STS-3

STS-3

STS-3 landing at Northrop Strip, White Sands, New Mexico, on March 30, 1982, with two T-38 Talon chase planes observing.
Names	Space Transportation System-3
Mission type	Test flight
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1982-022A
SATCAT no.	13106
Mission duration	7 days (planned) 8 days, 4 minutes, 46 seconds (achieved)
Distance travelled	5,300,000 km (3,300,000 mi)
Orbits completed	130
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Columbia
Launch mass	106,782 kg (235,414 lb)
Landing mass	93,924 kg (207,067 lb)
Payload mass	10,301 kg (22,710 lb)
Crew
Crew size	2
Members	Jack R. Lousma C. Gordon Fullerton
Start of mission
Launch date	March 22, 1982, 16:00:00 UTC
Rocket	Space Shuttle Columbia
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A
Contractor	Rockwell International
End of mission
Landing date	March 30, 1982, 16:04:46 UTC
Landing site	White Sands Missile Range, Northrop Strip Runway 17
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	241 km (150 mi)
Apogee altitude	249 km (155 mi)
Inclination	38.00°
Period	89.40 minutes
Instruments
Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) Office of Space Science (OSS-l) pallet Plasma Diagnostics Package (PDP)
STS-3 mission patch Lousma and Fullerton Space Shuttle program ← STS-2 STS-4 →

STS-3 was NASA's third Space Shuttle mission, and was the third mission for the Space Shuttle Columbia. It launched on March 22, 1982, and landed eight days later on March 30, 1982. The mission, crewed by Jack R. Lousma and C. Gordon Fullerton, involved extensive orbital endurance testing of the Columbia itself, as well as numerous scientific experiments. STS-3 was the first shuttle launch with an unpainted external tank, and the only mission to land at the White Sands Space Harbor near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The orbiter was forced to land at White Sands due to flooding at its originally planned landing site, Edwards Air Force Base.