STS-5

STS-5 was Columbia's fifth flight and the first operational mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. Launched from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A on November 11, 1982, the mission carried the first four-person Shuttle crew: commander Vance Brand, pilot Robert Overmyer, and mission specialists Joseph Allen and William Lenoir. The crew deployed the SBS-3 and Anik C-3 commercial communications satellites using PAM-D upper stages, marking the Shuttle's first commercial satellite deployment work. A planned EVA by Allen and Lenoir was canceled after suit and crew-health problems, so no completed spacewalk occurred. Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base on November 16 after five days, two hours, and fourteen minutes in orbit.