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

Two years after it paraded through the streets of Los Angeles following a cross-country ferry flight from Florida, the space shuttle Endeavour was loaded with a Spacehab logistics module ahead of the orbiter’s planned transition to a vertical display on a mock launch pad in 2018.

Making a brief pit shop in San Diego to clear customs today, the museum-bound space shuttle external fuel tank will reach Los Angeles for offloading from the transport barge on Wednesday, just days after a serendipitous rescue of the passengers from a sunken boat in the Pacific.

US-French-Saudi crew launched aboard Discovery with a multi-satellite payload