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.

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

Twelve Albino 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-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.

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

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

Frequent Flyer

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.

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-102 (Discovery)

This Space Shuttle logistics mission resupplied the International Space Station and served as a crew rotation flight between the Expedition 1 and 2 crews.

STS-113 (Endeavour)

Endeavour rotated the Expedition 5 and 6 International Space Station crews and delivered the P1 truss to the ISS. Construction of the ISS was halted after this mission and did not resume until 2006 due to the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia and her seven-person crew on the next Shuttle flight. After four days of landing delays because of weather, this mission holds the record for most delayed landing attempts of a human spaceflight.

STS-32 (Columbia)

This mission saw the deployment of a Defense communications satellite and the years-delayed retrieval of the Long Duration Exposure Facility launched on STS-41-C. Lasting 11 days, NASA used this mission to test a crew's ability to function and fly the Space Shuttle after a long mission.

James D. Wetherbee

STS-39 (Discovery)

This was the first unclassified mission for the Department of Defense and saw the crew operate and perform numerous external and internal scientific experiments.

Charles L. Veach

STS-96 (Discovery)

This flight was a resupply mission of Discovery to stockpile the International Space Station with equipment. The flight delivered parts of the Russian STRELA crane to the Station.

STS-40 (Columbia)

This mission was the fifth flight of Spacelab and the first one dedicated specifically to biological research. It marked the first time three women flew together on a single mission.

STS-67 (Endeavour)

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

STS-80 (Columbia)

This multifaceted science mission deployed and re-captured two satellites and tested the effects of spaceflight on the cardiovascular system. It was the longest Space Shuttle mission, lasting 17 days 15 hours.

Tamara E. Jernigan

STS-68 (Endeavour)

The Space Radar Laboratory-2 mission continued providing researchers with unique data on Earth's ecosystems. A launch attempt in August ended at T-1.9 seconds with an on-pad abort and emergency shutdown of Endeavour's engines when a failure was detected. It was the closest a Space Shuttle ever came to launching without actually leaving the pad.

STS-81 (Atlantis)

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

STS-43 (Atlantis)

This mission launched the fifth TDRS satellite for NASA, conducted radiator testing for use on a future space station, and performed numerous biological experiments.

Michael A. Baker

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.

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