OTD in Space – April 7: 1st Spacewalk from Space Shuttle
- last year
On April 7, 1983, astronauts took the first spacewalk outside of a space shuttle during mission STS-6. [‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com](https://www.space.com/39251-on-this-day-in-space.html)
This was the maiden voyage of the space shuttle Challenger. The goal of this mission was to deploy the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1. NASA now uses a whole fleet of these satellites to relay communications between spacecraft in orbit and ground stations down on Earth. NASA astronauts Don Peterson and Story Musgrave spent 4 hours and 17 minutes working in the vacuum of space while doing a series of tests in the shuttle's payload bay. This was also the first time that NASA's Extravehicular Mobility Unit was worn by astronauts in space.
This was the maiden voyage of the space shuttle Challenger. The goal of this mission was to deploy the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1. NASA now uses a whole fleet of these satellites to relay communications between spacecraft in orbit and ground stations down on Earth. NASA astronauts Don Peterson and Story Musgrave spent 4 hours and 17 minutes working in the vacuum of space while doing a series of tests in the shuttle's payload bay. This was also the first time that NASA's Extravehicular Mobility Unit was worn by astronauts in space.