STS-41 (Discovery)

Discovery's crew deployed the Ulysses spacecraft to study the Sun and conducted scientific experiments. One such experiment validated that a stranded satellite's solar arrays posed no risk to a Space Shuttle or its crew, paving the way for STS-49.

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

Sixteen Sprague-Dawley Rats

United States of America

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

This astronaut has spent over a month in space.

Space Resident

First NASA astronaut to live abord the ISS

STS-52 (Columbia)

Columbia's crew deployed the LAGEOS-II satellite for NASA & Italy and carried out a variety of experiments inside and outside of the Shuttle. Some of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's ashes were carried to space on this mission.

Soyuz TM-31

Soyuz TM-31 transported the first residential crew, Expedition 1, to the International Space Station. The ISS crew returned on Space Shuttle mission STS-102 and Soyuz TM-31 brought back the crew launched on Soyuz TM-32.

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-27 (Atlantis)

This Atlantis mission almost didn't make it back to Earth. During launch, debris from the Solid Rocket Booster critically damaged 700 of Atlantis' heat shield tiles, nearly leading to a burn-up and the loss of Atlantis and her seven-member crew during reentry and landing. The classified nature of the mission prevented NASA from doing extensive damage assessment during orbit.

William M. Shepherd

STS-50 (Columbia)

The U.S. Microgravity Laboratory 1 mission tested and proved materials, fluid physics, and biotechnology science operations for what would become the International Space Station.

STS-64 (Discovery)

This multifaceted science mission brought together life and materials science experiments, laser pulse observations of Earth, testing of new spacewalk equipment, and a free-flying release and recapture satellite on a single flight.

STS-28 (Columbia)

Richard N. Richards

STS-53 (Discovery)

Classified Department of Defense mission.

STS-65 (Columbia)

This International Microgravity Laboratory-2 mission featured collaboration between NASA, ESA, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan on a multitude of microgravity and life sciences experiments.

STS-88 (Endeavour)

The first International Space Station construction mission. Endeavour launched the Unity module for the U.S. and met up with the first Russian station module, Zarya ("sunrise"), linking the two modules together in an historic partnership.

Robert D. Cabana

STS-49 (Endeavour)

Space Shuttle Endeavour's maiden voyage. The flight marked the first and to date only three-person spacewalk and saw the crew capture, repair, and re-release the Intelsat IV satellite.

Bruce E. Melnick

STS-61 (Endeavour)

The mission to rescue Hubble. On this flight, Endeavour's seven-person crew saved Hubble by outfitting it with "glasses" to correct the telescope's blurry vision. The crew also significantly upgraded Hubble's instruments and solar arrays. The mission was a success has allowed Hubble to continue its career as a space telescope to this day.

STS-79 (Atlantis)

This fourth Space Shuttle docking to the Russian space station Mir delivered another NASA crewmember to the outpost.

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