Space Shuttle
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NASA
Astronauts’ Perspectives on NESC Contributions to Mission Safety and Success
This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The exact date when the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia was lost is readily recalled by Patrick Forrester, as it likely would be for any NASA employee in service that Saturday morning when the Shuttle broke up during reentry. Forrester had flown to ISS for the first time in 2001 aboard Discovery…
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NASA
Jeni Morrison Continues a Family Legacy of Service at NASA
A child of the Space Shuttle Program, Jeni Morrison grew up walking the grounds of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston with her parents and listening to family stories about human spaceflight. Now, with more than 15 years at NASA, Morrison serves as one of Johnson’s Environmental Programs managers. She ensures the center complies with laws that protect its resources…
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NASA
Anatomy of a Space Shuttle
This 2001 illustration labels important parts of a space shuttle orbiter. The orbiter was the heart and brains of the space shuttle and served as the crew transport vehicle that carried astronauts to and from space. The space shuttle was comprised of the orbiter, the main engines, the external tank, and the solid rocket boosters. The space shuttle was the world’s first reusable…
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NASA
A Defining Era: NASA Stennis and Space Shuttle Main Engine Testing
The numbers are notable – 34 years of testing space shuttle main engines at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, 3,244 individual tests, more than 820,000 seconds (totaling more than nine days) of cumulative hot fire. The story behind the numbers is unforgettable. “It is hard to describe the full impact of the space shuttle main engine…
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NASA
Space Shuttle Discovery Lifts Off
The launch of space shuttle Discovery is captured in this April 12, 1985, photo. This mission, STS-51D, was the 16th flight of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, and Discovery’s fourth flight. Discovery carried out 39 missions, more than any other space shuttle. Its missions included deploying and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope and 13 flights to the International Space Station – including the very first docking in 1999.…
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NASA
40 Years Ago: Space Shuttle Atlantis Makes its Public Debut
On March 6, 1985, NASA’s newest space shuttle, Atlantis, made its public debut during a rollout ceremony at the Rockwell International manufacturing plant in Palmdale, California. Under construction for three years, Atlantis joined NASA’s other three space-worthy orbiters, Columbia, Challenger, and Discovery, and atmospheric test vehicle Enterprise. Officials from NASA, Rockwell, and other organizations attended the rollout ceremony. By the time NASA retired Atlantis…
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NASA
30 Years Ago: STS-67, the Astro-2 Mission
On March 2, 1995, space shuttle Endeavour launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its eighth trip into space, on the STS-67 Astro-2 mission. The crew included Commander Stephen Oswald, Pilot William Gregory, Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld, Wendy Lawrence, and Tamara Jernigan – who served as payload commander on the mission – and Payload Specialists Samuel Durrance and Ronald Parise. During their then record setting 17-day mission,…
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NASA
35 Years Ago: STS-36 Flies a Dedicated Department of Defense Mission
On Feb. 28, 1990, space shuttle Atlantis took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on STS-36, the sixth shuttle mission dedicated to the Department of Defense. As such, many of the details of the flight remain classified. The mission marked the 34th flight of the space shuttle, the sixth for Atlantis, and the fourth night launch of the program.…
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NASA
Space Shuttle Endeavour Takes Flight
Blue mach diamonds from the main engine nozzles and bright exhaust from the solid rocket boosters mark the successful launch of space shuttle Endeavour 25 years ago on Feb. 11, 2000. The STS-99 mission crew – including astronauts from NASA, the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), and the European Space Agency (ESA) – were aboard the shuttle. This…
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NASA
25 Years Ago: STS-99, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
On Feb. 11, 2000, space shuttle Endeavour took to the skies on its 14th trip into space on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The international STS-99 crew included Commander Kevin Kregel, Pilot Dominic Gorie, and Mission Specialists Gerhard Thiele of Germany representing the European Space Agency, Janet Kavandi, Janice Voss, who served as payload commander on the mission, and Mamoru Mohri of the National Space Development Agency (NASDA)…
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