STS-135 video: Solid rocket booster cameras

A five-week, 5,000-mile sea trek of the last space shuttle external fuel tank pulled into port today for a parade through the urban jungle of Southern California on Saturday to its final destination.

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.

VIDEO: The winged spaceship Columbia returned to Earth with a pinpoint landing at Edwards Air Force Base on this day 35 years ago, concluding the maiden flight of the space shuttle.