Atlantis completed the final Shuttle flight, STS-135, on July 21, 2011. Discovery completed its final flight on March 9, 2011, and Endeavour completed its final flight on June 1, 2011. Seen mounted to the left sill of the cargo hold, the orbiter boom. It carries a crew of six astronauts on an 11-day mission to deliver supplies and a human-like robot to the International Space Station. In 2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry, leaving just three remaining orbiters. The view through the open airlock hatchway out into Atlantis 60-foot-long payload bay. 1, 2003, in which seven astronauts were killed.ĭiscovery blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., for its 39th flight. Space shuttles Discovery and Endeavour stop outside Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3) for a unique photo opportunity, on August 11, 2011. (EDT) on Jon Flight Day 3 of NASAs last shuttle flight. The shuttle carries the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.Įileen Collins becomes the first female to pilot a space shuttle, taking Discovery on NASA's first mission to rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir.Īt age 77, John Glenn returns to space aboard Discovery, becoming the oldest person to travel in space.ĭiscovery is again used for a NASA "Return to Flight" mission following a tragedy - in this case, the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia on Feb. The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station at 11:07 a.m. 2008 launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-124. The final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135, touched down on July 21, 2011. To simplify matters, I ignored those periods when individual Orbiters were grounded for upgrades or other reasons.Discovery undertakes the first shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986, in which seven crew members were killed. NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour flew 135 missions, helped construct the International Space Station and inspired generations. This made me wonder just how many years out of Space Shuttle's 30-year career NASA's fleet included four spaceflight-capable Orbiters. I think that it's the only NASA handout I have that highlights the 1986-1992 three-Orbiter fleet. Space shuttle Atlantis is seen on the runway after making a predawn landing at NASAs Kennedy Space Center on Jto end the agencys 30-year shuttle program. What struck me about it is that it lists only three Orbiters. Endeavour touched down at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in. It dates from 1988, just before Discovery's Return To Flight mission (STS-26, 29 September-3 October 1988). With its final space mission in the history books, the shuttle Endeavour begins preparations for a life of leisure as a museum showpiece. Today I found the NASA Public Affairs fact sheet at the top of this post. Lately I've been sorting through and refiling my collection. When the opportunity arises, I generally collect whatever freebies are on offer. Space shuttle Atlantis (foreground) sits on Launch Pad A and Endeavour on Launch Pad B at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s space shuttle program ended 12 years ago today when Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21, 2011. Over the years I've been to many a space facility in the U.S. This fleet of reusable spacecraft was designed to be our taxi to earth orbit, where we would board spaceships heading for strange new worlds. civilian space agency didn't normally highlight this fact. The vehicle we built to launch those far journeys was the space shuttleColumbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Between 19 - that is, from the time Challenger was destroyed to the time NASA first launched its replacement, the Orbiter Endeavour - NASA's Shuttle fleet numbered just three Orbiters.
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