STS-104 Post-Flight Presentation

Sixty years ago Monday, a 27-year-old Russian test pilot named Yuri Gagarin strapped into a Vostok capsule in Central Asia and rode into orbit atop a launcher derived from a Soviet nuclear missile, becoming the first human to travel into the void of space. Twenty years later, in 1981, the era of reusable spacecraft dawned with the first launch of NASA’s space shuttle.

Awe-inspiring onboard video views of Atlantis’ launch captured from cameras mounted on the solid rocket boosters. Check out these amazing videos of the spacecraft soaring to orbit on the final space shuttle mission.

A spectacle never seen before — a space shuttle external fuel tank traversing city streets — was witnessed in Los Angeles on Saturday as the relic was moved to the museum that will construct a rocket science attraction.