In this image from Sept. 5, 1983, Guion “Guy” Bluford checks out the sample pump on the continuous flow electrophoresis system (CFES) experiment in the middeck of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Challenger. Forty years ago today, he launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, becoming the […]
This week in 2011, space shuttle Atlantis, mission STS-135, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. STS-135 carried the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics, and spare parts to the orbiting lab. This was the final launch of the
This week in 1999, space shuttle Discovery, mission STS-103, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Over the course of three planned extravehicular activities, the STS-103 crew restored Hubble to working order and upgraded some of its systems
This week in 1967, the Apollo 4 mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The mission marked the first launch of the Saturn V rocket. Mission objectives included testing of structural integrity, compatibility of rocket and spacecraft, heat shield and thermal seal integrity, overall reentry
In this image from June 2002, astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Diaz works with a grapple fixture during a spacewalk on the STS-111 mission to perform work on the International Space Station. The first spacewalk of the mission began with the installation of a power and data Grapple fixture (PDGF) for the
At 10:23 a.m. EDT Sept. 12, 1992, Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, launched aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-47 mission. In this image, she had just completed participating in crew egress training for the mission during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. Jemison and Sha
