first of his two Space Shuttle missions, he made the first untethered free flight by using the Manned Maneuvering Unit.

Robert L. Stewart

Status: Retired
5/10/1942 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 2/3/1984
Last Flight: 10/3/1985

Robert Lee Stewart is a retired brigadier general of the United States Army and a former NASA astronaut.

Ronald McNair

Status: Lost In Flight
10/21/1950 - 1/28/1986
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 2/3/1984
Last Flight: 1/28/1986

Ronald Erwin McNair was an American physicist and NASA astronaut. He died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission specialists. He is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and two children. His kids were Joy Charey Mcnair (Daughter) and Reginald Ervin Mcnair (son).

Mission

STS-41-B

Type: Communications

STS-41-B was the tenth Space Shuttle mission and the fourth of the Space Shuttle Challenger. It deployed 2 communication satellites and inluded the first untethered spacewalk. It was also the first shuttle mission to land at Kennedy Space Center.