The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Investigation

Watch the shuttle Atlantis’ backflip, which occurred five years ago today, before docking to the International Space Station.

A last-of-its-kind piece of space hardware — the only remaining shuttle external fuel tank — makes its way along the city streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center.

It was 1986 and the U.S. Air Force was on the cusp of something unprecedented in human spaceflight — launching a space shuttle crew from California and paving the way for people to fly true polar missions.