STS-51-B

Robert F. Overmyer

• Birthday: 07/14/1936
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 11/11/1982
• Last Flight: 04/29/1985

Robert Franklyn "Bob" Overmyer was an American test pilot, naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, physicist, United ...

Frederick D. Gregory

• Birthday: 01/07/1941
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 04/29/1985
• Last Flight: 11/24/1991

Frederick Drew Gregory is a former United States Air Force pilot, military engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut as well a...

Don L. Lind

• Birthday: 05/18/1930
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 04/29/1985
• Last Flight: 04/29/1985

Don Leslie Lind, Ph.D. is an American scientist and a former naval officer and aviator, and NASA astronaut. He graduated from...

Lodewijk van den Berg

• Birthday: 03/24/1932
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America, Netherlands
• First Flight: 04/29/1985
• Last Flight: 04/29/1985

Lodewijk van den Berg born March 24, 1932) was a Dutch American chemical engineer, specializing in crystal growth, who flew o...

Taylor Gun-Jin Wang

• Birthday: 06/16/1940
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 04/29/1985
• Last Flight: 04/29/1985

Taylor Gun-Jin Wang is a Chinese-born American scientist and in 1985, became the first person of Chinese origin to go into sp...

William E. Thornton

• Birthday: 04/14/1929
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 08/30/1983
• Last Flight: 04/29/1985

William Edgar Thornton is a former NASA astronaut.

Norman E. Thagard

• Birthday: 07/03/1943
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 06/18/1983
• Last Flight: 03/14/1995

Norman Earl Thagard (born July 3, 1943), (Capt, USMC, Ret.), is an American scientist and former U.S. Marine Corps officer an...

Mission

STS-51-B

• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-51-B was the seventeenth flight of the shuttle program and the seventh for Space Shuttle Challenger. It was the second flight for SpaceLab.

Location

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Find the best place to watch the launch from Florida

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 208 rockets, including 207 orbital launch attempts. While Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 266 rocket launches.

The John F. Kennedy Space Center, located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of NASA's ten field centers. Since 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

Rocket

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.

Learn more about the Space Shuttle