OTD in 1991, the crew of #Atlantis became the last shuttle astronauts to land on a dry lakebed runway & with no family to welcome them home. […]
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OTD in 1985, the crew of Challenger suffered a close-call on the launch pad: a shutdown of the shuttle’s main engines, seconds before liftoff. […] 
Steve Hawley releases the Hubble Space Telescope from Discovery’s robotic arm, on this day in 1990. Photo Credit: NASA Thirty years ago today, the hands of humans and robots parted company with the Hubble Space Telescope for the final time before it began its momentous voyage to explore the Universe. Almost two decades in […] 
Dave Griggs, pictured during the Space Shuttle program’s first contingency spacewalk in April 1985, lost his life 30 years ago this month. Photo Credit: NASA Thirty years ago, America’s Space Shuttle program had risen from the depths of despair—following the calamitous loss of Challenger—to a triumphant return-to-flight and the three surviving orbiters, Columbia, Discovery […] 
Don Peterson (right) eats and confers with Commander Paul “P.J.” Weitz during STS-6. Weitz died last year. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de Veteran astronaut Don Peterson, who flew aboard STS-6, the maiden voyage of orbiter Challenger, performed the first-ever spacewalk from the shuttle airlock and might—had the hands of fate turned […] 
Fred Gregory leads the STS-44 crew out of the Operations & Checkout (O&C) Building at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), 25 years ago, this week. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de Twenty-five years ago, this week, what should have been the third-longest space shuttle mission of its time—and the longest Department of Defense […] 
The Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite, attached to is Boeing-built Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster, is deployed from Atlantis’ payload bay at the beginning of the STS-44 mission. Photo Credit: NASA A quarter-century has now elapsed since a space shuttle mission was forced to come home early, having already lost its original commander […] 
Upon touchdown on 7 December 1996, Columbia and her STS-80 crew set an empirical record for the longest single mission of the Space Shuttle Program. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de When the crew of STS-80—launched 20 years ago, this week—were assigned to their mission in January 1996, theirs was expected to be […] 
Columbia roars to orbit on 19 November 1996, 20 years ago, today. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de Twenty years ago, today, on 19 November 1996, the longest space shuttle mission in history got underway with the spectacular liftoff of Columbia from Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. During […] |
 NASA will test fire the 212 foot tall core stage of SLS on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center. Programming starts at 3:20 Eastern, test fire from 4pm. Click here for more details...  |
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