On the 13th space shuttle mission, Challenger lifts off for the first time with a crew of seven. Mission 41-G is the first to have two female astronauts (Sally K. Ride and Kathryn D. Sullivan, who will become the first American woman to make a spacewalk) and the first to have a Canadian astronaut aboard (Marc Garneau). Commander Robert L. Crippen becomes the first to fly on the shuttle four times. Aloft, the crew refuels a satellite in orbit for the first time.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
