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Space Shuttle Program Fast Facts

By CNN

(CNN) — Here’s a look at NASA’s Space Shuttle Program which ended in 2011 after 135 missions.

Facts

The space shuttle is the “world’s first reusable spacecraft,” launching like a rocket, orbiting like a spacecraft and landing like a plane.

Space shuttles could carry satellites, space probes, and other cargo into orbit around Earth on both commercial and non-commercial missions.

The space shuttle system was made up of three components:
– Twin solid rocket boosters. They provided 80% of the launch thrust.
– The external tank, which provided fuel to the space shuttle main engines during launch.
– The orbiter. It acted as the crew’s home during the flight.

All of the components were reused except for the external fuel tank. It burned up in the atmosphere after launch.

Crews ranged in size from five to seven people. More than 600 crew members flew on shuttle missions.

The space shuttle program sent more than 3 million pounds of cargo into space.

The longest any shuttle stayed in orbit on a single mission was 17.5 days, in November 1996.

The space shuttle was 184 feet long. The orbiter was 122 feet long.

The gross liftoff weight of the space shuttle was 4.5 million pounds.

Five shuttles flew into space during the program’s history: Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour.

An early model of the shuttle, the Enterprise was used for approach and landing tests during the 1970s but it never actually launched into space.

Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour were each designed to fly 100 missions, though they flew much fewer than that.

Timeline

January 5, 1972 – President Richard Nixon announces the intent to develop the first space shuttle for travel into space.

March 24, 1979 – Columbia is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center.

April 12, 1981 – NASA sends its first shuttle into space, as Columbia launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

July 5, 1982 – Challenger is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center.

November 9, 1983 – Discovery is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center.

April 13, 1985 – Atlantis is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center.

January 28, 1986 – Challenger explodes minutes after launch due to faulty O-rings in the shuttle’s rocket booster. All seven crew members die, including Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space. Flights do not resume for more than two years.

June 27, 1995 – Atlantis is launched, marking the 100th US human space launch.

June 29, 1995 – Atlantis docks at the Russian space station Mir.

February 1, 2003 – Columbia explodes over Texas during reentry. All seven crew members are killed.

July 26, 2005 – Discovery is launched, taking off on NASA’s first mission after the Columbia disaster.

August 9, 2005 – Discovery lands at Edwards AFB in California.

July 4, 2006 – Discovery is launched.

July 17, 2006 – Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center.

September 9, 2006 – Atlantis launches. The six astronauts conduct three spacewalks and deliver and install a 35,000-pound addition with giant solar arrays to power the International Space Station (ISS). The shuttle lands on September 21, 2006 at the Kennedy Space Center.

December 9, 2006 – Discovery lifts off, beginning a 12-day mission. The crew of seven continues construction on the International Space Station by rewiring the orbiting laboratory and adding a two-ton segment to its integrated truss structure.

June 8, 2007 – Atlantis launches, carrying a crew of seven astronauts headed for the ISS. The crew plans to install a new segment and solar panels on the space station and retrieve astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been at the space station since December.

June 22, 2007 – Atlantis lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the first time a shuttle has landed at Edwards since 2005. Aboard Atlantis is Williams, returning from the International Space Station where she set an endurance record for the longest single spaceflight for a woman (195 days) and the record for most time spent spacewalking by a woman.

August 8, 2007 – Endeavour launches, carrying teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan and six crew mates.

October 23, 2007 – Discovery launches. Aboard Discovery is Harmony, an Italian-built live-in compartment that will be attached to the ISS. Discovery is under the command of Pamela Melroy, the second woman to lead a space shuttle mission.

November 7, 2007 – Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center, with Melroy becoming the second woman to land a space shuttle. Returning with the shuttle is Clayton Anderson, who had been on board the ISS since June.

February 7, 2008 – Atlantis launches, carrying the ISS’s newest science lab, named Columbus. Atlantis also drops off French Air Force General Leopold Eyharts, who will replace NASA astronaut Daniel Tani.

March 11, 2008 – Endeavour launches, the first night launch for a shuttle since 2006 and only the second night launch since Columbia disintegrated during reentry. The shuttle is headed to the ISS, where it will deliver a Canadian-built robot named Dextre and the first part of the Japanese-built Kibo lab. Also on board is astronaut Garrett Reisman, who is replacing Eyharts.

May 31, 2008 – Discovery launches with the purpose of transporting components for the Kibo lab, as well as a Japanese Remote Manipulator System to be attached to the ISS. Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman will leave with the Discovery crew and be replaced by Greg Chamtoff.

November 14, 2008 – Endeavour launches. The crew of seven will renovate a kitchen and bathroom on the ISS and are delivering a new refrigerator.

March 15, 2009 – Discovery launches. The shuttle is headed to the ISS to deliver the final set of solar array wings. With the completed array, the station is expected to be able to provide enough electricity when the crew size is doubled to six in May

February 24, 2011 – Discovery launches on its final mission.

March 9, 2011 – Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center. Discovery has spent 365 days in space during the course of its 39 missions, the first of which was in August 1984. It has orbited Earth 5,830 times and traveled 148,221,675 miles.

April 12, 2011 – NASA announces the locations that will host the retired space shuttles:
– Atlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida
– Endeavour will be displayed at the California Science Center in Los Angeles
– Discovery will be displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia
– Enterprise will be displayed at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York

April 29, 2011 – Endeavour’s final launch is delayed due to an issue with the shuttle’s heating system. The shuttle ultimately launches on May 16, 2011.

June 1, 2011 – Endeavour returns to the Kennedy Space Center after its final mission.

July 8, 2011 – Atlantis launches. This is the space shuttle program’s final mission. On July 21, 2011, Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center, marking the sunset of the space shuttle program.

April 19, 2012 – Discovery arrives at its new home, the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington.

April 27, 2012-June 6, 2012 – Enterprise makes a three-part trip to its new home at the Intrepid in New York. The first leg of its journey is a ferry flight atop a Boeing 747 from Washington to New York. The Enterprise is then trucked to the waterfront, towed up the Hudson River and hoisted onto the deck of the Intrepid via a floating crane.

September 19-21, 2012 – Endeavour takes a three-day ferry flight from Cape Canaveral to Los Angeles International Airport on a farewell tour across the southern United States.

October 12-14, 2012 – Endeavour is transported approximately 12 miles, at a top speed of 2 mph, from the Los Angeles International Airport, through the streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles to the California Science Center. Trees, traffic signs, utility poles and other structures in the path of Endeavour’s wings cause hours of delays.

June 29, 2013 – The Atlantis exhibit opens at the Kennedy Space Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

June 27, 2015 – The “Forever Remembered” display, which features a 12-foot section of fuselage from Challenger and the flight deck windows from Columbia, opens in the Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Unpaid wages and deadly risk: Why health workers are threatening to abandon the Ebola response

By CNN
(CNN) — Every morning, Micheline Kayimpa pulls on layers of protective gear before stepping into an Ebola isolation ward in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), knowing that one small mistake could cost her life.At the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, the nurse spends her days caring for patients infected with Ebola — one of the world’s deadliest viruses — administering medicine and assisting those too weak to feed themselves.Because Ebola spreads through bodily fluids, even routine care exposes health workers to constant risk — from treating patients to cleaning contaminated spaces.“I am very afraid for my safety,” Kayimpa told CNN. “Sometimes, a small detail we overlook can prove fatal.”But as the outbreak grows at an alarming pace, health workers say they are battling more than the virus.After months of treating Ebola patients, Kayimpa says she has yet to receive a single government paycheck. The mother-of-four is among dozens of health workers who have protested delayed wages and threatened to boycott work.The timing couldn’t be worse.Kayimpa is working on the front line of what the World Health Organization says is now “the largest Ebola outbreak ever reported” in the DRC. Since the virus emerged in mid-May, it has infected at least 3,874 people and killed 1,751, according to figures released Wednesday by the Congolese health ministry.The outbreak was jointly detected in both the DRC and neighboring Uganda. While Uganda has since declared itself Ebola-free, transmission has continued to accelerate in eastern Congo.The flare-up has reached that scale in just over two months, surpassing the country’s last major Ebola epidemic, which spanned nearly two years between August 2018 and June 2020. Only the 2014–16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa has been larger and deadlier, infecting more than 28,600 people and killing 11,325 across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.Deep mistrust fuels hostilityBunia, where Kayimpa works, is the capital of northeastern Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, where more than 90% of confirmed cases have been recorded. The response is already struggling to keep pace even without the threat of healthcare workers walking out in protest.Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks, this one is caused by the less common Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no proven vaccines and treatment options remain limited. Ongoing fighting in eastern DRC has also made it harder for health workers to reach affected communities.“This outbreak took hold in communities already worn down by conflict and displacement, with weak health, water and sanitation systems to begin with,” said Lancelot Mermet, director of humanitarian programs at Mercy Corps.“When people can’t get to care quickly, or don’t trust the system enough to come forward, the virus moves faster,” he told CNN, adding that health officials are still identifying cases that cannot be linked to known infections.Aid agencies say mistrust, misinformation about Ebola, and resistance to restrictions on traditional burial practices have fueled hostility toward health workers and complicated efforts to contain the outbreak.That hostility erupted into full view in late May, when demonstrators seeking the bodies of two relatives forced their way into an Ebola treatment facility. It was the third such attack since the outbreak began, forcing health workers to move patients to safety as gunfire erupted nearby.The violence has continued. Similar attacks were reported in June and July, and the United Nations said last month that “at least a dozen facilities have been attacked, largely due to fear, misinformation and deep community mistrust of outside authorities.”‘We’re sacrificing our lives’Inside Bunia’s Elikya Ebola Treatment Center, the response is stretched thin.The 90-bed isolation ward, run by international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF), is already operating at full capacity, with many patients arriving only after they are critically ill.“We do not have enough staff,” Kayimpa said. “There are just two or three of us nurses looking after patients with more than 10 different conditions.”Even with protective equipment, the danger never disappears.“Accidents can happen whilst I’m working here,” she said. “Some aggressive patients may attack you and infect you. We’re sacrificing our lives for the people.”Health care workers already paid a heavy price in the early days of the outbreak, she said.“When the disease first broke out, we didn’t know it was Ebola,” she recalled. “We were treating patients without any protection. Many of us became infected, and some died.”Despite those risks, Kayimpa says it isn’t the virus that has pushed many health workers to breaking point.MSF provides bonuses, she said, but those payments do not replace the government wages she relies on.“I’ve been working here since June, but I haven’t received a single penny in wages,” she said, adding that her name was misspelled on payroll records. “I was told that processing my file would take a long time.”She stopped work for three days in protest, she said, but has since resumed in the hope her case will be resolved. If there’s no progress, however, Kayimpa – who worked for a private health organization in Bunia before joining the Ebola effort – is ready to walk out again.It remains unclear whether the delays are linked to broader funding pressures affecting the response.DRC communications minister Patrick Muyaya Katembwe acknowledged that delayed payments had triggered staff protests at several Ebola treatment centers but told CNN the outstanding payments were now being processed.He said the delays were largely caused by the administrative process of verifying which workers had been deployed to the Ebola response and ensuring payments reached the correct recipients.“Anyone officially listed will be paid,” he said.MSF, which runs several Ebola treatment and isolation facilities across the DRC, said the protests were related to government compensation rather than payments from the humanitarian organization.“MSF is continuing to meet its obligations towards staff working in the response,” it said in a statement to CNN, adding that “health workers play an essential role in responding to this outbreak, and it is important that they receive compensation in a timely manner for their work under extremely challenging conditions.”‘Chasing a wildfire from behind’Aid workers say the success of the Ebola response depends on the people risking their lives to keep it running.“These are the people carrying the greatest burden of the outbreak, caring for and treating patients, preventing infections and holding together public confidence in the health system, all while taking significant risks themselves,” an aid worker familiar with the response told CNN.He said, “With this outbreak moving this fast and spreading further from the epicenter, frontline workers need the equipment, protection, timely payment and support required to do their jobs safely.“Every interruption gives the virus more time to spread and leaves the response chasing a wildfire from behind,” the aid worker added.Whether health workers like Kayimpa receive that support could determine how many remain on the front line, fighting to keep patients alive and contain the virus.“As long as I don’t receive my wages, I will boycott work until I’m paid,” she said. “Better still, I will leave this job to try my hand at other activities that will bring me money.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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