Space Shuttle
Since 1981, NASA
space shuttles have been rocketing from the Florida coast
into Earth orbit. The five orbiters — Columbia, Challenger,
Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour — have flown more than 130
times, carrying over 350 people into space and travelling
more than half a billion miles, more than enough to reach
Jupiter.
Designed to return to Earth and land like a giant glider, the shuttle was the world's first reusable space vehicle. More than all of that, though, the shuttle program expanded the limits of human achievement and broadened our understanding of our world.