Mission Insignia
Mission Statistics
Mission:	STS-5
Shuttle:	Columbia
Launch Pad:	39-A
Launch:	November 11, 1982 7:19:00 a.m. EST
Landing:	November 16, 1982 6:33:26 a.m. PST
Duration:	5 d, 2 h, 14 min, 26 s
Orbit Altitude:	184 nautical miles (341 km)
Orbit Inclination:	28.5 degrees
Distance Traveled:	2,110,849 miles (3,397,082 km)
Crew photo

STS-5 was a space shuttle mission by NASA using the Space Shuttle Columbia, launched November 11, 1982. This was the fifth space shuttle mission, and was also the fifth mission for the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Crew

• Commander: Vance D. Brand (2)
• Pilot: Robert F. Overmyer (1)
• Mission Specialist: Joseph P. Allen (1)
• Mission Specialist: William B. Lenoir (1)

Mission parameters

• Mass:
  • Orbiter Liftoff: 112,088 kg
  • Orbiter Landing: 91,841 kg
  • Payload: 14,551 kg
• Perigee: 294 km
• Apogee: 317 km
• Inclination: 28.5°
• Period: 90.5 min

Mission highlights

STS-5, the first operational mission, also carried the largest crew up to that time -- four astronauts -- and the first two commercial communications satellites to be flown.

The fifth launch of the orbiter Columbia took place at 7:19 a.m. EST, Nov. 11, 1982. It was the second on-schedule launch. The crew included Vance Brand, commander; Robert F. Overmyer, pilot; and the first mission specialists to fly the Shuttle -- Joseph P. Allen and William B. Lenoir.

The two communications satellites were deployed successfully and subsequently propelled into their operational geosynchronous orbits by booster rockets. Both were Hughes-built HS-376 series satellites -- SBS-3 owned by Satellite Business Systems, and Anik owned by Telesat of Canada. In addition to the first commercial satellite cargo, the flight carried a West German-sponsored microgravity GAS experiment canister in the payload bay. The crew also conducted three student experiments during the flight.

A planned spacewalk by the two mission specialists had to be cancelled -- it would have been the first for the Shuttle program -- when the two space suits that were to be used developed problems.

Columbia landed on Runway 22, at Edwards AFB, on Nov. 16, 1982, at 6:33 a.m. PST, having traveled 2 million miles in 81 orbits during a mission that lasted 5 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes and 26 seconds. Columbia was returned to KSC on Nov. 22.

Related articles

• Space science
• Space shuttle
• Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
• List of space shuttle missions
• List of human spaceflights chronologically

External links

• STS-5 Shuttle Mission
• STS-5 Mission Chronology