Challenger stops on the runway

The Mission achievement screen, now with the badge of STS-8 in addition to STS-1, 26 and 99

Wheels stop! Mission Complete.

Challenger with gear down approaches the runway.

Challenger touches down and deploys the drag chute.

STS-8 was the first night landing for the program. Mostly to prove it was capable of doing so. It had no navigation or landing lights because of re-entry, so they had to really turn the lights up at the airbase runway.

Challenger flies past Edwards Air Force Base in California

Challenger prepares to enter the HAC

Shuttle HUD

To land, the Shuttles fly in a big cone, the Heading Alignment Cone or HAC, to burn off the excess speed from re-entry after the gravity breaking manuver. Landing the shuttle is actually pretty easy considering it's a glider. You just have to keep that circle in the box on the HUD.

In cockpit view of space shuttle re-entry

Challenger re-enters the athmosphere

Cockpit crew prepared to de-orbit

So after screwing up shut-down and having to redo the arm tests two times (and remembering to save) it's time for Re-Entry!

It can be awkward to move around, as the game has restricted head movement, and treats your camera as though you have a torso. Maneuvering around the shuttle and the tunnels to spacelab means you sometimes have to look up with the camera while your "torso" represented by a diamond is aimed forward.

Image of the Shuttle's lower deck, looking aft at the rear airlock.

So while I do shutdown and prepare for de-orbit, a neat thing about the detail of the game is it does feature EVA missions where you putter around the outside of the shuttle, as well as a fully modeled interior for Spacelab missions. You can also do freeroam inside the shuttle.

Challenger does an OMS burn.

Challenger in Orbit

Alright, with the Canadarm tested and many restarts, it's time to go home. Deorbit time!

INSAT-1B fires its engine to go into its proper orbit.

When you release other objects, the fun thing is you can switch the camera over to them and watch them do their own thing at certain points. (Also I was trying to do orbital burns but something went wrong and the game wasn't advancing. Back to the SRMS for me

Challenger with the Test Payload in the Canadarm

The best part about having a timer on screen is i can't lie about how long this took, not taking into account a lot of pausing and reading.

A document detailing the mission checklist. A picture of the correct arm position is in the middle.

The Canadarm in use.

Using the Canadarm is tricky. It's slow, and finicky. Luckily, there are checklists you can use to make sure you're in the right position.

Internal view of the Challenger, with two monitors showing camera feeds for the Canadarm.

Okay time for the real star of the show. The Canadarm. This is the test mission so in the game it's also the easiest for learning how to use this thing.

INSAT-1 Deploying

Wide view of INSAT-1 deploying over the Earth.

Historic photo of the real INSAT-1 being deployed.

Bye-bye! INSAT-1B spins away to go into a geostationary orbit, where it will sit until it is decommissioned in 1993, and moved to a graveyard orbit. It's still up there!

View out the back windows of Challenger, into the payload bay.

Challenger above the earth, the sunshield protecting a satellite beginning to open.

Alright after some lunch, it's time to launch us a satellite!

Challenger with its payload bay open, revealing its contents.

Waited until we were in daylight, i had to open the payload doors and radiators in darkness. We're set to go for the mission!

Challenger's flight deck, from the Commander's seat. Earth is off to the starboard side.

Getting pictures of the RCS working outside is tricky, trying to line up the pauses, but inside the 3D cockpit you can manuver the shuttle. Sadly the game doesn't play nice with my joystick so I have to use the keyboard. Tricky, but it still works.

The Liquid Fuel Connector covers closing

Challenger in Orbit, the sun behind her.

The Space Shuttle... So many problems but what an iconic spacecraft.

The SRB's separate from STS-8

A night launch may not have been the best choice for screencaps, but man there's nothing like seeing SRB's detach and fall away.

In game Challenger lifts off.

Spectator view of Challenger having completed it's roll over into its gravity turn. The SRB thrusts contrast sharply against the night sky.

Historic photo of STS-8 lift off

Lift-off, 2:32am. One of the new design SRB's had significant burn through problems that came dangerously close to dooming the flight. Ironically, a faulty SRB would later destroy Challenger in highest profile disaster for NASA since Apollo 13, and tragically, NASA's first on mission fatalities.

Video Game Challenger undertakes its control surface and engine gimbal checks.

What the screencaps can't express is the very "Game dev" voice acting. Honestly it's not awful, it serves its purpose but it's funny where you hear the crew do their comms checks and it's the same guy, even if the crew member was historically a woman.

A screenshot of the Space Shuttle's middle console

A lot of the gameplay consists of going to the various panels and flipping the switches and pushing buttons. The game can help you by putting a big arrow at whatever switch needs to be flipped or pushed, and telling you what needs to be entered into the computers and when. It's optional of course.

A screencap of various switches in game.

So this is the thing that's really wild about Space Shuttle Simulator 2007. It's a pseudo full fidelity simulation, albeit one that is heavily scripted, so you can't really do whatever you want. Every panel in the game is modeled, and all the buttons and switches are interactable in 2D, but not 3D.

An in game screenshot of the flight deck. The astronauts are in ahistorical orange pressure suits.

A man wearing the early Shuttle program blue jumpsuit and white Crash helmet.

An astronaut wearing the orange ACES suit.

Being an indie game from 2007, the flight crew will always consist of the same identical generic white guy model, wearing the much much later LES/ACES orange pressure suit. After STS-5, NASA astronauts wore blue jumpsuits and crash helmets. This was standard until the Challenger Disaster.

An in-game screenshot of Space Shuttle Challenger on the Launch pad. It is night time.

Another notable first is STS-8 was the first night launch for the shuttle.

(This is all for tonight because I actually already played through the mission but started at T-10 and didn’t get the achievement, and need to sleep lol especially because this game doesn’t play nice with my HOTAS so I’m doing any maneuvering with my keypad, which works shockingly well.)

INSTAT-1B, on the prep line. It is a large and boxy looking satellite, covered in reflective gold material.

The Payload Flight Test Article (PFTA) a large, odd looking device at the end of the Remote Manipulator System or Canadarm. It is two large stiff looking umbrella like discs at each end of a rectangular box. A number of grapple points for the RMS are on various points of the device.

A technical diagram of the Canadarm Shuttle Remote Manipulator System.

In addition to six rats in a special cage for observation, and a number of other smaller experiments, the mission's primary payload is the INSAT-1B, an Indian designed Telecoms satellite which will be fired up into geostationary orbit, and the testing device for the SRMS, aka Canadarm.

A picture of Five astronauts in front of an American Flag, with a Space Shuttle model behind them. They are (L-R) Daniel Brandenstein, Dale Gardner, Richard H. Truly, WIlliam E. Thornton, and Guion Bluford. They are all wearing blue pilot suits.

The mission patch for STS-8, featuring a space shuttle taking off from the earth, the Solid Rocket Boosters detaching and eight stars in the background. The crew's names are in a red and white circle around the picture, and the word CHALLENGER is emblazoned across the patch.

Our Mission is STS-8, launched on 30 August, 1983. Third flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the crew consists of Cdr Richard H. Truly, Pilot Daniel Brandenstein, and Mission Specialists Dale Gardner, Willam Thornton, and most notably Guion Bluford, the first African-American in space.

A screenshot of the title screen for the game Space Shuttle Mission Simulator 2007, featuring the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and the Aries-1 Rocket, flying high above the earth.

Artemis II has me back on a Space Flight kick. Working on getting some of the Achievement flights (Go through an entire mission starting at T - 1:50:00 from launch)

I know but it was just very funny because I would KO one guy, and then two more would be swarming in, I'm pretty sure there are like 23 unconscious dudes there

A pile of nazi goons, all of whom have had their asses kicked in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

I mean, only until your cover gets blown hunting for secrets

Things like this prove that across Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch et al, none of these properties deserve Blizzard and Blizzard deserves none of them in return.