On October 18, 1989, Space Shuttle Atlantis thundered off Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center carrying the Galileo spacecraft, NASA’s first probe designed to orbit Jupiter and drop a descent module into its atmosphere. The $1.4 billion mission had survived a federal lawsuit from anti-nuclear activists trying to block it over the plutonium powering…
On October 5, 1984, Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 7:03 a.m. on the STS-41-G mission, carrying the largest crew ever flown at that point — seven astronauts, including the first two women to fly together in space and the first Canadian ever to leave Earth. Six days later, mission specialist…
On September 29, 1988, Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-26, sending Americans back into orbit for the first time since the Challenger disaster 32 months earlier. Five veteran astronauts flew the redesigned orbiter to deploy a tracking satellite and prove NASA’s fixes actually worked, landing safely at Edwards Air…
