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The 13th flight of the Space Shuttle program, STS-41G was notable for many firsts and records. It was the first mission focused almost entirely on studying the Earth through the use of a satellite, multiple instruments and cameras, as well as crew observations to accomplish these goals. The crew of STS-41G also set several firsts. The Commander, Robert L. Crippen, became the first astronaut to make a fourth flight aboard the Space Shuttle. He did so only 5½ months after returning from his previous mission, STS-41C, becoming the first American to make two trips into space in one calendar year and the first to fly back-to-back missions on the same orbiter. The Pilot, Jon A. McBride, was making his first flight into space. The three Mission Specialists were Kathryn D. Sullivan, Sally K. Ride, and David C. Leestma. This marked the first time that two women flew in space at the same time, with Ride becoming the first American woman to fly a second mission and Sullivan the first American woman to conduct an Extravehicular Activity (EVA), or spacewalk. Leestma was the first of the astronaut class of 1980 to make a space flight. The two Payload Specialists, Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space, and Paul D. Scully-Power, a civilian employee of the US Naval Research Laboratory and the first oceanographer and the first Australian-born American citizen to fly in space, rounded out the seven-member crew, the largest crew flown to that time.

On 5 October 1984, Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center at 7:03:00 a.m. EDT, marking the start of the STS-41-G mission. On board were seven crew members – the largest flight crew ever to fly on a single spacecraft at that time. They included commander Robert L. Crippen, making his fourth Shuttle flight and second in six months (Crippen became the first American astronaut to complete two space missions in the same calendar year); pilot Jon A. McBride; three mission specialists – David C. Leestma, Sally K. Ride and Kathryn D. Sullivan – and two payload specialists, Paul D. Scully-Power and Marc Garneau, the first Canadian citizen to serve as a Shuttle crew member, as well as the first Canadian in space. The mission also marked the first time two female astronauts had flown together.

Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space when she and Leestma performed a 3-hour Extravehicular activity (EVA) on 11 October 1984, demonstrating the Orbital Refueling System (ORS) and proving the feasibility of refueling satellites in orbit.

Nine hours after liftoff, the 2,307 kg (5,086 lb) Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) was deployed from the payload bay by the nadarm|RMS]] (Canadarm) robot arm, and its on-board thrusters boosted it into orbit 560 km (350 mi) above the Earth. ERBS was the first of three planned satellites designed to measure the amount of energy received from the Sun and reradiated into space. It also studied the seasonal movement of energy from the tropics to the polar regions.

Another major mission activity was the operation of the Shuttle Imaging Radar-B (SIR-B). The SIR-B was part of the OSTA-3 experiment package in the payload bay, which also included the Large Format Camera (LFC) to photograph the Earth, another camera called MAPS which measured air pollution, and a feature identification and location experiment called FILE, which consisted of two TV cameras and two 70 mm (2.8 in) still cameras.

The SIR-B was an improved version of a similar device flown on the OSTA-1 package during STS-2. It had an eight-panel antenna array measuring 11 × 2 m (36.1 × 6.6 ft). It operated throughout the flight, but problems were encountered with Challenger\'s Ku-band antenna, and therefore much of the data had to be recorded on board the orbiter rather than transmitted to Earth in real-time as was originally planned.

Payload Specialist Scully-Power, an employee of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), performed a series of oceanography observations during the mission. Garneau conducted a series of experiments sponsored by the Canadian government, called CANEX, which were related to medical, atmospheric, climatic, materials and robotic science. A number of Getaway Special (GAS) canisters, covering a wide variety of materials testing and physics experiments, were also flown.

A claim was later made that the Soviet Terra-3 laser testing center was used to track Challenger with a low-power laser on 10 October 1984. This supposedly caused the malfunction of on-board equipment and the temporary blinding of the crew, leading to a U.S. diplomatic protest.[3] However, this story has been comprehensively denied by the crew members.[4]

During the 8 days, 5 hours, 23 minutes, and 33 seconds mission, Challenger traveled 5,293,847 km (3,289,444 mi) and completed 133 orbits. It landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at Kennedy Space Center – becoming the second shuttle mission to land there – on 13 October 1984, at 12:26 p.m. EDT.[5]

The STS-41-G mission was later described in detail in the book Oceans to Orbit: The Story of Australia\'s First Man in Space, Paul Scully-Power by space historian Colin Burgess.