
As @NASA & America remembers their fallen space heroes this week, AmericaSpace looks back at what Challenger’s STS-51L voyage might have looked like: an ambitious mission tragically cut short. […]
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![]() Startling the birds, Discovery spears from Pad 39B on 13 July 1995. Six weeks earlier, the antics of a pesky Northern Flicker woodpecker had caused an extensive launch delay for STS-70 and extensive embarrassment for NASA. Photo Credit: NASA Over its 30-year career, many things attacked the Space Shuttle, from lawmakers keen to cut […] ![]() Discovery rockets into orbit on STS-29 in March 1989, three decades ago, this month. Photo Credit: NASA Flying in space, remembered astronaut John Blaha—who made the first of his five missions, 30 years ago, this month—vanished in the flicker of an eye. On 13 March 1989, Blaha and his four crewmates launched aboard […] ![]() The base of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), carrying the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, departs Endeavour on 13 January 1993. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de Twenty-five years ago, this week, the crew of STS-54 settled into orbit for one of the shortest shuttle missions of the decade, tasked with deploying the […] ![]() After four months on the ground, United Launch Alliance (ULA) returns to flight on Friday, 18 August, delivering NASA’s latest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) to orbit. Photo Credit: Alan Walters/AmericaSpace United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully delivered the latest member of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) into Geostationary Transfer […] ![]() Originally scheduled to launch on 3 August, NASA’s next Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) will now launch on 18 August, atop an Atlas V 401 booster. Photo: AmericaSpace / Jeff Seibert More than 30 years since its maiden launch—and having enabled near-continuous communications traffic between dozens of Space Shuttle and International Space […] ![]() The infamous image, flashed around the world on 28 January 1986, immediately after Challenger’s tragic destruction. The disaster stalled the shuttle program for almost three years. Photo Credit: NASA Thirty-one years ago, today, on 28 January 1986, one of the worst and most public disasters in U.S. space history unfolded with horrifying suddenness […] ![]() The STS-43 consisted of (from left) David Low, Shannon Lucid, Jim Adamson, John Blaha, and Mike Baker. Theirs was the fifth-longest shuttle mission in history at the time. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de A quarter-century has now passed since five astronauts roared into orbit to complete the fifth-longest space shuttle mission at […] ![]()
Atlantis roars into the late morning Florida sky on 2 August 1991, 25 years ago this month. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de Twenty-five years ago, this month, Space Shuttle Atlantis flew a mission which harked back to the past and set in place a cornerstone to enable the exploration of the […] |