US-GERMANY-SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLEGER STS-61-A

West German Payload Specialist Ernst Messerchmid (L) addresses media on October 27, 1985, while his crewmates on the Space Shuttle Challeger STS-61-A mission look on. Pictured in background, left to right: James F. Buchli, mission specialist, Guion S. Bluford, mission specialist, Commander Henry Hartsfield, Bonnie J. Dunbar, mission specialist, Steven R. Nagel, pilot, Reinhard Furrer, German payload specialist and Specialist Wubbo Ockels, ESA from Netherlands, pose before taking off on October 30. STS-61-A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission. It was a scientific Spacelab mission funded and controlled by West Germany and carried German Spacelab D-1 It was also the last successful mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. STS-61-A holds the record for the largest crew, eight people, aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing. The Space Shuttle mission carried the NASA/ESA Spacelab module with 76 experiments, and was declared a success. Payload operations were controlled from the German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany instead of the regular NASA centers. AFP PHOTO JOHATHAN UTZ (Photo by Jonathan Utz / AFP) (Photo by JONATHAN UTZ-/AFP via Getty Images)