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By NASA
On March 6, 1985, NASA’s newest space shuttle, Atlantis, made its public debut during a rollout ceremony at the Rockwell International manufacturing plant in Palmdale, California. Under construction for three years, Atlantis joined NASA’s other three space-worthy orbiters, Columbia, Challenger, and Discovery, and atmospheric test vehicle Enterprise. Officials from NASA, Rockwell, and other organizations attended the rollout ceremony. By the time NASA retired Atlantis in 2011, it had flown 33 missions in a career spanning 26 years and flying many types of missions envisioned for the space shuttle. The Visitor Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida has Atlantis on display.
Space shuttle Atlantis under construction at Rockwell International’s Palmdale, California, plant in 1984. Credit/NASA. Atlantis during the rollout ceremony in Palmdale. Credit/NASA. Workers truck Atlantis from Palmdale to NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center. Credit/NASA. On Jan. 25, 1979, NASA announced the names of the first four space-worthy orbiters – Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Like the other vehicles, NASA named Atlantis after an historical vessel of discovery and exploration – the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s two-masted research ship Atlantis that operated from 1930 to 1966. On Jan. 29, NASA signed the contract with Rockwell International of Downey, California, to build and deliver Atlantis. Construction began in March 1980 and finished in April 1984. Nearly identical to Discovery but with the addition of hardware to support the cryogenic Centaur upper stage then planned to deploy planetary spacecraft in 1986, plans shelved following the Challenger accident. After a year of testing, workers prepared Atlantis for its public debut.
Atlantis arrives at NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center to prepare for its cross-country ferry flight. Credit/NASA. Atlantis during an overnight stop at Ellington Air Force Base, now Ellington Field, in Houston. Credit/NASA. Atlantis arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Credit/NASA. Three days after the rollout ceremony, workers trucked Atlantis 36 miles overland to NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert, for final preparations for its cross-country ferry flight. In the Mate Demate Device, workers placed Atlantis atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747, to begin the ferry flight. The duo left Edwards on April 12, the fourth anniversary of the first space shuttle flight. Following an overnight stop at Houston’s Ellington Air Force Base, now Ellington Field, Atlantis arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 13.
Atlantis following its first rollout to Launch Pad 39A. Credit/NASA. The flight readiness firing of Atlantis’ three main engines.Credit/NASA. Liftoff of Atlantis on its first mission, STS-51J. Credit/NASA. Four months later, on Aug. 12, workers towed Atlantis from the processing facility to the assembly building and mated it to an external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. The entire stack rolled out to Launch Pad 39A on Aug. 30 in preparation for the planned Oct. 3 launch of the STS-51J mission. As with any new orbiter, on Sept. 13 NASA conducted a 20-second Flight Readiness Firing of Atlantis’ three main engines. On Sept. 16, the five-person crew participated in a countdown demonstration test, leading to an on time Oct. 3 launch. Atlantis had joined the shuttle fleet and begun its first mission to space.
Space shuttle Atlantis in the Visitor Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit/NASA. Over the course of its 33 missions spanning more than 26 years, Atlantis flew virtually every type of mission envisioned for the space shuttle, including government and commercial satellite deployments, deploying spacecraft to visit interplanetary destinations, supporting scientific missions, launching and servicing scientific observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope, performing crew rotations and resupplying the Mir space station, and assembling and maintaining the International Space Station. Atlantis flew the final mission of the shuttle program, STS-135, in July 2011. The following year, NASA transported Atlantis to the Kennedy Visitor Center for public display.
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7 min read 40 Years Ago: Space Shuttle Discovery Makes its Public Debut
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Article 3 years ago View the full article
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:36 On Wednesday 12 March 2025 ESA’s Hera spacecraft for planetary defence performs a flyby of Mars. The gravity of the red planet shifts the spacecraft’s trajectory towards its final destination of the Didymos binary asteroid system, shortening its trip by months and saving substantial fuel.
Watch the livestream release of images from Hera’s flyby by the mission’s science team on Thursday 13 March, starting at 11:50 CET!
Hera comes to around 5000 km from the surface of Mars during its flyby. It will also image Deimos, the smaller of Mars’s two moons, from a minimum 1000 km away (while venturing as close as 300 km). Hera will also image Mars’s larger moon Phobos as it begins to move away from Mars.
Launched on 7 October 2024, Hera on its way to visit the first asteroid to have had its orbit altered by human action. By gathering close-up data about the Dimorphos asteroid, which was impacted by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022, Hera will help turn asteroid deflection into a well understood and potentially repeatable technique.
Hera will reach the Didymos asteroid and its Dimorphos moonlet in December 2026. By gathering crucial missing data during its close-up crash scene investigation, Hera will turn the kinetic impact method of asteroid deflection into a well understood technique that could potentially be used for real when needed.
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By NASA
On March 2, 1995, space shuttle Endeavour launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its eighth trip into space, on the STS-67 Astro-2 mission. The crew included Commander Stephen Oswald, Pilot William Gregory, Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld, Wendy Lawrence, and Tamara Jernigan – who served as payload commander on the mission – and Payload Specialists Samuel Durrance and Ronald Parise. During their then record setting 17-day mission, the astronauts used the three ultraviolet telescopes of the Astro-2 payload to observe hundreds of celestial objects. The mission ended with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Official photo of the STS-67 crew of Stephen Oswald, seated at left, Tamara Jernigan, and William Gregory; Ronald Parise, standing at left, Wendy Lawrence, John Grunsfeld, and Samuel Durrance. NASA The STS-67 crew patch. NASA The Astro-2 payload patch.NASA In August 1993, NASA assigned Jernigan as the payload commander for Astro-2, for a weeklong flight aboard Columbia then targeted for late 1994. Jernigan, selected by NASA in 1985, had previously flown aboard STS-40 and STS-52. Two months later, NASA assigned Grunsfeld, a space rookie from the class of 1992, as a mission specialist. In January 1994, NASA rounded out the crew by assigning Oswald, Gregory, Lawrence, Durrance, and Parise. Oswald, from the class of 1985, had flown previously as pilot on STS-42 and STS-56, while STS-67 represented the first spaceflight for Gregory, selected in 1990, and Lawrence, chosen in 1992. Durrance and Parise, selected as payload specialists in 1984, had flown on STS-35, the Astro-1 mission.
Space shuttle Endeavour rolls out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA The STS-67 crew during a countdown demonstration test. NASA The STS-67 astronauts walk out for their ride to the launch pad. NASA The Astro-2 science payload consisted of three ultraviolet telescopes mounted on a Spacelab instrument pointing system in the shuttle’s cargo bay. The trio of telescopes flew previously on STS-35, the Astro-1 mission, in December 1990. That mission, originally planned to fly on STS-61E in March 1986, remained grounded following the Challenger accident. Due to equipment malfunctions, the Astro-1 mission only achieved 80% of its objectives, leading to the reflight of the instruments on Astro-2, originally planned as a seven-day mission aboard Discovery. A switch to Columbia enabled a mission twice as long, with significantly more observation time. A scheduled maintenance period for Columbia resulted in Astro-2 switching to Endeavour, with a new flight duration of more than 15 days, but a launch delay to February 1995. The three telescopes supported 23 different studies, observing more than 250 celestial objects including joint observations with the Hubble Space Telescope of the planet Jupiter.
The launch of space shuttle Endeavour on STS-67 to begin the Astro-2 mission.NASA The Astro-2 telescopes deployed in Endeavour’s payload bay. NASA Endeavour returned to Kennedy following its previous flight, STS-68, in October 1994. After servicing the orbiter, workers rolled it to the vehicle assembly building on Feb. 3, 1995, for mating with its external tank and solid rocket boosters, and then out to Launch Pad 39A on Feb. 8. At 1:38 a.m. EST on March 2, Endeavour thundered into the night sky to begin the STS-67 mission. Eight and a half minutes later, the shuttle and its crew had reached space.
Shortly after reaching orbit, the crew opened the payload bay doors and deployed the shuttle’s radiators. Jernigan and Durrance activated the Spacelab pallet and its pointing system and the telescopes. The crew split into two shifts to enable data collection around the clock during the mission. Oswald, Gregory, Grunsfeld, and Parise made up the red shift while Lawrence, Jernigan, and Durrance comprised the blue shift.
Stephen Oswald conducts a session with the Middeck Active Control Experiment. NASA Wendy Lawrence monitors a protein crystal growth apparatus. NASA John Grunsfeld, left, and Samuel Durrance at the controls of the telescopes on the shuttle’s aft flight deck. NASA William Gregory conducts a biotechnology experiment in Endeavour’s middeck. NASA Samuel Durrance and Tamara Jernigan assemble the day’s teleprinter message. NASA Ronald Parise floats near the shuttle’s overhead window.NASA For the remainder of the mission, the astronauts operated the telescopes, conducting 385 maneuvers of Endeavour to point the instruments at the celestial targets. The results met or exceeded preflight expectations. The crew also conducted a series of middeck investigations in technology demonstration and biotechnology. The Middeck Active Control Experiment studied the active control of flexible structures in space. Five years later, a newer version flew as one of the first experiments on the International Space Station.
A selection of the STS-67 crew Earth observation photographs. Gulf of Batabano, Cuba.NASA Antofagasta, Chile. NASA Volcanic eruption on Barren Island, Andaman Islands.NASA Disappointment Reach, Western Australia. NASA Like all space crews, the STS-67 astronauts also spent time taking photographs of the Earth using handheld cameras. The mission’s long duration enabled them to image many targets.
The seven-person STS-67 crew poses for an in-flight photo. NASA Endeavour touches down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA On March 14, an eighth American joined the STS-67 crew in space when NASA astronaut Norman Thagard blasted off with two cosmonauts, headed for space station Mir. With three other cosmonauts already aboard Mir, the total number of humans in orbit grew to a then-record of 13. Two days later, Oswald and Thagard, who had flown together on STS-42, talked to each other via ship-to-ship radio.
Inclement weather at Kennedy thwarted the planned reentry on March 17, and the astronauts spent an extra day in space. On March 18, they again waved off a Kennedy landing and one orbit later, Oswald and Gregory piloted Endeavour to a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The crew had flown 262 orbits around the Earth in 16 days, 15 hours, and 9 minutes, at the time the longest space shuttle mission. A few hours later, a large crowd greeted the astronauts upon their return to Houston’s Ellington Field. Endeavour began its ferry flight back to Kennedy on March 26, arriving there the next day. Workers towed Endeavour to the processing facility to prepare it for its next flight, STS-73, then planned for September 1995.
Watch the crew narrate a video about the STS-67 mission.
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8 min read NASA’s Hubble Celebrates Decade of Tracking Outer Planets
Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA’s Voyager mission completed humankind’s first close-up exploration of the four…
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By NASA
On March 3, 1915, the United States Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Although the NACA’s founding took place just over 11 years after the Wright Brothers’ first powered flightfirst powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Congress took the action in response to America lagging behind other world powers’ advances in aviation and aeronautics. From its modest beginnings as an advisory committee, over the years, the NACA established research centers and test facilities that enabled groundbreaking advances in civilian and military aviation, as well as the fledgling discipline of spaceflight. With the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, the new agency incorporated the NACA’s facilities, its employees, and its annual budget. The NACA provided NASA with a strong foundation as it set out to explore space.
The first meeting of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics on April 23, 1915.NASA The NACA executive committee in 1934. NASA The Congressional action that created the NACA, implemented as a rider to the 1915 Naval Appropriations Bill, reads in part, “…It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution. …”. In its initial years, the NACA fulfilled its intended role, coordinating activities already in place in the area of aeronautics research, reporting directly to the president. The committee, made up of 12 representatives from government agencies, academia, and the military, first met on April 23 in the Office of the Secretary of War in Washington, D.C. It established a nine-member executive committee to oversee day-to-day operations and spent the first few years establishing its headquarters in Washington.
The committee’s logo, approved in 1941.NASA The committee’s seal, approved by presidential executive order in 1953.NASA
Hangars at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia, in 1931. NASA The Variable Density Tunnel at Langley. NASA Aerial view of the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in Sunnyvale, California, in 1944. NASA Aerial view of the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945.NASA Within a few years, the NACA’s role began to expand with the establishment of research facilities. The Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, today NASA’s Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia, opened on June 11, 1920. Over the next few decades, Langley served as a testing facility for new types of aircraft, using wind tunnels and other technological advances. The Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in Sunnyvale, California, today NASA’s Ames Research Center, opened in 1940 and the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, today NASA’s Glenn Research Center, in 1941. The three labs achieved many breakthroughs in civilian and military aviation before, during, and after World War II. The Cleveland lab, renamed the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in 1948, concentrated most of its efforts on advances in jet propulsion.
The NACA High-Speed Flight Station, now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert. NASA The Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier in 1947.NASA The first sounding rocket launch from the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station at Wallops Island, Virginia, in 1945.NASA After World War II, the NACA began work on achieving supersonic flight. In 1946, the agency established the Muroc Flight Test Unit at the Air Force’s Muroc Field, later renamed Edwards Air Force Base, in California’s Mojave Desert. In a close collaboration, the NACA, the Air Force, and Bell Aircraft developed the X-1 airplane that first broke the sound barrier in 1947. Muroc Field underwent several name changes, first to the High-Speed Flight Station in 1949, then in 1976 to NASA’s Dryden, and in 2014 to Armstrong Flight Research Center. In 1945, the NACA established the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station on Wallops Island, Virginia, now NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, as a test site for rocketry research, under Langley’s direction. From the first launch in 1945 through 1958, the NACA launched nearly 400 different types of rockets from Wallops.
Shadowgraph of finned hemispherical model in free flight shows shock waves produced by blunt bodies.NACA Meeting of the NACA’s Special Committee on Space Technology in May 1958.NASA In the 1950s, the NACA began to study the feasibility of spaceflight, including sending humans into space. In 1952, NACA engineers developed the concept of a blunt body capsule as the most efficient way to return humans from space. The design concept found its way into the Mercury capsule and all future American spacecraft. Following the dawn of the space age in 1957, the NACA advocated that it take the lead in America’s spaceflight effort. The Congress passed, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation to create a new civilian space agency, and on Oct. 1, 1958, NASA officially began operations. The new organization incorporated the NACA’s research laboratories and test facilities, its 8,000 employees, and its $100 million annual budget. Many of NASA’s key early leaders and engineers began their careers in the NACA. The NACA’s last director, Hugh Dryden, served as NASA’s first deputy administrator.
For more information about the NACA and its transition to NASA, read former NASA Chief Historian Roger Launius’ book NASA to NASA to Now: The Frontiers of Air and Space in the American Century. Watch this video narrated by former NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry about the NACA.
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