STS-61-C was the twenty-fourth mission of the shuttle program and the seventh of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission included the second African-American shuttle pilot, future NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the first Costa Rican born astronaut and the second sitting politican to fly in space: Bill Nelson.
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.
Space Shuttle Columbia (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service, it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members.
Space Shuttle Details
Date of
Birth: Oct. 30, 1946
Age: 78
Date of
Birth: Aug. 19, 1946
Age: 78
Date of
Birth: Sept. 29, 1942
Age: 82
Date of
Birth: Nov. 5, 1948
Age: 76
Date of
Birth: July 13, 1950
Age: 74
Date of
Birth: Dec. 12, 1951
Age: 73
Date of
Birth: April 5, 1950
Age: 74
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
INFO WIKIFirst flight of the Isar Spectrum launch vehicle.
Chinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.
A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Tianlian is a Chinese data tracking and relay communications geostationary satellite series. The TL 2 (Tian Lian 2) satellites represent the second g…
8 satellites for a constellation of satellites developed by Orora Technologies (OroraTech) of Germany, with thermal infrared cameras that can provide…
Classified payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office
6 weather satellites performing atmospheric measurements using GNSS Radio Occultation for a Tianjin based company. Constellation is planned to have a…
Eighth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office t…
A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Last of five batches of five satellites for the French Kinéis IoT constellation designed to operate with 25 nanosatellites of 30 kg each.