Missions typically lasted one to two weeks, concluding with an hourlong reentry descent through Earth's atmosphere and a precision landing. Of those missions, 78 ended with a Kennedy landing 54 concluded with a touchdown on the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in California and one landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.Įach mission began with a thundering liftoff as the shuttle's twin solid rocket boosters ignited, pushing the vehicle with its crew and cargo beyond the bounds of gravity and into the hostile environment of space. Each one began at Kennedy's Launch Complex 39. › View larger image NASA's shuttle fleet - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - flew a total of 135 missions. Image above: Shuttle Discovery touches down on Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility, completing the STS-133 mission. Image above: Shuttle Endeavour is silhouetted against the dawn sky as it rolls to Launch Pad 39A for STS-130 launch preparations. Space shuttle Atlantis completed the program on July 21, 2011, wrapping up the STS-135 mission with a predawn touchdown on the same runway where Columbia first arrived more than 30 years earlier. Image credit: NASA › View larger imageīeginning with space shuttle Columbia's 1979 delivery to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the center has been home to each of the five flown shuttle orbiters for the duration of the Space Shuttle Program. Image above: Space shuttle Atlantis launches Jon the STS-135 mission, the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program.
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