Less than 9 hours after launch, the crew of the space shuttle Challenger (STS-41-G) deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS). Sally Ride, on her second mission, used the Canadarm to remove the satellite from the payload bay. Then the ERBS fired its on-board thrusters and boosted it into orbit. It was the first spacecraft to be launched and deployed by a space shuttle mission.
One of the solar panels on the ERSB did not extend properly so Ride shook the satellite with the Canadarm for the panel to extend fully. Pilot Jon McBride maneuvered the shuttle away from the satellite when it was finally deployed.
The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE II), an instrument on board the ERSB, measured the decline in ozone over the Antarctic, and the data collected was key in the international community's decisions during the Montreal Protocol Agreement in 1987.
Another instrument was the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Scanner which studied longwave radiation, shortwave radiation, and total energy radiating from Earth. The third instrument was the ERBE non-scanner, which measured the total energy from the sun. Both were included in the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System mission and NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.
The instruments were powered off in August 2005 in preparation for decommissioning. During the decommissioning process, fuel was depleted, batteries were discharged, on-board memory was scrubbed, and the solar arrays were disconnected from the battery.
ERSB re-entered Earth's atmosphere on January 8, 2023.
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