STS-48 (Discovery)

Discovery's crew of five deployed NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite to study human effects on the ozone and performed a variety of experiments.

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

Eight Albino Rats

United States of America

NASA

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

Crossed Kármán Line

STS-61-A (Challenger)

A Space Shuttle mission funded completely by West Germany. This marked the first time payload operations on a U.S. mission were not conducted from NASA centers but from West Germany instead. Challenger flew with the Spacelab module, containing 76 scientific experiments. With eight crewmembers, this mission holds the record for "most people on a single spacecraft for launch and landing."

STS-29 (Discovery)

This mission deployed the fourth NASA TDRS satellite and conducted a variety of experiments.

STS-51-C (Discovery)

The first classified Department of Defense Space Shuttle mission. Discovery was launched at or near the minimum air temperature the Solid Rocket Boosters were certified for at the time. After launch, it was discovered that a significant anomaly with all the O-ring seals on both Solid Rocket Boosters had occurred. All O-rings were found to be burned. In one place, the hot gasses from the rocket boosters had burned completely through the primary O-ring and nearly burned through the secondary seal -- which would have caused a Challenger-like failure. Morton Thiokol (who built the solid rockets) and NASA upper management both dismissed concerns raised by this finding. The Space Shuttle kept flying.

James F. Buchli

STS-51-G (Discovery)

Discovery's crew deployed three satellites for Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and the U.S. They also released the Spartan 1 free-flying science platform for a few days of independent flight before re-capturing it and bringing it back to Earth. The mission marked the first time an Arab, Muslim, and member of a royal family flew to space.

STS-36 (Atlantis)

Classified Department of Defense mission. This mission holds the record for highest orbital inclination ever achieved by a U.S. human spaceflight at 62 degrees.

John Creighton

STS-28 (Columbia)

Mark N. Brown

STS-38 (Atlantis)

STS-62 (Columbia)

This microgravity science mission studied the effects of long duration spaceflight and carried engineering and technology demonstration payloads in the Space Shuttle's cargo bay.

Charles D. Gemar

STS-60 (Discovery)

This was the first flight of the Shuttle-Mir program, the first time a Russian launched on an American rocket, and the first time a U.S. crew communicated with a Russian crew on the Mir space station. The mission also performed several immune system and crystal growth experiments.

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