STS-4 was the fourth NASA Space Shuttle mission, and also the fourth for Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission launched on 27 June 1982 and landed a week later on 4 July. STS-4 was the final test flight for the shuttle; it was thereafter officially declared to be operational. Columbia carried numerous scientific payloads during the mission, as well as military missile detection systems.
STS-4, being the last test flight of the Space Shuttle, was also the last to carry a crew of two astronauts. Commander Ken Mattingly had previously flown as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 16, and was also the original Command Module Pilot for Apollo 13 before being infamously replaced by his backup, Jack Swigert. Mattingly was also instrumental in returning the Apollo 13 crew safely back to Earth after the accident that prevented them from landing on the Moon. Hartsfield was a rookie who had transferred to NASA in 1969 after the cancellation of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. He had previously served as a capsule communicator on Apollo 16, all three Skylab missions, and STS-1.
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