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Space Shuttle Timeline

Overview of two decades of the U.S. shuttle program

by Liz Olson

1980s	1990s	2000s

April 12, 1981	John Young and Robert Crippin pilot the space shuttle Columbia on the maiden flight of the Space Transport System (STS-1).
Nov. 11, 1982	Space shuttle Challenger is launched.
June 18–24, 1983	Sally Ride becomes the first American woman astronaut on the STS-7 flight of Challenger.
Aug. 30, 1983	The STS-8 Challenger flight introduces Guion S. Bluford, the first African-American astronaut to travel in space.
Feb. 7, 1984	Astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart make the first untethered space walks (with jet backpacks) on this Challenger flight.
Aug. 30, 1984	First flight of space shuttle Discovery. Top
Aug. 8, 1985	First flight of space shuttle Atlantis.
Oct. 3–7, 1985	Atlantis deploys a classified satellite for the Department of Defense.
Jan. 28, 1986	Challenger explodes 73 seconds into the flight.
Sept. 29–Oct. 3, 1988	The first shuttle flight after the Challenger disaster. Discovery launches a satellite. Top
May 4, 1989	The Magellan Venus probe is launched from Atlantis, the first U.S. planetary mission in 11 years and the first launched from a shuttle.
Oct. 18, 1989	Atlantis launches the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft.
April 24–29, 1990	Discovery mission launches the Hubble Space Telescope.
May 2–16, 1992	Endeavour’s maiden flight and the first 3-person spacewalk. Top
Dec. 2–13, 1993	This Endeavour flight successfully repairs the optics on the ailing Hubble Space Telescope.
Feb. 3–11, 1994	Sergei Krikalev becomes the first Russian cosmonaut on a U.S. shuttle mission.
Feb. 3–11, 1995	Eileen Collins becomes the first woman pilot, flying Discovery past the Russian space station Mir.
June 27–July 7, 1995	Space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station. Top
March 22–31, 1996	U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid is dropped off by Atlantis for a 181-day mission on the Mir, setting a record for a woman in space.
Oct. 29–Nov. 7, 1998	The first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, returns to space aboard the Discovery.
Dec. 4–12, 1998	Endeavour makes the first human flight to the International Space Station. The construction mission connects the Zarya and Unity modules.
July 22–27, 1999	Col. Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to command a shuttle mission. Columbia launches the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Top
March 8–21, 2001	In the eighth shuttle mission to the International Space Station, Discovery picks up the Expedition One crew (delivered to the station in October by a Russian flight) and drops off Expedition Two.
March 1–12, 2002	Columbia makes the fourth Hubble Space Telescope maintenance/repair/upgrade visit.
Feb. 1, 2003	Fifteen minutes before completing its 28th mission, Columbia breaks up with the loss of all seven crew members.
July 26, 2005	Eileen Collins commands Discovery on the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster. Despite the safety measures, in an incident similar to that which caused the Columbia disaster, some foam insulation broke off the external tank after takeoff. Discovery continues its mission, but NASA grounds any further shuttle flights indefinitely. Top
July 4, 2006	The Discovery takes off for the International Space Station on the first Fourth of July liftoff, despite some reservations by the chief safety officer and chief engineer concerning the same foam insulation problem that downed Columbia in 2003 and and also occurred on 2005's shuttle flight.
August 8, 2007	Endeavour takes off for the International Space Station carrying the first teacher to ever visit space, Barbara Morgan. Morgan was once the backup to Christa McAuliffe, who was originally slated to become the first teacher in space, but was tragically killed in the Challenger disaster of 1986.
October 23, 2007	Discovery launches into space for a 14-day mission to the International Space Station carrying a new module that will expand the living space in the orbiting labratory.
March 26, 2008	Endeavour safely returns from its 16-day mission to the International Space Station. The Endeavour delivered the first section of the Japenese Kibo laboratory and a Canadian Space Agency robot called Dextre—every international partner has now contributed a major part to the ISS.

Related Links

• Space Accidents
• Profiles of the Columbia Astronauts
• More about Space Exploration
• More Timelines