Shuttle launch: A visual timeline of the shuttle programThe last-ever space shuttle launch planned for Friday is likely to be a no-go due to weather. But when the showers and thunderstorms stop and the last shuttle launches, it will be the end of America’s 30 year shuttle program.
It’s been a program of firsts, with the first American woman in space in 1983, the first untethered space walk in 1984, and the first international space station flight in 1998.
But it’s also been a program of missteps, including the Challenger explosion over the Atlantic Ocean in 1986, and the Columbia shuttle that disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere in 2003, both disasters killing all seven of its crew members