NASA's newest orbiter, Endeavour, built to replace the lost Challenger, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on its first mission. The crew's primary goal was to capture the stranded Intelsat VI satellite, attach a new rocket motor, and send it back into proper orbit — requiring the first three-person spacewalk in spaceflight history after two earlier capture attempts failed.
Endeavour was built using structural spare parts originally intended for Discovery and Atlantis, funded by Congress specifically to restore the four-orbiter fleet after Challenger's destruction in 1986. Its very name was chosen by American schoolchildren in a NASA-sponsored competition, honoring Captain James Cook's HMS Endeavour.
The STS-49 mission became famous for its improvisation. Astronauts Pierre Thuot and Rick Hieb tried twice to snag the drifting Intelsat VI satellite with a specially designed capture bar, but it kept bouncing off. Mission control and the crew scrapped the plan overnight, and on the third attempt three astronauts — Thuot, Hieb, and Tom Akers — floated outside together and grabbed the two-ton satellite by hand, the first and only three-person spacewalk ever performed.
The satellite was successfully fitted with a new engine and released to boost itself into geostationary orbit. The mission also set a record at the time for the longest spacewalk. Endeavour would go on to fly 25 missions before retiring in 2011, including the final shuttle flight to complete the International Space Station's main truss.