November 30 , 1982 : A foggy morning before the maiden flight of steps of the Space Shuttle Challenger volunteer no hint to the hassle that would provoke the military mission . On top of an over two - month launch time lag , a malfunction rank the shuttle in a too - low orbit for the first shuttle - based spacewalk and satellite deployment .
Space Shuttle Challenger pierced the fogginess of Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral , Florida in anticipation of mission STS-6 . The first flight of the infinite bird was delayed from January 20 , 1983 when a flight readiness test in December revealed a atomic number 1 leak . All three engine were bare from the shuttle during troubleshooting ; at long last one locomotive engine was substitute and fuel line cracks were amend , while two of the engine were reinstalled after extensive examination . The backup launch date was further delayed by contamination of the payload ( a planet ) during a severe storm . The launching ultimately happened on April 4 , 1983 .
The five - sidereal day mission carried NASA astronauts Paul J. Weitz , Karol J. Bobko , Donald H. Peterson , and F. Story Musgrave into eye socket to deploy the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite ( TDRS-1 ) during the first spacewalk from a space birdie . The upper leg booster malfunctioned , raise a static but regrettably dispirited compass and forcing deployed satellite to burn up additional propellant to step by step reach its target orbit .
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NASA
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