The Shuttle 25 years on: Flight special report

SPACE SHUTTLE 25 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
To mark the 25 years since the 12 April 1981 first launch of the NASA Space Shuttle, the Flightglobal team trawled the Flight International archives, compiled two remarkable image galleries, wrote first-hand blogs and sourced exclusive original eye witness accounts of the first mission.
	LEAD STORY
	Lasting Legacy Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from Kennedy Space Center almost a decade after Man’s final footsteps on the Moon,  launching the USA’s most recent adventure in spaceflight. Read an extended version of the feature that ran in the 11-17 April 2006 edition of Flight International
IMAGES
	View some of NASA's most beautiful photos of the Shuttle in operation (pictured left) See our compilation of original manufacturing shots from Rockwell International's Palmdale factory in California
FROM THE FLIGHT ARCHIVES	EXCLUSIVE BOEING TESTIMONIALS
Read Flight International's reporting of the major Shuttle events since the launch of the programme	Boeing personnel supporting the first Space Shuttle test flight on 12 April, 1981 speak of their experiences
BLOG AND PHOTO JOURNAL
	Rob Coppinger reflects on a lifetime following the Shuttle and comments on what its flaws mean for the NASA's next chapter Flight Shuttle up close and personal: exclusive photos of Discovery being prepared for its next launch, (pictured left) Kieran Daly reflects on the Shuttle Memorial at Arlington Cemetery
RECENT ARTICLES	EXTERNAL LINKS
Boeing says Space Shuttle Discovery may launch without gapfiller fix Tank sensor delays Discovery launch to July	Boeing's STS-1 mission page NASA's Shuttle operations page Encyclopædia Astronautica entries for STS-1

Source: Flight International