STS-61-A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission. It was a scientific Spacelab mission funded and controlled by West Germany - hence the non-NASA name D-1 (for Deutschland 1). It was also the last successful mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. STS-61-A holds the record for the largest crew, eight people, aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.
The Space Shuttle mission carried the NASA/ESA Spacelab module with 7...
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STS-61-A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission. It was a scientific Spacelab mission funded and controlled by West Germany - hence the non-NASA name D-1 (for Deutschland 1). It was also the last successful mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. STS-61-A holds the record for the largest crew, eight people, aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.
The Space Shuttle mission carried the NASA/ESA Spacelab module with 76 experiments, and was declared a success. Payload operations were controlled by GSOC from Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany instead of the regular NASA centers.
The Orbiter Challenger lifted off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, KSC, at noon EST on October 30, 1985. This was the first Space Shuttle mission largely financed and operated by another nation, West Germany. It was also the first Space Shuttle flight to carry a crew of eight. The primary mission was to operate a series of experiments, almost all related to functions in microgravity, in...
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