Space Shuttle Challenger

**Space Shuttle Challenger** (OV-099) was the second orbiter of the Space Shuttle Program. It launched for the first time in February of 1983.

## Missions

Challenger flew for 69 missions before it was retired.

* STS-6 (February 1983) (Weitz, Bobko, Musgrave, Peterson) - Maiden flight of Challenger. Sees the first Shuttle Spacewalk and usage of EMU. First TDRS (TDRS-1) deployed into space. [OTL STS-6]
* STS-8 (June 1983) (Truly, Brandenstein, Bluford, Gardner, Thornton) - First African-American to ride the Space Shuttle. [OTL STS-8]
* STS-10 (November 1983) (Mattingly, Shriver, Onizuka, Buchli, Payton) - First DoD mission
* STS-12 (February 1984) (Crippenn Scobee, Hart, Van Hoften, Nelson) [OTL STS-41-C]
* STS-14 (June 1984) (Crippen, McBride, Sullivan, Ride, Leestma, Scully-Power, Garneau) - First crew of seven, the first with two women, a bearded man. First Canadian to go into space. First Australian-born person to go into space. [OTL STS-41-G]
* STS-16 (October 1984) (Mattingly, Shriver, Onizuka, Buchli, Payton) - 2nd DoD mission [OTL STS-51-C]
* STS-18 (February 1985) (Overmyer, Gregory, Lind, Thagard, Thornton, Van den Berg, Wang) - 2nd flight of Spacelab. [OTL STS-51-B]
* STS-20 (June 1985) (Brandenstein, Creighton, Nagel, Fabian, Jarvis, Lucid, Walker) [OTL STS-51-G]
* STS-24 (October 1985) (Hartsfield, Nagel, Dunbar, Buchli, Bluford, Furrer, Messerschmid, Ockels) - Spacelab mission funded and directed by West Germany with payload operations at the German Space Operation Center in Oberplaffenhofen. It was the largest amount of people on the Space Shuttle yet, 8. [OTL STS-61-A]
* STS-26 (February 1986) (Gibson, Bolden, George Nelson, Hawley, Chang-Diaz, Bill Nelson, Cenker) - First Costa Rican in Space. [OTL STS-61-C]
* STS-30 (June 1986) (Coats, Blaha, Springer, Fisher, Buchli, Sudarmono, Wood, Farrimond) - Deploys three satellites, first Indonesian in space.
* STS-33 (October 1986) (Brand, Griggs, Stewart, Gariott, Nicollier, Lichtenburg, Lampton, Stevenson) - Spacelab mission combining EOM-1, EOM-2.
* STS-37 (February 1987) (Robert Wood) - McDonnell Douglas payload.
* STS-41 (June 1987)
* STS-44 (October 1987) (Gregory, Blaha, Carter, Musgrave, Kathryn Thornton) - DOD mission
* STS-47 (February 1988) - DOD mission
* STS-50 (June 1988)
* STS-53 (October 1988)
* STS-57 (February 1989) (Creighton, Casper, Thuot, Hilmers, Mullane) - DOD mission
* STS-61 (June 1989)
* STS-65 (October 1989)
* STS-69 (February 1990)
* STS-73 (June 1990)
* STS-77 (October 1990)
* STS-81 (February 1991)
* STS-85 (June 1991)
* STS-89 (October 1991)
* STS-93 (February 1992)
* STS-97 (June 1992)
* STS-101 (October 1992)
* STS-105 (February 1993)
* STS-109 (June 1993)
* STS-113 (October 1993)
* STS-117 (February 1994) (Bolden, Reightler, Davis, Sega, Chang-Diaz, Krikalev) - First mission of Shuttle-Mir
* STS-121 (June 1994)  - First use of Aft Cargo Carrier (attatched to external tank), testing its capabilities, massively increase shuttle payload.
* STS-125 (October 1994)
* STS-129 (February 1995) (Wetherbee, Collins, Harris, Foale, Voss, Titov) - Second mission of Shuttle-Mir.
* STS-133 (June 1995) (Gibson, Precourt, Baker, harbaugh, Dunbar, Solovyev/Strekalov, Budarin/Dezhurov, Thagard) - Third mission of Shuttle-Mir.
* STS-137 (October 1995) - Delivery of the airlock and another pressurized docking adapter, Dextre (or the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator), and the Mobile Servicing System Maintenance Depot to *Freedom*.
* STS-141 (February 1996) - Delivery of the last major truss addition to *Freedom*.
* STS-145 (June 1996)
* STS-149 (October 1996) - Delivery of Kibo to *Freedom*.
* STS-153 (February 1997) - Delivery of ESA's Columbus Attatched Pressurized Module to *Freedom*
* STS-157 (June 1997) - Delivery of the final truss section to *Freedom*
* STS-161 (October 1997)
* STS-165 (February 1998)
* STS-169 (June 1998) (Precourt, Gorie, Chang-Diaz, Lawrence, Kavandi, Ryumin, Thomas) - Eleventh and last Shuttle-Mir mission.
* STS-174 (October 1999)
* STS-178 (February 2000)
* STS-182 (June 2000)
* STS-186 (October 2000)
* STS-190 (February 2001)
* STS-194 (June 2001)
* STS-198 (October 2001)
* STS-202 (February 2002)
* STS-206 (June 2002)
* STS-210 (October 2002)
* STS-214 (February 2003)
* STS-218 (June 2003)
* STS-222 (October 2003)
* STS-226 (February 2004)
* STS-230 (June 2004)
* STS-234 (October 2004)
* STS-238 (February 2005)
* STS-242 (June 2005)
* STS-246 (October 2005)
* STS-250 (February 2006)
* STS-254 (June 2006)
* STS-258 (October 2006) (Kelly, Johnson, Fincke, Vittori, Feustei, Chamioff) - The penultimate flight of the Space Shuttle. [OTL STS-134]