The History of the Space Shuttle

From its first launch 30 years ago to its final launch scheduled for next Friday, NASA's Space Shuttle program has seen moments of dizzying inspiration and of crushing disappointment. When next week's launch is complete, the program will have sent up 135 missions, ferrying more than 350 humans and thousands of tons of material and equipment into low Earth orbit. Fourteen astronauts have lost their lives along the way -- the missions have always been risky, the engineering complex, the hazards extreme. As we near the end of the program, I'd like to look back at the past few decades of shuttle development and missions as we await the next steps toward human space flight. [61 photos]

Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off from Kennedy Space Center, on April 12, 1981. Commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen were onboard STS-1, the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle program. (Reuters/NASA/KSC)  

Construction of the Titanic

 

Total lunar eclipse 15 June 2011

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The year's first total eclipse of the moon lasted an unusually long time, a rare celestial treat for a wide swath of the globe. Except if you were in the United States and Canada. North America was left out of Wednesday's lunar spectacle, which was visible from start to finish from eastern Africa, central Asia, the Middle East and western Australia. The period when Earth's shadow completely blocked the moon -- known as totality -- lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes. The last time the moon was covered for that long was in July 2000, when it lasted 7 minutes longer than that. (23 images)

When We Tested Nuclear Bombs

May 6, 2011 | 4

Since the time of Trinity -- the first nuclear explosion in 1945 -- nearly 2,000 nuclear tests have been performed, with the majority taking place during the 1960s and 1970s. When the technology was new, tests were frequent and often spectacular, and led to the development of newer, more deadly weapons. But starting in the 1990s, there have been efforts to limit the future testing of nuclear weapons, including a U.S. moratorium and a U.N. comprehensive test ban treaty. As a result, testing has slowed -- though not halted -- and there are questions about the future. Who will take over for those experienced engineers who are now near retirement, and should we act as stewards with our enormous stockpiles of nuclear weapons? Gathered here are images from the first 30 years of nuclear testing. See also "Can We Unlearn the Bomb?" and "Atomic Weapons on Film." [36 photos]