Counting Shuttle Missions

Factual Questions
1

IIRC, this flight (of the Columbia) was the 113th Shuttle mission. Just out of curiosity, what number mission was the ill-fated Challenger mission? - Jinx

2

Challenger’s last flight was the 25th shuttle mission. This was Challengers 7th flight. And as a side note though Columbia was the first shuttle to fly, Discovery has flown more missions.

3

Challenger was the 25th shuttle flight, but the mission number was “51-L”. Most of the missions until then were identified with weird codes of this sort - there’s a meaning to them, but I can’t think of a good search term to google for at the moment.

When the shuttle program re-emerged a few years later, they resumed with STS-26, and the same numbering system is used now - a lot less confusing.

4

STS-51L

5

No, no Audit1, you misunderstand my question. While you are correct, that’s not what I’m asking. There is a total count for ALL shuttle missions (not including Enterprise test flights, I’d assume). This is where the number 113 comes from.

More specifically, I should ask it this way: Does anyone know what sequencially numbered shuttle mission was the Challenger of Jan 1986? - Jinx

6

Hmm…looking at feedback trickling in, maybe I am misunderstanding? Being that the shuttle fleet was smaller, could it have been both the 25th shuttle mission and 25th flight for Challenger? …Slightly :confused:

  • Jinx
7

It was the 25th shuttle flight, and the Challengers 10th.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/mission-51-l.html

Does that help?