abstract | - Columbia launched on schedule from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 7:19 am EST, 11 November 1982. The shuttle carried a crew of four – the largest spacecraft crew up to that time – and the first two commercial communications satellites to be flown aboard a shuttle. The commercial satellites were deployed successfully and subsequently propelled into their operational geosynchronous orbits by McDonnell Douglas PAM-D kickmotors. The two satellites were SBS 3, owned by Satellite Business Systems, and Anik C3, owned by Telesat Canada; both were Hughes-built HS-376-series satellites. In addition, STS-5 carried a West German-sponsored microgravity GAS experiment canister in the payload bay. The crew also conducted three student-designed experiments during the flight. A planned spacewalk by Lenoir and Allen, the first of the Space Shuttle program, was postponed by one day after Lenoir became ill, and then had to be cancelled when the two spacesuits that were to be used developed problems. Columbia landed on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base on 16 November 1982, at 6:33 am 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 22 November 1982. STS-5 was the first shuttle flight in which the crew did not wear pressure suits for the launch, reentry, and landing portions of the flight, similar to the Soviet Voskhod and Soyuz missions prior to the ill-fated Soyuz 11 mission in 1971. File:STS-5 Launch (18277306658).jpg|Columbia is launched from Launch Pad 39A on its fifth flight and first operational mission. File:STS-5 Anik deploy.png|Anik C3 being deployed. File:STS-5 landing.png|Columbia concluding its mission with an early morning landing at Runway 22 of Edwards Air Force Base.
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