As clouds of smoke billowed into the air, the first Space Shuttle rose from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981. The agency’s Space Shuttle team overcame years of setbacks and delays. The result was a first flight that met all the goals set for the mission. When astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen landed Columbia at Edwards Air Force Base two days later, it was called a “textbook flight.”
“Liftoff of Discovery with a crew of six astronaut heroes and one American legend,” said launch commentator Lisa Malone of NASA Public Affairs as the Space Shuttle mission STS-95 flew into orbit on Oct. 29, 1998. While it was a flight in the late 1990s, it was reminiscent of NASA’s storied past. An international crew lifted off with John Glenn, a member of the Mercury program’s Original Seven astronauts.
NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour first arrived at her home spaceport, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, on May 7, 1991. Following exactly one year of completing assembly, rigorous tests and processing, the newest orbiter “set sail”into the skies over the Atlantic Ocean. The maiden voyage marked one of the most dramatic examples of the value of humans in spaceflight.