Atlantis blasts off for last time

THE American space shuttle programme which has been running for 30 years has had its last flight takeoff.  Atlantis blasted into the sky from its base at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday afternoon.  This will be the 135^th mission, which has seen the reusable spacecraft go through periods of triumph and tragedy.  Sadly, the programme won’t be remembered very fondly with space experts, nor American astronauts. 

Below are ten random facts about the space shuttle and ten moments from its 30-year timeline.

FACTS

• 1.       Five space shuttles were built.  Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis.  Endeavour was the most recent spacecraft to be built, in 1992.
• 2.       The oldest astronaut to fly in the space shuttle programme is John Glenn.  He was part of a Discovery flight in 1998 at 77 years old. 
• 3.       The space shuttle has spent 1,320 days in space.
• 4.       Despite initial plans that there would be 50 shuttle flights a year, it turned into only five/six regular flights per year, yet the programme still cost £120billion.
• 5.       In just under nine minutes, the shuttle goes from 0mph to 17,500mph.
• 6.       Before the final Atlantis flight, the space shuttle has travelled almost 537million miles.
• 7.       In 1983, Sally Ride became the first US woman in space on a Challenger space shuttle mission.
• 8.       The most number of flights that a single astronaut has carried out on the space shuttle flight is seven.
• 9.       All of the space shuttle launches have taken place at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
• 10.   In its 30 year history, the space shuttle has been grounded for nearly five years altogether, due to the Challenger and Columbia disasters.

SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE

1981: Columbia becomes the first spacecraft to make a mission successful.  It is a two day launch on April 11, 1981 and starts a new era for space exploration.

1983: Challenger’s first flight carries the first black astronaut in space, Gulon Bluford and the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.

1986: Space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into a mandatory flight on January 28, 1986.  All seven astronauts were killed, included teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was chosen as the first US citizen into space.  The shuttle was grounded until September 1988.

1988: The space shuttle is relaunched with Discovery.

1990: Quite possibly the best year in the history of the space shuttle, with the launch of Jupiter probe Galileo and the launch also of the Hubble Space Telescope.

1992: The replacement for Challenger, Endeavour makes its first flight.

1995: The ‘Space Race’ as it was affectionally known is officially over, as space shuttle Atlantis makes a famous docking with the Russian space station, Mir.

1999: Eileen Collins, who became the first female pilot in 1995, becomes the first ever female shuttle commander.

2003: Space shuttles are grounded for two years after Columbia was blown apart into the skyline on re-entry.  All seven crew members were killed.

2011: Discovery, Endeavour and now, Atlantis make their final flights as the space shuttle is put into retirement.