Editing STS-7 (section)

== Mission summary ==
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STS-7 began on June 18, 1983, with an on-time liftoff at 7:33:00&nbsp;a.m.{{nbsp}}[[Eastern Time Zone|EDT]]. It was the first spaceflight of an American woman (Ride), the largest crew to fly in a single spacecraft up to that time (five people), and the first flight that included members of NASA's [[NASA Astronaut Group 8|Group 8 astronaut class]], which had been selected in 1978 to fly the Space Shuttle. [[Ronald Reagan|President Ronald Reagan]] also sent his personal favorite [[Jelly Belly]] [[jelly bean]]s with the astronauts, making them the first jelly beans in space. The crew had already eaten lunch with the president at the [[White House]] on June 1, the first time that a crew did so before launch rather than after.<ref name="Sherr2014">{{cite book |last1=Sherr |first1=Lynn |title=Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space |date=2014 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-1-4767-2578-9 |location=New York |oclc=885483468 |author1-link=Lynn Sherr}}</ref>{{pn|date=June 2024}}

The crew of STS-7 included Robert Crippen, commander, making his second Shuttle flight; Frederick Hauck, pilot; and Sally Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman Thagard, all mission specialists. Thagard conducted medical tests concerning [[Space adaptation syndrome]], a bout of [[nausea]] frequently experienced by astronauts during the early phase of a space flight.

Two [[communications satellite]]s – [[Anik (satellite)|Anik C2]] for [[Telesat]] of [[Canada]], and [[Palapa|Palapa B1]] for [[Indonesia]] – were successfully deployed during the first two days of the mission; both were Hughes-built HS-376-series satellites. The mission also carried the first [[Shuttle pallet satellite]] (SPAS-1), which was built by the [[West Germany|West German]] aerospace firm [[Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm]] (MBB). SPAS-1 was unique in that it was designed to operate in the payload bay or be deployed by the Remote Manipulator System ([[Canadarm]]) as a free-flying satellite. It carried 10 experiments to study formation of [[Alloy|metal alloys]] in [[Micro-g environment|microgravity]], the operation of heat pipes, instruments for [[remote sensing]] observations, and a [[mass spectrometer]] to identify various gases in the payload bay. It was deployed by the Canadarm and flew alongside and over ''Challenger'' for several hours, performing various maneuvers, while a U.S.-supplied camera mounted on SPAS-1 took pictures of the orbiter. The Canadarm later grappled the pallet and returned it to the payload bay.

STS-7 also carried seven [[Getaway Special]] (GAS) canisters, which contained a wide variety of experiments, as well as the OSTA-2 payload, a joint U.S.-West Germany scientific pallet payload. Finally, the orbiter's [[Ku band|Ku-band]] antenna was able to relay data through the [[U.S. tracking and data relay satellite]] (TDRS) to a ground terminal for the first time.

STS-7 was scheduled to make the first orbiter landing at Kennedy Space Center's then-new [[Shuttle Landing Facility]] (SLF).<ref name="Detour">{{Cite news |date=1983-06-25 |title=Detour no big setback for shuttle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/green-bay-press-gazette-sally-ride-1983/127064938/?locale=en-AU |access-date=2024-10-31 |work=Green Bay Press-Gazette |pages=A1–A2 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Unacceptable weather forced a change to Runway{{nbsp}}15 at Edwards Air Force Base. The landing took place on June 24, 1983, at 06:56:59{{nbsp}}a.m. [[Pacific Time Zone|PDT]]. The mission lasted 6{{nbsp}}days, 2{{nbsp}}hours, 23{{nbsp}}minutes, and 59{{nbsp}}seconds, and covered about {{cvt|3570000|km}} during 97{{nbsp}}orbits of the [[Earth]]. ''Challenger'' was returned to KSC on June 29, 1983.