Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle Emblem

Project Summary

In 1961, with the successful X-15 project already into its third year, the U.S. Air Force began to map out a strategy for waging war against the Soviet Union in space. By 1963, plans were being developed for a winged, reusable spacecraft using technology being tested by the X-15. The craft, called the Dyna-Soar (for "dynamic soaring") had a smaller, but similar shape to the space shuttle. It would have been launched atop a Titan III booster rocket and glideed back to a runway landing. But the project was cancelled in December 1963, before it every really "got off the ground," for budgetary reasons.

Officially the Space Transportation System (STS), the space shuttle was the fulfillment of the dream of winged flight into space that was the goal of the test pilots who flew the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft during the period 1959 to 1968 and the Air Force personnel who worked on the Dyna-Soar program. After the successful Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) of the prototype space shuttle, Enterprise, the first flight into space was made in 1981 by the space shuttle Columbia. Twenty-three more successful shuttle missions followed, until disaster struck on January 28, 1986. On that day, the 7-person crew -- Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnick, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe -- died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded only seconds after launch. As it did after the Apollo (AS-204) fire 19 years earlier, NASA picked itself up, corrected the problems, and began flying again. As of December 2002, more than 112 successful space shuttle missions had been flown. However, tragedy again struck the space shuttle program on February 1, 2003, when the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing the 7-person crew -- Rick Husband, William McCool, David Brown, Kalpana Cawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, and Israeli astronaut Ilan Roman. Space shuttle flights did not start again for 2-1/2 years, while changes were made to the shuttle to try to prevent similar accidents in the future.

With the landing of space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in the early morning of July 21, 2011, the Space Shuttle Program came to an end after 135 missions (including the last flights of Challenger and Columbia). The space shuttle fleet travelled more than 542 million miles in space and saw the successful completion of construction of the international space station. Unfortunately, with the planned follow-on Constellation program halted and future manned spaceflight plans still taking shape, for the immediate future, the United States finds itself without the ability to launch astronauts into space. U.S. members of future Space Station crews will have to ride into space aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft. NASA is looking to commercial firms to develop and provide future American low-orbit launch capabilities, while NASA concentrates on future deep space missions to the asteroids and Mars.

(Note: For space shuttle missions 10 through 25, NASA used a numbering system that related to the year in which each mission was originally intended to fly.)

Missions Flown

                                 # of Flt.                           
  Date       Spacecraft Name     Crew Days      Mission/Payload      
-------- ----------------------- ---- ----  ------------------------ 
Manned Flight Details 1
08/12/77 ALT-1 (Enterprise)        2     0  Unpowered test           
09/13/77 ALT-2 (Enterprise)        2     0  Unpowered test           
09/23/77 ALT-3 (Enterprise)        2     0  Unpowered test           
10/12/77 ALT-4 (Enterprise)        2     0  Unpowered test           
10/28/77 ALT-5 (Enterprise)        2     0  Unpowered test           
04/12/81 STS-1 (Columbia)          2     2  No payload               
11/12/81 STS-2 (Columbia)          2     2  Science payload          
03/22/82 STS-3 (Columbia)          2     8  Science payload          
06/27/82 STS-4 (Columbia)          2     7  DoD payload              
11/11/82 STS-5 (Columbia)          4     5  Deploy 2 comsats         
04/04/83 STS-6 (Challenger)        4     5  Deploy TDRS 1            
06/18/83 STS-7 (Challenger)        5     6  Deploy 3 comsats         
08/30/83 STS-8 (Challenger)        5     6  Deploy 1 comsat          
11/28/83 STS-9 (Columbia)          6    10  Spacelab 1               
02/03/84 STS-10/41B (Challenger)   5     8  Deploy 2 comsats         

Manned Flight Details 2
04/06/84 STS-11/41C (Challenger)   5     7  Repair Solar Max - LDEF  
08/30/84 STS-12/41D (Discovery)    6     6  Deploy 3 comsats         
10/05/84 STS-13/41G (Challenger)   7     8  Deploy ERBS              
11/08/84 STS-14/51A (Discovery)    5     8  Retrieve 2 comsats       
01/22/85 STS-15/51C (Discovery)    5     3  Deploy 1 DoD sat         
04/12/85 STS-16/51D (Discovery)    7     7  Deploy 2 comsats         
04/27/85 STS-17/51B (Challenger)   7     7  Spacelab 3               
06/17/85 STS-18/51G (Discovery)    7     7  Deploy 3 comsats         
07/29/85 STS-19/51F (Challenger)   7     8  Spacelab 2               
08/27/85 STS-20/51I (Discovery)    5     7  Repair Syncom IV-3       

Manned Flight Details 3
10/03/85 STS-21/51J (Atlantis)     5     4  Deploy 2 DOD sats        
10/30/85 STS-22/61A (Challenger)   8     7  Spacelab D-1             
11/16/85 STS-23/61B (Atlantis)     7     7  Deploy 3 comsats         
01/12/86 STS-24/61C (Columbia)     7     7  Deploy 1 comsat          
01/28/86 STS-25/51L (Challenger)   7     0  Shuttle lost at launch   
09/29/88 STS-26 (Discovery)        5     4  Deploy TDRS 3            
12/02/88 STS-27 (Atlantis)         5     4  Deploy DOD sat           
03/13/89 STS-29 (Discovery)        5     5  Deploy TDRS 4            
05/04/89 STS-30 (Atlantis)         5     4  Deploy Magellan          
08/08/89 STS-28 (Columbia)         5     5  Deploy DOD sat           

Manned Flight Details 4
10/18/89 STS-34 (Atlantis)         5     5  Galileo deploy           
11/22/89 STS-33 (Discovery)        5     5  DoD SigInt 2 deploy      
01/09/90 STS-32 (Columbia)         5    11  Retrieve LDEF            
02/28/90 STS-36 (Atlantis)         5     4  Deploy 1 DOD sat         
04/24/90 STS-31 (Discovery)        5     5  Deploy Hubble Telescope  
10/09/90 STS-41 (Discovery)        5     4  Deploy Ulysses           
11/15/90 STS-38 (Atlantis)         5     5  Deploy DOD sat           
12/02/90 STS-35 (Columbia)         7     9  Astro 1 deploy           
04/09/91 STS-37 (Atlantis)         5     6  Deploy Gamma Ray Obs.    
04/28/91 STS-39 (Discovery)        7     8  Deploy DOD sat           
06/05/91 STS-40 (Columbia)         7     9  Space Life Science Lab 1 

Manned Flight Details 5
08/02/91 STS-43 (Atlantis)         5     9  Deploy TDRS 5            
09/12/91 STS-48 (Discovery)        5     5  Deploy UARS              
11/24/91 STS-44 (Atlantis)         6     7  Deploy DOD sat           
01/21/92 STS-42 (Discovery)        7     8  Intl. Microgravity Lab 1 
03/23/92 STS-45 (Atlantis)         7     9  ATLAS 1                  
05/07/92 STS-49 (Endeavour)        7     9  Repair INTELSAT VI       
06/25/92 STS-50 (Columbia)         7    14  U.S. Microgravity Lab 1  
07/31/92 STS-46 (Atlantis)         7     8  Tethered Satellite       
09/12/92 STS-47 (Endeavour)        7     8  Spacelab J-1             

Manned Flight Details 6
10/21/92 STS-52 (Columbia)         6    10  U.S Microgra Payload 1   
12/02/92 STS-53 (Discovery)        5     7  Deploy DOD sat           
01/13/93 STS-54 (Endeavour)        5     6  Deploy TDRS 6            
04/08/93 STS-56 (Discovery)        5     9  ATLAS 2/Spartan 201-2    
04/26/93 STS-55 (Columbia)         7    10  Spacelab D-2             
06/21/93 STS-57 (Endeavour)        6    10  Spacehab 1               
09/12/93 STS-51 (Discovery)        5    10  Deploy ACTS comsat       
10/18/93 STS-58 (Columbia)         7    14  Space Life Science Lab 2 
12/02/93 STS-61 (Endeavour)        7    11  Hubble Service #1        
02/04/94 STS-60 (Discovery)        6     8  Spacehab 2/WSF 1         
03/04/94 STS-62 (Columbia)         5    14  U.S. Micrograv Payload 2 
04/09/94 STS-59 (Endeavour)        6    11  Space Radar Lab 1        

Manned Flight Details 7
07/08/94 STS-65 (Columbia)         7    15  Intl. Microgravity Lab 2 
09/09/94 STS-64 (Discovery)        6    11  Deploy Spartan 2         
09/30/94 STS-68 (Endeavour)        6    11  Space Radar Lab 2        
11/03/94 STS-66 (Atlantis)         6    11  ATLAS 3/SPAS-CRISTA 1    
02/03/95 STS-63 (Discovery)        6     8  Spacehab 3/Mir rendezvous
03/02/95 STS-67 (Endeavour)        7    16  Deploy Astro 2           
06/27/95 STS-71 (Atlantis/Mir 19)  5+2  10  Mir docking #1           
07/31/95 STS-70 (Discovery)        5     9  Deploy TDRS 7            
09/07/95 STS-69 (Endeavour)        5    11  WSF 2/Spartan 201-3      

Manned Flight Details 8
10/20/95 STS-73 (Columbia)         5    16  U.S. Microgravity Lab 2  
11/11/95 STS-74 (Atlantis)         5     8  Mir docking #2           
01/11/96 STS-72 (Endeavour)        6    10  Retrieve SFU/OAST-Flyer  
02/22/96 STS-75 (Columbia)         7    16  USMP 3/Tethered Sat. 1R  
03/22/96 STS-76 (Atlantis/Mir 21)  5+1   9  Mir docking #3           
05/19/96 STS-77 (Endeavour)        6    10  Spacehab 3/Spartan 207   
06/20/96 STS-78 (Columbia)         7    15  Life & Microgravity Lab  
09/16/96 STS-79 (Atlantis/Mir 22)  6+1  10  Mir docking #4           
11/19/96 STS-80 (Columbia)         5    16  WSF 3/SPAS-ORFEUS 2      

Manned Flight Details 9
01/12/97 STS-81 (Atlantis)         5+1  10  Mir docking #5           
02/11/97 STS-82 (Discovery)        7    10  Hubble service #2        
04/03/97 STS-83 (Columbia)         7     4  Microgravity Sci. Lab 1  
05/15/97 STS-84 (Atlantis)         6+1   9  Mir docking #6           
07/01/97 STS-94 (Columbia)         7    16  reflight of STS-83/MSL 1 
08/07/97 STS-85 (Discovery)        6    12  SPAS-CRISTA 2            
09/25/97 STS-86 (Atlantis)         6+1  11  Mir docking #7           
11/19/97 STS-87 (Columbia)         6    16  USMP 4/Spartan 201-4     
01/22/98 STS-89 (Endeavour)        6+1   9  Mir docking #8           
04/18/98 STS-90 (Columbia)         7    16  Neurolab 1               

Manned Flight Details 10
06/02/98 STS-91 (Discovery)        6    10  Mir docking #9           
10/29/98 STS-95 (Discovery)        7     9  Spacehab/Spartan 201-5   
12/04/98 STS-88 (Endeavour)        6    11  ISS #1 - Unity module    
05/27/99 STS-96 (Discovery)        7    10  ISS #2 - Outfitting      
07/23/99 STS-93 (Columbia)         5     5  Chandra XRay Observatory 
12/19/99 STS-103 (Discovery)       7     8  Hubble service #3        
02/11/00 STS-99 (Endeavour)        6    11  Shuttle Radar Topography 
05/19/00 STS-101 (Atlantis)        7    10  ISS #3 - Outfitting      
09/08/00 STS-106 (Atlantis)        7    12  ISS #4 - Zvezda service  
10/11/00 STS-92 (Discovery)        7    11  ISS #5 - Z1 Truss/PMA-3  
11/30/00 STS-97 (Endeavour)        5    11  ISS #6 - P6 Truss/PV mod.
02/07/01 STS-98 (Atlantis)         5    13  ISS #7 - Destiny lab     

Manned Flight Details 11
03/08/01 STS-102 (Discovery)       7    13  ISS #8 - Crew 2/Leonardo 
04/19/01 STS-100 (Endeavour)       7    12  ISS #9 - SSRMS/Rafaello  
07/12/01 STS-104 (Atlantis)        5    13  ISS #10 - Quest airlock  
08/10/01 STS-105 (Discovery)       7    12  ISS #11 - Crew 3/Leonardo
12/05/01 STS-108 (Endeavour)       7    11  ISS #12 - Crew 4/Rafaello
03/01/02 STS-109 (Columbia)        7    11  Hubble service #4        
04/08/02 STS-110 (Atlantis)        7    11  ISS #13 - S0 Truss/Mobile

Manned Flight Details 12
06/05/02 STS-111 (Endeavour)       7    14  ISS #14 - Crew 5/Leonardo
10/07/02 STS-112 (Atlantis)        6    11  ISS #15 - S1 Truss       
11/23/02 STS-113 (Endeavour)       7    14  ISS #16 - Crew 6/P1 Truss
01/16/03 STS-107 (Columbia)        7    16  Shuttle lost on re-entry 
07/26/05 STS-114 (Discovery)       7    14  ISS #17 - Rafaello       
07/04/06 STS-121 (Discovery)       6+1  13  ISS #18 - Leonardo       
09/09/06 STS-115 (Atlantis)        6    12  ISS #19 - P3/P4 Truss    
12/09/06 STS-116 (Discovery)       6+1  13  ISS #20 - P5 Truss       
06/08/07 STS-117 (Atlantis)        6+1  14  ISS #21 - S3/S4 Truss    
08/08/07 STS-118 (Endeavour)       7    14  ISS #22 - S5 Truss       
10/23/07 STS-120 (Discovery)       6+1  15  ISS #23 - Node 2 Harmony 

Manned Flight Details 13
02/07/08 STS-122 (Atlantis)        6+1  13  ISS #24 - Columbus Lab   
03/11/08 STS-123 (Endeavour)       6+1  16  ISS #25 - JLP and Dextre 
05/31/08 STS-124 (Discovery)       6+1  14  ISS #26 - Kibo Lab       
11/14/08 STS-126 (Endeavour)       6+1  16  ISS #27 - Leonardo MPLM  
03/15/09 STS-119 (Discovery)       6+1  13  ISS #28 - S6 Truss       
05/11/09 STS-125 (Atlantis)        7    13  Hubble service mission   
07/15/09 STS-127 (Endeavour)       6+1  16  ISS #29 - JEF for Kibo   
08/28/09 STS-128 (Discovery)       6+1  14  ISS #30 - Leonardo MPLM  
11/16/09 STS-129 (Atlantis)        6    11  ISS #31 - Cargo Delivery 

Manned Flight Details 14
02/08/10 STS-130 (Endeavour)       6    14  ISS #32 - Tranquility Lab
04/05/10 STS-131 (Discovery)       7    15  ISS #33 - Leonardo MPLM  
05/14/10 STS-132 (Atlantis)        6    12  ISS #34 - MRM-1 Rassvet  
02/24/11 STS-133 (Discovery)       6    13  ISS #35 - Leonardo PMM   
05/16/11 STS-134 (Endeavour)       6    16  ISS #36 - AMS-2 and ELC-3
07/08/11 STS-135 (Atlantis)        4    13  ISS #37 - Raffaello MPLM 


| Space Shuttle Photo Album > |


| Home | Intro | Ventures | Sea | Air | Space | SciFi | Racing | Movies | Art | Travel | Exit |

| Intro | X-15 | Mercury | Gemini | Apollo | Skylab | Apollo-Soyuz | Shuttle | Space Station |
| Vostok | Voskhod | Zond | Salyut/Mir | Soyuz | Buran | Shenzhou |
| Photo Album | Fallen Heroes | Unmanned Probes | Bibliography |

Copyright © 1996-2013 Arnold E. van Beverhoudt, Jr.
Email comments or suggestions to: arnoldvb@islands.vi.
Last Updated: July 26, 2011