Launch from Cape Canaveral (KSC); landing on Edwards AFB.

Fourth and final test flight of the Space Shuttle; first Shuttle-flight with Department of Defense payload.

Test of the "Remote Manipulator Arm", seizing an Equipment and lifted it from the cargo of the shuttle: the box of the IECM experiment (Induced Environment Contamination monitor), designed to obtain information on gases or particles being released by the orbiter in flight. First commercial experiment involving Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES); Cargo included first Get Away Specials (G-001), which contained nine experiments from Utah State University. The crew took data for two medical experiments on themselves fort wo student objects.

The classified Air Force payload was the apparatus "DOD 82-1". This payload remained the whole mission in the payload bay. Another payload was the Development Flight Instrumentation, collecting information about the Shuttle during the flight.