STS-114 Post-Flight Presentation

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.

On the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, crew families, friends and space workers gathered Thursday to remember the 17 men and women who lost their lives on the high frontier, 14 in two space shuttle disasters and three in an Apollo-era launch pad fire 49 years ago Wednesday.

A timelapse video shot inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center chronicles the stacking of the final shuttle mission’s booster, external fuel tank and the addition of the orbiter Atlantis. (Membership Required)