Space Shuttle Mission Chart STS-7

Created by the Defense Mapping Agency in 1982, this chart forecasts the winding paths that the Challenger space shuttle would follow during an upcoming six-day journey through earth’s orbit. Challenger’s orbits as part of the mission STS-7 are printed on both the front and back of this map with a unique categorical symbology that draws routes using a series of numbers corresponding to the respective orbit. As part of their work on STS-7, the crew—including Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space—deployed a $13 million multispectral scanning satellite called SPAS-01, designed to remotely sense resources on Earth’s surface at a high resolution.