April 14, 1981: Landing of Columbia on STS-1

#OTD in 1985…Discovery launched to deploy three satellites and rendezvous with another for daring repair

Studying the atmosphere as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth was the objective of shuttle Atlantis’ STS-45 mission in March 1992.

VIDEO: After a cliff-hangar countdown, Atlantis thunders to life and majestically rockets into history, putting on one last sky show for spectators on NASA’s 135th and final shuttle launch on July 7, 2011. (Membership Required)