Topics » Science & Technology July 20, 2011

NASA's Space Shuttle Program: 30 Years of Flight

First Shuttle Launch

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Photo: Space Frontiers/Getty Images

Shuttle drawing

x-24B test vehicle

The First External Tank

First Shuttle Launch

Smoke Trails From Challenger

Challenger crew

Birds Flock to STS-27

Engine Maintenance

On the Payload bay

Servicing the Hubble

Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

Columbia 1981 launch

Columbia Debris

Discovery flight deck

Final Shuttle Launch

Atlantis Over Earth

1979 shuttle photo

Discovery sunset

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First Shuttle Launch

A crowd of people watch the launch of STS-1, NASA's first space shuttle mission. Space shuttle Columbia soars into the sky from the Kennedy Space Center and leaves a trail of exhaust smoke. April 12, 1981.