Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle, 1981 to 2011: 135 missions, from the first launch of Columbia to the last landing of Atlantis. Spacewalks, the visits to Mir, the first pieces of the space station and the orbiters on the ground.

31 photographs · 1977 to 2011 · Mission 6 of 14
31 photographs
The Zarya and Unity modules joined in orbit, Endeavour, 13 December 1998
Endeavour · 13 December 1998STS088-703-022

The First Two Pieces

Sergei Krikalev made the flyaround photographs, three days after he and Bob Cabana opened the hatch and went in together.
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Spectators at Jetty Park waiting for the first Space Shuttle launch, STS-1, 12 April 1981
STS-1 · 12 April 1981KSC-81PC-0418

Waiting on the Beach

About 6,000 people spent the night on this one beach so as not to miss the first Space Shuttle launch.
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Atlantis docked to Mir, seen from a Soyuz, Atlantis, 4 July 1995
Atlantis · 4 July 1995STS071-S-072

The Station Left Empty

Both crews were aboard the shuttle. The two photographers were outside in a Soyuz.
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Columbia lifting off from Launch Complex 39A, Columbia, 16 January 2003
Columbia · 16 January 2003KSC-03PP0142

The Oldest of the Fleet

Columbia was the first shuttle ever to reach space. This was the twenty eighth time she left the pad.
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Discovery docked with a handcart on the station truss, Discovery, 3 August 2005
Discovery · 3 August 2005S114-E-6455

A Handcart in Orbit

The trolley at the left runs on rails along the truss. Spacewalkers push it by hand.
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Atlantis payload bay with docking system and Spacehab, Atlantis, 14 January 1997
Atlantis · 14 January 1997STS081-716-056

The Day Before Docking

Everything in that bay was about to be carried across to a Russian station.
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NASA's B-52B streaming an experimental drag chute over Rogers Dry Lake, Shuttle drag chute tests, 2 August 1990
Shuttle drag chute tests · 2 August 1990EC90-225-30

A Chute for the Shuttle

NASA's B-52 flew eight of these deployments in one summer, at 160 to 230 miles an hour.
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Galileo leaving the payload bay of Atlantis, Galileo, 18 October 1989
Galileo · 18 October 1989S34-71-000AK

The Long Way Round

Galileo could not fly straight to Jupiter. It had to go to Venus first.
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Columbia clearing Launch Complex 39A, Columbia, 12 April 1981
Columbia · 12 April 1981S81-30503

Bird Over the Pad

No Space Shuttle had ever flown. NASA put two men aboard for the first powered flight anyway.
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Challenger moving through fog toward the launch pad, Challenger, 30 November 1982
Challenger · 30 November 1982KSC-82PC-1325

Above the Fog

The tower in the distance is the launch pad. The fog is the three and a half miles in between.
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The first Space Shuttle external tank leaving the line at Michoud, Space Shuttle, 9 September 1977
Space Shuttle · 9 September 1977MSFC-7783349

The Tank That Never Flew

It was built for the ground. The shuttle's engines were fired with it bolted into a test stand.
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The completed International Space Station from Atlantis, Atlantis, 19 July 2011
Atlantis · 19 July 2011S135-E-011857

A Crew of Four

The smallest shuttle crew since 1983, flown small on purpose. There was no second orbiter left to come and get them.
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Challenger climbing away from Launch Complex 39A, Challenger, 3 February 1984
Challenger · 3 February 1984S84-26294

Carrying the Jetpack

Bruce McCandless is inside. Four days later he flew away from the orbiter with nothing attached to him.
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Bruce McCandless with the jet backpack, small above Earth's horizon, STS-41-B, 7 February 1984
STS-41-B · 7 February 1984S84-27031

Untethered Above Earth

The first spacewalk with no line to the ship. Twenty-four small nitrogen jets were all he had to get back.
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Anatoly Solovyev in a Houston Rockets shirt aboard Mir, STS-71, 1995
STS-71 · 1995STS071-122-021

Houston Rockets on Mir

The station had been lived in without a break since 1989, and it shows.
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Atlantis docked to Mir above the Black Sea, Atlantis, July 1995
Atlantis · July 1995STS071-741-004

Atlantis Docked to Mir

A fisheye lens, pressed to a window on the Russian station, bends a quarter of the planet around the orbiter.
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Endeavour's open payload bay with Hubble repair equipment, Endeavour, 4 December 1993
Endeavour · 4 December 1993STS061-79-041

Everything Hubble Needed

Endeavour's cargo bay, hours before a Swiss astronaut reached out with a Canadian arm and caught the telescope.
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Heat shield tiles on the underside of Atlantis, Atlantis, 31 May 2011
Atlantis · 31 May 2011JSC2011E059495

No Two Tiles Alike

An orbiter carried about 24,300 of them. Each one was cut for a single place on the vehicle and glued there by hand.
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Sally Ride at the flight deck windows, Challenger, June 1983
Challenger · June 1983STS007-05-029

Youngest American in Space

Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space. She got there by answering a notice in a student newspaper.
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Mir with the edge of the atmosphere behind, Atlantis, 4 July 1995
Atlantis · 4 July 1995STS071-744-033

Mir From a Distance

The first time an American spacecraft undocked from a Russian station, Atlantis flew around it once and photographed it.
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The International Space Station with its first five modules, Discovery, 20 August 2001
Discovery · 20 August 2001STS105-707-022

Five Rooms So Far

Zarya, Unity, Zvezda, Destiny and the new Quest airlock. Everything else was still waiting on the ground.
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Atlantis lifting off from Launch Complex 39A, Atlantis, 14 May 2010
Atlantis · 14 May 2010STS132-S-048

Not the Last Flight

Atlantis was booked to retire after this launch. She flew once more, and closed the programme.
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Patrick Forrester opening a materials experiment case outside, STS-105, 16 August 2001
STS-105 · 16 August 20010201584

A Suitcase Left Outside

Patrick Forrester has the lid open on a case of material samples, bolted to the airlock to see what space does to them.
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A crew member floating through the Atlantis to Spacehab tunnel, Atlantis, 24 September 1996
Atlantis · 24 September 1996S79E5371

Half a Year Aboard

The tunnel to the Spacehab module, on the mission that brought Shannon Lucid home.
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Bruce McCandless flying free with the jet backpack, STS-41-B, 7 February 1984
STS-41-B · 7 February 1984STS41B-35-1613

Nothing Holding Him

No line, no arm, no handhold. He flew out 320 feet from the shuttle and flew back.
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Atlantis touching down with its drag chute out, Atlantis, 21 July 2011
Atlantis · 21 July 2011KSC-2011-5718

The Last Wheels Down

Five fifty-seven in the morning, with the marsh beside the runway holding the light.
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Kathryn Sullivan viewing Earth through binoculars, Challenger, October 1984
Challenger · October 198441G-11-027

Earth Through Binoculars

The woman at the window is Kathryn Sullivan. On this flight she became the first American woman to walk in space.
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Pavel Vinogradov seen through the hatch window, Endeavour, 24 January 1998
Endeavour · 24 January 1998STS089-349-021

A Face Through the Hatch

Pavel Vinogradov looks out at the shuttle crew waiting on the other side of the glass.
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Atlantis on final approach before dawn, Atlantis, 21 July 2011
Atlantis · 21 July 2011KSC-2011-5842

One Approach Only

A returning shuttle was a glider. There was no engine left to go around and try again.
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Enterprise falling away from its Boeing 747 carrier, Enterprise, 13 September 1977
Enterprise · 13 September 1977S77-28137

Seconds After Release

Enterprise had no engines and no heat shield. It was never going to space.
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Enterprise banking over the California desert, Enterprise, 13 September 1977
Enterprise · 13 September 1977S77-28138

Nothing but Altitude to Spend

Gordon Fullerton made this frame from a chase plane, with a handheld Nikon and a 50mm lens.
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The Space Shuttle, 1981 to 2011: 135 missions, from the first launch of Columbia to the last landing of Atlantis. Spacewalks, the visits to Mir, the first pieces of the space station and the orbiters on the ground.

31 photographs · 1977 to 2011 · Mission 6 of 14
About Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle flew 135 missions between 12 April 1981 and 21 July 2011. The collection starts earlier, with Enterprise released from its 747 in 1977, an orbiter built for landing tests that never went to space. It holds the first launch, Sally Ride on the flight that made her the first American woman in space, and Bruce McCandless flying free of Challenger with no tether in February 1984. It follows the orbiters to Mir, to Hubble and to the first two modules of the International Space Station, and ends with Atlantis landing for the last time.