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The Shuttle 25 years on: NASA's best photos

   London
12:00 11 Apr 2006 
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This story is sourced from Flight International
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25 YEARS OF OPERATION
 
NASA'S IMAGES OF THE SHUTTLE IN OPERATION
 
endeavour images w445
On Space Shuttle Endeavour mission STS-61 Jeffrey Hoffman Story Musgrave is on the first Hubble First Servicing EVA , pictured here on 12 September 1993, anchored on the end of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm, prepares to be elevated to the top of the Hubble Space Telescope to install protective covers on the magnetometers.
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Here the solid rocket booster breach can be seen just 58.7s after lift off, 15s before Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed at 73s after launch, at the start of mission STS-51L on 28 January 1986
sts mission crew w445

The STS-26 Return to Flight (launched in 1988) crew are, in the back row from left to right: Mission Specialist Mike Lounge, Mission Specialist David C. Hilmers, Mission Specialist George D. Nelson. Front row: Pilot Richard O. Covey and Commander Frederick H. Hauck. The crew is pictured wearing their orange Launch and Entry Suits (LES). The mission emblem is displayed in the background.

endeavor iss w445

On 12 June 1998, backdropped against a blanket of heavy cloud cover, the first section of the International Space Station (ISS), Russian-built FGB, also called Zarya, nears the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the U.S.-built Node 1, also called Unity (foreground) in its hold. Inside Endeavour's cabin, the STS-88 crew readies the Shuttle's Remote Manipulator System for Zarya capture to join Unity and Zarya together in the first assembly activity for ISS.
columbia debris w445
This image shows the grid on the floor of the John F. Kennedy Space Center RLV Hangar as workers in the field bring in pieces of Columbia's debris. The Columbia Reconstruction Project Team is attempting to reconstruct the bottom of the orbiter as part of the investigation into the accident that caused the destruction of Columbia on 1 February 2003 and the loss of its crew as it returned to Earth on mission STS-107.

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