Shuttle History Timeline
April 12, 1981: Columbia becomes the first space shuttle to orbit the Earth.
A view from inside bay three of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) shows the Space Shuttle Discovery washed in white xenon light as it makes a nighttime departure from the VAB on its way to Pad 39B for mission STS-26. (NASA photo)
May 25, 1982: More than 6,000 Rockwell employees welcome President Ronald Reagan to the Downey, Calif., plant. This was the plant's first-ever visit by a President of the United States. President Reagan, with Mrs. Reagan, makes a return trip to Southern California on July 4, 1982, to view the shuttle Columbia land at Edwards Air Force Base, marking the end of the test phase of the program.
February 28, 1983: England's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit Rockwell's Downey, Calif., plant, where the queen tours the facility and "flies" the shuttle spacecraft flight simulator.
April 4, 1983: Challenger is launched on its first mission.
February 7, 1984: Bruce McCandless becomes the first person to walk in space without being fastened to a spacecraft. He flies 320 feet away from the orbiter Challenger.
August 30, 1984: Discovery is launched on its first mission.
October 3, 1985: Atlantis makes its first flight.
November 18, 1985: The Enterprise test shuttle, no longer needed, is turned over to the Smithsonian Institution. (It was not put on public display until a sufficiently large facility, the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, opened at Dulles Airport on Dec. 15, 2003.)
January 28, 1986: Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff; its seven-member crew is lost.
September 29, 1988: Following major design modifications, the space shuttle program returns to flight with the launch of Discovery.
May 4, 1989: Atlantis is launched on a mission that deploys the Magellan/Venus radar mapper spacecraft and attached Inertial Upper Stage (IUS). The IUS sends the spacecraft on a trajectory to Venus.
October 18, 1989: Atlantis is launched, carrying the Galileo/Jupiter Spacecraft and attached Inertial Upper Stage. Galileo is sent on a six-year trip to Jupiter.
April 25, 1990: The Hubble Space Telescope is deployed from the space shuttle Discovery.
October 6, 1990: Discovery is launched, carrying the European Space Agency-built Ulysses spacecraft to explore the polar regions of the sun. Two upper stages are used to deploy the spacecraft.
The Rotating Service Structure is rolled back from Space Shuttle Columbia on Launch Pad 39-B, in preparation for launch of mission STS-93. (NASA photo)
April 5, 1991: Atlantis is launched. On the third day of the mission it deploys the Gamma Ray Observatory, the first observatory to be deployed by a shuttle since the Hubble Space Telescope.
May 7, 1992: Endeavour is flown for the first time. It includes a number of technical improvements, including the first use of a drag chute during landing. During the mission Endeavour captures the INTELSAT VI satellite, which had been stranded in an unusable orbit since its launch in 1990. The satellite is equipped with a new motor and fired into geosynchronous orbit.
August 17, 1993: NASA selects Boeing as the prime contractor for the International Space Station.
December 2, 1993: Endeavour is launched on a highly successful 11-day mission to upgrade and service the Hubble Space Telescope, correcting a serious optical problem. It is one of the most challenging and complex manned space missions ever attempted.
June 29, 1995: Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir, marking the first time since the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz project that the two nations had docked in space.
December 6, 1996: Boeing purchases the aerospace and defense units of Rockwell International, which includes the Space Shuttle program.
October 29, 1998: John Glenn -- who, in 1962, became the first American to orbit the Earth -- is launched into space on the space shuttle Discovery. At age 77, he becomes the oldest person to fly in space.
December 4, 1998: The space shuttle fleet's role in the construction of the International Space Station begins. Endeavour carries the Unity Node into orbit and mates it with the Zarya Control Module, which had been launched atop a Russian Proton rocket on Nov. 20.
Shuttle Discovery backs out of Orbiter Processing Facility-3 during a move called "rollover" to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in preparation for launch to the International Space Station on the STS-133 mission. (NASA photo)
July 23, 1999: Columbia is launched, carrying the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Chandra becomes the second observatory to be deployed by a shuttle since the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990.
May 19, 2000: The launch of Atlantis introduces a host of enhancements, including an adaptation of the glass cockpit system used in the Boeing 777.
February 7, 2001: The crew of Atlantis installs the Boeing-built Destiny Laboratory Module at the International Space Station. Destiny provides a shirtsleeve environment for research projects in life sciences, microgravity sciences, Earth science and space science.
March 1, 2001: The crew of Columbia launches to install a new camera and other upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope.
February 1, 2003: Columbia and its seven astronauts are lost when the vehicle breaks up over Texas during re-entry.
January 14, 2004: President George W. Bush announces a new Vision for Space Exploration. It includes the space shuttle's return to flight as soon as possible, consistent with the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The shuttle's chief purpose will be to help finish the assembly of the International Space Station. Afterward, the shuttle fleet will be retired.
July 26, 2005: The space shuttle program returns to flight with the launch of Discovery.
August 8, 2007: Endeavour becomes the first orbiter to use the Boeing-designed Station Shuttle Power Transfer system, which allows the space station to power the orbiters with its solar arrays.
March 11, 2008: Endeavour begins a 16-day flight, the longest shuttle mission to the International Space Station to date.
May 11, 2009: The crew of Atlantis launches on the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
April 12, 2011: The 30th anniversary of the first orbital flight of a space shuttle orbiter (Columbia) is observed.
2011: NASA phases out the space shuttle program with a final series of missions.