john f. kennedy space center brevard county, florida - Environmental ...

Space Shuttle Program Historic Properties A-3
NASA Kennedy Space Center
YEAR EVENT
• First member of Congress, Senator Jake Garn, to fly in space (STS-51-D)
• First “abort to orbit” of the Space Shuttle Program (STS-51-F)
• First crosswind landing (STS-51-B)
• First eight-person crew (STS-61-A)
• First Shuttle mission (STS-61-A) managed by a foreign country (West
Germany)
1986 • First Shuttle launch from LC 39B (STS-51-L)
• January 28 Challenger accident (STS-51-L) marks the first in-flight accident
involving a Space Shuttle
• Rogers Commission established to identify the cause of the Challenger
accident. Presents report to the President in June.
1987 • Remains of the Challenger are sealed underground at Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station.
• NASA awards contract to Rockwell for construction of OV-105 (Endeavour)
to replace Challenger
1988 • Return to Flight by Discovery (STS-26)
• Vandenberg Launch Site (VLS) is placed in mothball status
1989 • Space Shuttle Program at VLS is officially terminated
• First (Magellan, STS-30) and second (Galileo, STS-34) launches of planetary
spacecraft
1990 • Hubble Space Telescope (HST) deployment (STS-31)
• Last classified military Shuttle flight (STS-38)
1991 • First spacewalk by U.S. astronauts since 1985 (STS-37)
• First unclassified defense-related mission (STS-39)
• First mission dedicated entirely to understanding the physiological effects of
space flight (STS-40)
• First scheduled landing at KSC since January 1986 (STS-43)
1992 • First flight of Endeavour (STS-49), which included four spacewalks, the
most, to date, on a single mission
• First landing with new synthetic tread tires (STS-50)
• First operational use of drag chute
• Fiftieth flight of the Space Shuttle Program (STS-47)
• Last Shuttle flight carrying a DoD payload (STS-53)
1993 • First flight of Spacehab (STS-57)
• First nighttime landing at KSC (STS-51)
• First servicing of the HST (STS-61)
1994 • MSFC begins development of new super lightweight ET
• First flight of a Russian cosmonaut on the Space Shuttle (STS-60)
• First flight of improved thermal protection tile, Toughened Uni-Piece Fibrous
Insulation (TUFI) (STS-59)
1995 • First docking with Mir, and first time an American lives aboard the Russian
space station (STS-71)
• Discovery (STS-63) is the first Orbiter to complete 20 missions
• First use of the new Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center (JSC)
for Discovery mission STS-70
• First flight of the new Block I SSME (STS-70)
• Second docking with Mir (STS-74)
1996 • STS-75 marks the seventy-fifth Shuttle flight
• First U.S. and world human spaceflight record set by astronaut Shannon
Lucid (STS-79)
• Third (STS-76) and fourth (STS-76) docking with Mir
1997 • Fifth (STS-81), sixth (STS-84), and seventh (STS-86) docking with Mir
October 2007
Archaeological Consultants, Inc.