“挑战者”号航天飞机的五名宇航员在第八次飞行中顺利完成多项飞行任务,进一步说明航天飞机计划的成熟程度和灵活性。飞行后,对轨道器异常进行的维修比任何一次飞行都少(只有18处),航天飞机计划管理人员说,这些问题都很小。这次飞行,成功地论证了跟踪与数据中继卫星的能力,确信,该卫星能胜任为空间实验室-1中继科学和工程数据的任务。飞行中,宇航员对地球进行了大量 Five cosmonauts in the Challenger space shuttle successfully completed a number of missions during the Eighth Flight to further illustrate the maturity and flexibility of the Shuttle program. After the flight, maintenance on orbital abnormalities was less frequent than just any single flight (there were only 18), and Shuttle Program Managers said they were all very small. This flight successfully demonstrated the capabilities of tracking and data relay satellites and is confident that the satellite will be qualified as a mission for Space Laboratory-1 to relay scientific and engineering data. In flight, astronauts carried out a great deal of earth