STS-61-A Mission

Launch Service Provider

Lockheed Space Operations Company

Vehicle

Space Shuttle

Crew

Henry 'Hank' Hartsfield

Steven R. Nagel

Ernst Messerschmid

Reinhard Furrer

Wubbo Ockels

Guion Bluford

James Buchli

Bonnie J. Dunbar

STS-61-A was the twenty-second space shuttle flight and ninth for Space Shuttle Challenger. It was a scientific spacelab mission funded entirely by West Germany. The payload operations were controlled from the German Space Operations Center as opposed to the regular NASA centers.