CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On a sleepy winter Saturday morning in 2003, most Americans had no idea that seven astronauts were gliding back to Earth after more than two weeks in space. But the whole nation ...

The Space Shuttle programme, developed by NASA, introduced the world’s first reusable spacecraft. Operating from 1981 to 2011, the shuttles carried out 135 missions, completing over 21,000 orbits and ...

On April 14, 1981, the first space shuttle mission returned to Earth after a two-day flight in space. The space shuttle Columbia safely touched down on Rogers dry lake at Edwards Air Force Base in ...

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the date of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. It occurred Feb. 1, 2003. For millions of Americans, it was an event that ...