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Thirty Years of NASA Space Shuttle Missions

The shuttle Columbia lifts off on the first space shuttle mission ever, STS-1, on April 12, 1981.

NASA's space shuttle fleet is hanging up its wings after 30 years. The first shuttle flight, STS-1, launched on April 12, 1981.

NASA's three space shuttles will go to museums in NYC, California, Washington and Florida.
Russia may go ahead with navigation satellite launch on Aug. 25, two days after a Soyuz rocket crash.
The launch of NASA's GRAIL moon-studying spacecraft should go off as planned Sept. 8.
Wednesday's cargo-ship crash was the latest in a series of Russian launch failures in the last year.
By proclamation of Mayor Bloomberg, today is "STS-135 Atlantis Crew Day" in New York.
It's a showdown at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as space shuttle Discovery, at right, faces off with shuttle Endeavour.
Two space shuttles passed each other nose to nose in a first-of-its-kind maneuver for NASA Thursday morning.
NASA contractors are facing big job layoffs following the retirement of the space shuttle program.
Her works now hang alongside those of Rockwell and Warhol.
A cryogenic tank was discovered on the shores of Lake Nacogdoches in Texas and upon closer look by NASA, it was confirmed as debris from the Shuttle disaster. Find out what its function was aboard the Space Shuttle and the importance of its recovery.
The historic MILA tracking station was built in the Apollo era and used for all 135 shuttle flights.
NASA will hang onto many pieces, from the shuttles' windows to the main engines near the tail.
Bryan O'Connor wanted to see out the end of NASA's space shuttle program.
No more shuttles, Pluto has a new moon, Mars rover gets a landing site and more. Vote for the top space story of the week.
Space shuttle Atlantis is slowly towed from the Shuttle Landing Facility to an orbiter processing facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the last time in this amazing space wallpaper.
The end of the NASA's space shuttle era is also the end for thousands of workers who have spent decades working in the program.
Fifty percent of Americans think mothballing the space shuttle fleet will turn out to be bad for the United States.
Following the final space shuttle landing, NASA is looking toward the future.