posted 09-19-2005 02:34 PM
The crew for Shuttle mission 51B pause in the white room after the terminal countdown demonstration test on April 18, 1985. They are (left to right) Taylor Wang, Fred Gregory, Bill Thornton, Bob Overmyer, Don Lind, Norm Thagard and Lodewijk van den Berg. During this dress rehearsal for launch two Shuttles communicated with each other for the first (and as far as I know, only) time. STS-51B commander Overmyer spoke from Challenger’s cockpit with astronaut Bo Bobko, orbiting overhead in Discovery during mission STS-51D. The conversation went like this:
Bobko: “Challenger, Discovery on UHF. How do you read?
Overmyer: “Discovery, Challenger. We read you loud and clear, Bo. How me?”
Bobko: “Hello Bob. We read you weak but clear. We were passing by, thought we’d just give you a call, see how you read us.”
Bobko: “Challenger, Discovery. We’re going out of range. Good luck and we’ll see you back on the ground.”
Ed Hengeveld