STS-135 crew module camera: astronauts rocket off the launch pad

America’s first space shuttle launched on this day 35 years ago as the reusable flying machine, Columbia, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center with John Young and Bob Crippen aboard.

Thirty years after the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated in the clear, cold sky high above Cape Canaveral, the commander’s widow no longer feels anger at NASA and the management missteps and schedule pressure that kept the orbiters flying despite a fatal flaw in their solid-fuel boosters.

Video highlights of the 50th Atlas 5 flight. The United Launch Alliance rocket carried the eighth Global Positioning System (GPS 2F-8) satellite for the U.S. Air Force.