The mission successfully achieved all of its planned research objectives, but was marred by the subsequent discovery that a solid-fuel rocket booster had almost malfunctioned catastrophically during the launch.

[2] The commander, Truly, was the only veteran astronaut of the crew, having flown as the pilot on STS-2 in 1981 and for two of the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) aboard Enterprise in 1977.

[11] After re-development of the IUS, TDRS-B was eventually re-manifested for the STS-51-L mission, and was lost along with the Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew when the launch failed in January 1986.

[15] The Payload Flight Test Article (PFTA) had been scheduled for launch in June 1984 on STS-16 in the April 1982 manifest,[9] but by May 1983 it had been brought forward to STS-11.

[11] It was an aluminum structure resembling two wheels with a 6 m (20 ft) long central axle, ballasted with lead to give it a total mass of 3,855 kg (8,499 lb), which could be lifted by the "Canadarm" Remote Manipulator System – the Shuttle's "robot arm" – and moved around to help astronauts gain experience in using the system.

The last was similar to an experiment flown on STS-3, and studied the ambient levels of atomic oxygen by measuring the rates at which small carbon and osmium wafers oxidized.

This separated solutions of biological materials by passing electric fields through them; the experiment aimed at supporting research into diabetes treatments.

[21] A photography experiment would attempt to study the spectrum of a luminous atmospheric glow which had been reported around the orbiter, and determine how this interacted with firings of the reaction control system (RCS).

[22] The mission was also scheduled to carry out a series of tests with the TDRS-1 satellite which had been deployed by STS-6, to ensure the system was fully operational before it was used to support the Spacelab program on the upcoming STS-9 flight.

[24] Preparation for the mission began on June 3, 1983, with the assembly of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters (SRB) on the Mobile Launcher Platform.

After post-flight maintenance and preparation for the new mission, including the installation of most flight payloads, the shuttle was transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building on July 27, 1983, and mated to the booster/tank stack.

[28] During the on-pad delay, Hurricane Barry (1983) hit the Florida coastline, making landfall just south of the Kennedy Space Center on the morning of August 25, 1983.

[34] The crew had attempted to prepare for it by training in darkened simulators so as to keep their night vision, but in practice it was discovered that the light of the solid-fuel rocket boosters made the immediate area around the launchpad virtually as bright as a day launch.

[35] The launch was the first to use a newly developed high-performance motor for the solid rocket boosters, which gave approximately 7% greater thrust.

[36] After a successful insertion into a circular orbit at 296 km (184 mi), the first experiments began; the first two samples were run through the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System, and measurements were taken for the atmospheric luminosities study.

[31] The major event of the second day (August 31, 1983) was the successful deployment of the INSAT-1B satellite, which took place at 07:48 UTC, with Challenger then maneuvering to avoid the firing of the booster motor forty minutes later.

By exposing or shading areas from the sun in an unusual way, it was possible to induce particularly warm or cold conditions and observe any resulting problems.

[45] On the original plan, this would have been at 07:44 UTC on September 4, 1983, before accounting for the last-minute launch delay;[32] in the event, this was put back by one day to allow for further communications testing, and Challenger touched down at 07:40:33 UTC (00:40:33 PDT), September 5, 1983, on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, on the morning of the seventh day of the mission.

By some estimations, this left around 14 seconds of firing time before the nozzle would have ruptured, a situation which would have resulted in loss of control and the probable break-up of the spacecraft.

[33] The burn-through problem was treated as a small mishap by the media, and did not receive significant interest until after the Challenger disaster in 1986;[33] the only major contemporary public criticism came from NASA's Soviet counterparts.

[56] While the INSAT deployment was a success, the satellite had problems unfolding its solar array once in geostationary orbit, and was not fully operational until the middle of September 1983.

Once functional, however, it provided satisfactory service for seven years, returning 36,000 images of Earth and broadcasting television to thousands of remote Indian villages.

[37] The Payload Flight Test Article evaluation found that the Canadarm remote manipulator system was capable of moving bulky masses with some accuracy, to a precision of 5 cm (2.0 in) and 1° of alignment.