In Photos: Highlights of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program

January 1972: President Richard M. Nixon and Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator in San Clemente, California. The President announced that day the United States should proceed at once with shuttle development. (Image: NASA)

April 12 1981: Shuttle Columbia carries astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen into an Earth orbital mission scheduled to last 54 hours, ending with landing at Edwards Air force Base in California. (Image: NASA)

June 18-24, 1983: Astronaut Sally K. Ride, the first American woman to orbit Earth. This Challenger mission deployed two communications satellites, one for Canada and one for Indonesia. (Image: NASA)

August 30 - September 5, 1983: The first African-American astronaut, Guion Bluford, joins the crew for Challenger’s third mission. This shuttle carried out the program’s first night launch and night landing. In this photo, Bluford is restrained by a har

November 28 - December 8, 1983: This Columbia flight carried the first Spacelab mission and the first astronaut to represent the European Space Agency, Ulf Merbold of Germany. Left to right are Merbold, Byron K. Lichtenberg and Robert A. R. Parker. (Image

January 1986: Shuttle Challenger explodes seconds after takeoff. Seven crew members perished in the explosion. (Image: NASA)

September 29-October 3, 1988: Shuttle program returns to flight with Discovery and deploys the TDRS-C satellite. (Image: NASA)

April 24, 1990: Shuttle Discovery deploys the Hubble Space Telescope. (Image: NASA)

June 27 - July 7, 1995: Shuttle Atlantis docks with Russia's Mir Space Station. When linked, they formed the largest spacecraft in orbit, with a total mass of nearly 225 tons. (Image: NASA)

December 7, 1986: Shuttle Columbia lands, completing the program’s longest mission; 17 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes, 18 seconds. (Image: NASA)

October 29 - November 7, 1998: John Glenn returns to space in Discovery. The first American to orbit the Earth made history again when he returned to space as the oldest man to do so. His 1962 orbit was four hours and 56 minutes. Glenn’s 1998 orbit lasted

October 11-24, 2000: Discovery conducted the program’s 100th mission. (NASA)

Feb. 1, 2003: Debris from the space shuttle Columbia streaks across the Texas sky. The mission started January 16. (AP Photo/Jason Hutchinson)

July 26 - August 9, 2005: The program returns with Discovery. The mission included three spacewalks at the International Space Station. (AP Photo/NASA)

September 9-21, 2006: International Space Station assembly resumes. The mission is the first in a series among the most complex in space history. The shuttle program delivered most of the major components to the ISS. (Image: NASA)

This image of the International Space Station with the docked Europe's ATV /Johannes Kepler/ and Space Shuttle /Endeavour/ was taken by Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking on 24 May 2011. The pictures are