Space Shuttle Timeline

John Young and Robert Crippin pilot the space shuttle Columbia on the maiden flight of the Space Transport System (STS-1).

Space shuttle Challenger is launched.

Sally Ride becomes the first American woman astronaut on the STS-7 flight of Challenger.

The STS-8 Challenger flight introduces Guion S. Bluford, the first African-American astronaut to travel in space.

Astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart make the first untethered space walks (with jet backpacks) on this Challenger flight.

First flight of space shuttle Discovery.

First flight of space shuttle Atlantis.

Atlantis deploys a classified satellite for the Department of Defense.

Challenger explodes 73 seconds into the flight.

The first shuttle flight after the Challenger disaster. Discovery launches a satellite.

The Magellan Venus probe is launched from Atlantis, the first U.S. planetary mission in 11 years and the first launched from a shuttle.

Atlantis launches the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft.

Discovery mission launches the Hubble Space Telescope.

Endeavour’s maiden flight and the first 3-person spacewalk.

This Endeavour flight successfully repairs the optics on the ailing Hubble Space Telescope.

Sergei Krikalev becomes the first Russian cosmonaut on a U.S. shuttle mission.

Eileen Collins becomes the first woman pilot, flying Discovery past the Russian space station Mir.

Space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station.

U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid is dropped off by Atlantis for a 181-day mission on the Mir, setting a record for a woman in space.

The first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, returns to space aboard the Discovery.

Endeavour makes the first human flight to the International Space Station. The construction mission connects the Zarya and Unity modules.

Col. Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to command a shuttle mission. Columbia launches the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

In the eighth shuttle mission to the International Space Station, Discovery picks up the Expedition One crew (delivered to the station in October by a Russian flight) and drops off Expedition Two.

Columbia makes the fourth Hubble Space Telescope maintenance/repair/upgrade visit.

Fifteen minutes before completing its 28th mission, Columbia breaks up with the loss of all seven crew members.

Eileen Collins commands Discovery on the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster. Despite the safety measures, in an incident similar to that which caused the Columbia disaster, some foam insulation broke off the external tank after takeoff. Discovery continues its mission, but NASA grounds any further shuttle flights indefinitely.

The Discovery takes off for the International Space Station on the first Fourth of July liftoff, despite some reservations by the chief safety officer and chief engineer concerning the same foam insulation problem that downed Columbia in 2003 and and also occurred on 2005's shuttle flight.

Endeavour takes off for the International Space Station carrying the first teacher to ever visit space, Barbara Morgan. Morgan was once the backup to Christa McAuliffe, who was originally slated to become the first teacher in space, but was tragically killed in the Challenger disaster of 1986.

Discovery launches into space for a 14-day mission to the International Space Station carrying a new module that will expand the living space in the orbiting labratory.

Endeavour safely returns from its 16-day mission to the International Space Station. The Endeavour delivered the first section of the Japenese Kibo laboratory and a Canadian Space Agency robot called Dextre-every international partner has now contributed a major part to the ISS.

Discovery launches on its final mission and docks with the International Space Station. The crew consisted of six American astronauts, all of whom had been on prior spaceflights, including Commander Steven Lindsey. The crew joined the long-duration six person crew of Expedition 26, who were already aboard the space station. The mission transported several items to the space station, including the Permanent Multipurpose Module Leonardo, which was left permanently docked to one of the station's ports.

When the space shuttle Atlantis rolled into the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, NASA officially retired its Space Shuttle program after 30 years of service.