STS-42 (Discovery)

This Spacelab mission focused on the effects of weightlessness on numerous organisms and crystals.

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

Some Yeast

United States of America

NASA

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

STS-7 (Challenger)

STS-7 marked the first time an American woman (third woman overall) flew in space. The mission deployed two communications satellites for Canada and Indonesia and carried the West German-built Shuttle Pallet Satellite containing numerous experiments.

STS-51-B (Challenger)

A co-sponsored ESA/NASA scientific research flight of Spacelab. This was Spacelab's second flight and hosted a range of 15 scientific experiments. During launch, a second significant burn through of the O-ring seal between the Solid Rocket Booster segments occurred as it had on STS-51-C. According to the mission's Commander, the flight came within 0.3 seconds of a Challenger-like burn through event. Morton Thiokol (who built the solid rockets) and NASA upper management again dismissed concerns. The Space Shuttle kept flying.

STS-30 (Atlantis)

Atlantis' five-person crew deployed the Magellan spacecraft to study Venus. This was the first human mission to deploy a spacecraft to another planet.

Soyuz TM-21

This mission ferried part of the EO-18 crew to Space Station Mir. It was the first Russian flight of the Shuttle-Mir Program, a lead-up to the International Space Station. Upon reaching orbit, this marked the first time 14 people were in space at the same time: three on Soyuz, three on Mir, and seven on Shuttle Endeavour's on-going STS-67 mission. The final EO-18 crewmember was an American astronaut who was delivered to Mir by Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-71.

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

Norman E. Thagard

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.

STS-9 (Columbia)

Germany

A dedicated science flight co-sponsored by NASA and ESA, STS-9 marked the first time an ESA/West German astronaut reached space and the first time a non-American launched on a U.S. mission.

Ulf Merbold

STS-57 (Endeavour)

This multifaceted mission saw the crew perform numerous biomedical and materials science experiments, retrieve ESA's European Retrievable Carrier satellite, and perform a spacewalk to test the Space Shuttle arm's ability to perform fine maneuvers while carrying a high-mass object.

STS-51-J (Atlantis)

The maiden flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis. This was a classified Department of Defense mission.

Ronald J. Grabe

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.

STS-26 (Discovery)

The Space Shuttle's triumphant Return To Flight after the Challenger Disaster. Discovery's crew completed many tasks originally planned for STS-51-L/Challenger, verified all critical flight safety upgrades in the wake of the tragedy, and deployed the third TDRS satellite.

David C. Hilmers

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-67 (Endeavour)

Astro-2 was the second Space Shuttle flight dedicated to ultraviolet observations of astronomical objects.

Stephen S. Oswald

STS-51 (Discovery)

This mission deployed NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, deployed and retrieved an ultraviolet telescope, conducted a spacewalk to test the tools that would be used for the upcoming Hubble repair mission, and marked the first time a Space Shuttle flew with a GPS receiver. A July launch attempt ended at T-3 seconds with an on-pad abort and emergency shutdown of Discovery's engines when a failure was detected.

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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