NASA

This astronaut visited the International Space Station.

ISS Visitor

This astronaut crossed the Kármán Line (100 km), the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Crossed Kármán Line

STS-97 (Endeavour)

The last human spaceflight launch of the 20th century delivered the P6 truss containing the first set of solar arrays and batteries for the International Space Station and outfitted a docking port for the following Space Shuttle assembly mission.

The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle

STS-84 (Atlantis)

The sixth Space Shuttle docking to the Russian space station Mir delivered a new NASA crewmember to the outpost. During undocking, Atlantis tested a new European sensor that would be used on Europe's future International Space Station resupply vehicle.

Carlos I. Noriega

United States of America

STS-97 EVA 3

STS-97 EVA 2

STS-97 EVA 1

This astronaut is the first man from Canada to go to space.

First Man from Canada

STS-41-G (Challenger)

The 13th flight of the space shuttle program and the sixth of Challenger, STS-41G holds many distinctions. As the first mission focused almost entirely on studying the Earth, it deployed a satellite, employed multiple instruments, cameras, and crew observations to accomplish those goals. 

The STS-41G crew set several firsts, most notably as the first seven-member space crew. Other milestones included the first astronaut to make a fourth shuttle flight, the first and only astronaut to fly on Challenger three times and on back-to-back missions on any orbiter, the first crew to include two women, the first American woman to make two spaceflights, the first American woman to conduct a spacewalk, and the first Canadian and the first Australian-born American to make spaceflights.

STS-77 (Endeavour)

This multinational Space Shuttle mission saw Endeavour fly with a mix of NASA- and commercially-developed and procured payloads to test advanced biotechnology, electronics, and agriculture space products for the commercial market.

Marc Garneau

Canada

This astronaut is in the top 5% for number of missions.

Frequent Flyer

This astronaut has spent over a month in space.

Space Resident

This astronaut is the first British man to go to space.

First Birtish Man

STS-63 (Discovery)

The second Shuttle-Mir mission saw Discovery approach the station and fly around it, testing critical approach and docking systems for future Shuttle-Mir flights. The mission was the first time a woman piloted a U.S. spacecraft.

Soyuz TMA-3

Soyuz TMA-3 ferried the two-person Expedition 8 crew to and from the International Space Station. ESA astronaut Duque joined for a short duration mission, returning to Earth on Soyuz TMA-2.

Soyuz is a human-carrying capsule built and operated by Russia, capable of transporting up to three people to the Space Station at a time. It has been upgraded numerous times since its first use in the 1960s for the Soviet lunar program and was the only crewed vehicle for the Station from 2011 to 2020.

Soyuz

STS-45 (Atlantis)

This was the first mission of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science pallet, a multinational effort from the U.S., France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Japan.

STS-56 (Discovery)

This was the second flight of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science pallet and focused on the relationship between the Sun and the Earth. The mission deployed and re-captured the SPARTAN-201 satellite.

STS-103 (Discovery)

The third servicing and upgrade mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

C. Michael Foale

United Kingdom

STS-55 (Columbia)

The second German-sponsored Space Shuttle flight saw 88 experiments from 11 nations taken to orbit.  A March launch attempt ended at T-3 seconds with an on-pad abort and emergency shutdown of Columbia's engines after a failure was detected.

STS-91 (Discovery)

This was the ninth and final Space Shuttle docking to Space Station Mir and Discovery's only trip to the Russian space station. Discovery's crew tested new robotic arm software and the Orbiter Space Vision System that would be needed during construction of the International Space Station. This flight returned the final long duration NASA astronaut from Mir.

STS-71 (Atlantis)

In a historic step toward the International Space Station, Atlantis performed the first docking of a U.S. Space Shuttle to the Russian space station Mir. A U.S. astronaut permanently joined Mir's crew.

Charles J. Precourt

Roscosmos

This astronaut is the first woman from Russia to go to space.

First Woman from Russia

Soyuz TM-20

Soyuz TM-20 delivered the EO-17 crew to Space Station Mir. A manual docking was performed after the Soyuz unexpectedly lost automatic tracking of the station.

Yelena V. Kondakova

Russia

This astronaut is in the top 5% for total spacewalking time.

Elite Spacewalker

STS-82 (Discovery)

The second Hubble Space Telescope upgrade mission. Discovery's crew improved Hubble's instruments and boosted its altitude to 620 km, the farthest from Earth a Space Shuttle ever traveled.

STS-66 (Atlantis)

This was the third Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Sciences mission.

STS-115 (Atlantis)

Atlantis' crew resumed construction of the International Space Station with the delivery and installation of the P3/P4 truss, solar arrays, and batteries.

Joseph R. Tanner

CNES

Jean-François Clervoy

France

STS-93 (Columbia)

On the first U.S. spaceflight commanded by a woman, Columbia's five-person crew successfully deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

STS-114 (Discovery)

STS-114 was the first of two Return To Flight missions for the Space Shuttle after the STS-107/Columbia accident and the second time Discovery flew the program's Return To Flight mission. The flight coincidentally launched at the exact same local time at the launch site (10:39:00 am Eastern) as when Columbia had launched on STS-107. This was the second Shuttle flight commanded by a woman. Discovery's crew resupplied the International Space Station, demonstrated some safety upgrades/improvements, and performed the first in-space repair of a Shuttle's heat shield. A large foam shedding event during launch grounded the Shuttle and proved NASA had not completely solved the issue that brought down Columbia and her crew. This and Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans (where the External Tanks were built) resulted in a year-long stop of Shuttle launches.

Eileen M. Collins

STS-81 (Atlantis)

The fifth Space Shuttle docking to the Russian Mir space station delivered a new NASA crewmember to the outpost.

STS-72 (Endeavour)

This was a NASA-Japan co-sponsored flight to retrieve Japan's Space Flyer Unit as well as deploy and re-capture the free-flyer science platform.

Brent W. Jett

STS-106 (Atlantis)

This was the third of three missions to prepare the International Space Station for permanent human habitation, delivering and unpacking vital supplies and connecting cables and data lines to Russia's newly arrived Zvezda service module.

Soyuz TMA-2

Soyuz TMA-2 ferried the two-person Expedition 7 crew to and from the International Space Station. It marked the first time Soyuz was used to transport long duration Expeditions to the ISS, a role it has performed ever since. This marked a reduction in ISScrew from three to two people.

Edward T. Lu

STS-86 (Atlantis)

The seventh Shuttle-Mir docking delivered a new NASA crewmember to the Russia station. This was Shuttle Atlantis' seventh and final back-to-back mission to Mir.

STS-110 (Atlantis)

Atlantis delivered the S0 truss to the International Space Station, the backbone of the international outpost. Jerry Ross became the first person to launch to space seven times.

Get the Supercluster App

Donate to Support Supercluster

Supercluster on Patreon

Fact of the Day

Want more space stories?

GET THE SUPERCLUSTER APP

THE SUPERCLUSTER PODCAST

Donate to support

The Supercluster App

Featuring our global Launch Tracker, interactive Astronaut Database, and Stations Dashboard.

Stay on top of everything leaving Earth; get mission info, countdowns, livestreams, and customized notifications that alert you when a rocket is launching or when a space station is in the skies overhead.

Download