STS-9 (also referred to as STS-41A and Spacelab 1) was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Launched on November 28, 1983, the ten-day mission carried the first Spacelab laboratory module into orbit, and was Columbia's last flight until STS-61-C in January 1986.
STS-9 was also the last time the original STS numbering system was used until STS-26, which was designated in the aftermath of the 1986 Challenger disaster of STS-51-L. Under the new system, STS-9 would have been designated as STS-41-A. STS-9's originally planned successor, STS-10, was cancelled due to payload issues; it was instead followed by STS-41-B.
STS-9's six-member crew, the largest of any manned space mission at the time, included John W. Young, commander, on his second shuttle flight; Brewster H. Shaw, pilot; Owen Garriott and Robert A. Parker, both mission specialists; and Byron K. Lichtenberg and Ulf Merbold, payload specialists – the first two non-NASA astronauts to fly on the Space Shuttle. Merbold, a citizen of West Germany, was the first foreign citizen to participate in a shuttle flight. Lichtenberg was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to STS-9, the scientist-astronaut Garriott had spent 56 days in orbit in 1973 aboard Skylab. Commanding the mission was veteran astronaut John Young, making his sixth and final flight over an 18-year career that saw him fly twice each in Gemini, Apollo, and the Shuttle, which included two journeys to the Moon and making him the most experienced space traveler to date.
Soldiers of fortune that do conceal
Everything they're afraid to show
Everything they once gave now paid to steal
Oh, the seeds we sow
Soldiers of Fortune in paradise
Have to tell ourselves let go
Running through their veins with water cold as ice
Oh, the seeds we sow
Oh, ta, ta, ta
Oh, ta, ta, ta
Sweet things, pretty things are dying
In the penny arcade of Edgar Allan Poe
Medicine men have all gone spying
Oh, the seeds we sow
Had a dream that you reached for me in the night
Touched me soft and slow
Everything was wrong but everything was right
Oh, the seeds we sow
Oh, ta, ta, ta
Oh, ta, ta, ta
Oh, ta, ta, ta
Oh, ta, ta, ta
Oh, oh, the seeds we sow
Oh, oh, the seeds we sow
Oh, oh, the seeds we sow