 The SRMS did not accomplish its first retrieval and payload bay berth until STS-7 in June, 1983.The date of first operation was two months "after" submission of final reports by the eight contractors of NASA’s Space Station Needs, Attributes, and Architectural Options Study.Even though no flight results were available when the final study reports were written, at least three of them identified “berthing” as the primary means of assembling a Space Station from pressurized modules delivered in the Shuttle’s payload bay.