On This Day – June 27th

STS-4 was the fourth NASA Space Shuttle mission, and also the fourth for Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission launched on 27th June 1982 and landed a week later on 4 July. STS-4 was the final test flight for the shuttle; it was thereafter officially declared to be operational. Columbia carried numerous scientific payloads during the mission, as well as military missile detection systems.

Being the last test flight of the Space Shuttle, it was the last to carry a crew of two astronauts. Commander Ken Mattingly had previously flown as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 16, and was also the original Command Module Pilot for Apollo 13 before being famously replaced by his backup, Jack Swigert. Mattingly was also instrumental in returning the Apollo 13 crew safely back to Earth after the accident that prevented them from landing on the Moon. Hartsfield was a rookie who had transferred to NASA in 1969 after the cancellation of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. He had previously served as a capsule communicator on Apollo 16, all three Skylab missions, and STS-1.

The mission landed when the crew safely landed on 4th July 1982 at 9:09 am PDT, on the 4,600m concrete runway number 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, the first Shuttle landing on a concrete runway.

During the mission ground crew at NASA would play songs to the crew as a form of morning wake up alarm. What was the tune that greeted the crew on their first morning in space?

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