![]() President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy greeted the crew upon arrival. This time the lead escorting T-38 "Chase 1" was piloted by Guy Gardner with crewmate Jerry L. Ĭolumbia landed on July 4, 1982, at 16:09:31 UTC, on the 15,000 ft (4.6 km) concrete runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, the first orbital Shuttle landing on a concrete runway. They also operated the Remote Manipulator System (Canadarm) with an instrument called the Induced Environment Contamination Monitor mounted on its end, designed to obtain information on gases or particles being released by the orbiter in flight. The crew conducted a lightning survey with hand-held cameras, and performed medical experiments on themselves for two student projects. In the shuttle's mid-deck, a Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System and the Mono-disperse Latex Reactor flew for the second time. Mattingly, who was an active-duty naval officer, later described the classified payload – two sensors for detecting missile launches – as a "rinky-dink collection of minor stuff they wanted to fly". A secret mission control center in Sunnyvale, California participated in monitoring the flight. Air Force payload of two missile launch-detection systems. STS-4's cargo consisted of the first Getaway Special (GAS) payloads, including nine scientific experiments provided by students from Utah State University, and a classified U.S. After this flight, Columbia's ejection seats were deactivated, and shuttle crews did not wear pressure suits again until STS-26 in 1988. It was also the last research and development flight in the program, after which NASA considered the shuttle operational. This mission marked the first time the Space Shuttle launched precisely at its scheduled launch time. STS-4 launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on June 27, 1982, at 15:00:00 UTC, with Ken Mattingly as commander and Henry Hartsfield as pilot. Consequently, the last NASA flight to have a full-time backup crew was STS-3. The decision on whether to appoint a reserve crew member was made on a per-flight basis by flight management teams at Johnson Space Center. Instead, individual flight crew members were assigned backups who could take their place within the prime crew. Both men had graduated from Auburn University, the only time an entire Space Shuttle flight crew were graduates of the same university.įrom STS-4 onwards, NASA halted the appointment and training of complete backup flight crews. He had previously served as a capsule communicator on Apollo 16, all three Skylab missions, and STS-1. ![]() Hartsfield was a rookie astronaut who had transferred to NASA in 1969 after the cancellation of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program. Commander Ken Mattingly had previously flown as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 16, and was also the original Command Module Pilot for Apollo 13 before being replaced by his backup, Jack Swigert. STS-4, being the last test flight of the Space Shuttle, was also the last to carry a crew of two astronauts. Columbia carried numerous scientific payloads during the mission, as well as military missile detection systems. STS-4 was the final test flight for the Space Shuttle it was thereafter officially declared to be operational. Due to parachute malfunctions, the SRBs were not recovered. Crewed by Ken Mattingly and Henry Hartsfield, the mission launched on June 27, 1982, and landed a week later on July 4, 1982. ![]() STS-4 was the fourth NASA Space Shuttle mission, and also the fourth for Space Shuttle Columbia.
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