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  • [ May 23, 2025 ] FAA clears SpaceX to launch its 9th Starship super heavy rocket, while Flight 8 mishap investigation continues Mission Reports
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  • [ May 20, 2025 ] New Falcon 9 booster makes its debut on Starlink delivery mission Falcon 9
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STS-1

News

April 12 marks 60 years since Gagarin’s spaceflight, 40 years since shuttle debut

April 12, 2021 Stephen Clark

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.

Video

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

April 14, 2016 Justin Ray

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.

News

April 12, 1981: 35 years since the maiden space shuttle launch

April 12, 2016 Justin Ray

America’s first space shuttle launched on this day 35 years ago as the reusable flying machine, Columbia, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center with John Young and Bob Crippen aboard.

Uncategorized

OTD…April 12 and STS-1 and 51D

April 12, 2015 Justin Ray

#OTD…America’s first shuttle launch in 1981 and another in 1985

News Headlines

  • FAA clears SpaceX to launch its 9th Starship super heavy rocket, while Flight 8 mishap investigation continues
    May 23, 2025
  • SpaceX completes 450th Falcon booster landing during Friday Starlink mission
    May 23, 2025
  • New Falcon 9 booster makes its debut on Starlink delivery mission
    May 20, 2025
  • SpaceX scrubs Monday night Falcon 9 launch minutes before liftoff
    May 19, 2025
  • Department of the Air Force issues draft documents for new SpaceX launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base
    May 19, 2025
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