The Space Shuttle Instant

: Known for carrying the first American woman and African American into space; destroyed 73 seconds after liftoff in 1986.

: Built as a replacement for Challenger, it completed 25 missions, including the first service mission for Hubble.

Five flight-worthy orbiters were constructed for the program: The Space Shuttle

The Shuttle system consisted of three primary components that worked together for launch:

: Flew the final mission of the program (STS-135) in July 2011. : Known for carrying the first American woman

40 Years Ago: Space Shuttle Enterprise rolls to the Pad - NASA

: The "workhorse" of the fleet, it flew 39 missions, including the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. 40 Years Ago: Space Shuttle Enterprise rolls to

The Space Shuttle, officially known as the , was the world’s first partially reusable spacecraft, operating from 1981 to 2011. Over 30 years, the program flew 135 missions , launched 355 people from 16 countries, and traveled more than 542 million miles.