List of Space Shuttle missions

The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Its official program name was Space Transportation System, taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, conducted science experiments in orbit, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982.
From 1981 to 2011 a total of 135 missions were flown, all launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During that time period the fleet logged 1,322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds of flight time. The longest orbital flight of the Shuttle was STS-80 at 17 days 15 hours, while the shortest flight was STS-51-L at one minute 13 seconds when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch. The shuttles docked with Russian space station Mir nine times and visited the ISS thirty-seven times. The highest altitude achieved by the shuttle was 350 miles when servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. The program flew a total of 355 people representing 16 countries. The Kennedy Space Center served as the landing site for 78 missions, while 54 missions landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California and one mission landed at White Sands, New Mexico.
The first orbiter built, Enterprise, was used for atmospheric flight tests but future plans to upgrade it to orbital capability were ultimately canceled. Four fully operational orbiters were initially built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Challenger and Columbia were destroyed in mission accidents in 1986 and 2003 respectively, killing a total of fourteen astronauts. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger. The Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of STS-135 by Atlantis on 21 July 2011.

Flight numbering

The U.S. Space Shuttle program was officially referred to as the Space Transportation System. Specific shuttle missions were therefore designated with the prefix "STS". Initially, the launches were given sequential numbers indicating order of launch, such as STS-7. Subsequent to the Apollo 13 mishap, due to NASA Administrator James M. Beggs's triskaidekaphobia and consequent unwillingness to number a forthcoming flight as STS-13, beginning in 1984, each mission was assigned a code, such as STS-41-B, with the first digit indicating the federal fiscal year offset into the program, the second digit indicating the launch site, and the letter indicating scheduling sequence. These codes were assigned when the launches were initially scheduled and were not changed as missions were delayed or rescheduled. The codes were adopted from STS-41-B through STS-51-L, and the sequential numbers were used internally at NASA on all processing paperwork.
After the Challenger disaster, NASA returned to using a sequential numbering system, with the number counting from the beginning of the STS program. Unlike the initial system, however, the numbers were assigned based on the initial mission schedule, and did not always reflect actual launch order. This numbering scheme started at 26, with the first flight as STS-26R—the R suffix stood for "reflight" to disambiguate from prior missions. The suffix was used for two years through STS-33R, then the R was dropped. As a result of the changes in systems, flights under different numbering systems could have the same number with one having a letter appended, e.g. flight STS-51 was many years after STS-51-A. It wasn't until STS-127 in 2009 where the flight numbering system returned to a standard and consistent order.

Shuttle flights

Test flights

The Approach and Landing Test program encompassed 16 separate tests of Enterprise, covering taxi tests, unmanned and manned flights on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and finally the free flight tests. The following list includes the free-flight tests, durations listed count only the orbiter free-flight time. The list does not include total time aloft along with airborne time atop of the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

Order	Launch date	Mission	Shuttle	Crew	Duration	Landing site	Notes	Sources
1	12 August 1977	ALT-12	Enterprise	2	00 h 05 m	Edwards	First free flight First non-captive flight of Enterprise
2	13 September 1977	ALT-13	Enterprise	2	00 h 05 m	Edwards	Second free flight
3	23 September 1977	ALT-14	Enterprise	2	00 h 05 m	Edwards	Third free flight
4	12 October 1977	ALT-15	Enterprise	2	00 h 02 m	Edwards	Fourth free flight First flight without tailcone
5	26 October 1977	ALT-16	Enterprise	2	00 h 02 m	Edwards	Final free flight Final non-captive flight of Enterprise

Launches and orbital flights

Canceled missions

One initial emergency flight abort sub-orbital test mission was canceled due to high risk. Many other planned missions were canceled due to the late development of the shuttle, and the Challenger and Columbia disasters.
Four missions were cut short by a day or more while in orbit: STS-2, STS-35, STS-44, and STS-83.

Contingency missions

was the designation for the Space Shuttle Launch on Need missions to be launched on short notice for STS-114 and STS-121, in the event that the shuttle became disabled or damaged and could not safely return to Earth. The rescue flight for STS-115, if needed, would have been STS-301. After STS-115, the rescue mission designations were based on the corresponding regular mission that would be replaced should the rescue mission be needed. For example, the STS-116 rescue mission was branded STS-317, because the normal mission scheduled after STS-116 was STS-117. Should the rescue mission have been needed, the crew and vehicle for STS-117 would assume the rescue mission profile and become STS-317. All potential rescue missions were to be launched with a crew of four, and would return with ten or eleven crew members, depending on the number of crew launched on the rescued shuttle. Missions were expected to last approximately eleven days. None of the planned contingency missions were ever flown.
No contingency mission was planned for STS-135, the final shuttle mission. Instead, NASA planned to effect any required rescues one-by-one, using Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Flight	Rescue Flight
STS-114	STS-300
STS-121	STS-300
STS-115	STS-301
STS-116	STS-317
STS-117	STS-318
STS-118	STS-322
STS-120	STS-320
STS-122	STS-323
STS-123	STS-324
STS-124	STS-326
STS-125	STS-400
STS-134	STS-335

Flight statistics

Shuttles

Launches

Timeline of space shuttle missions

Post-''Columbia'' timeline

All measures are in pixels

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Atlantis

bar: Atlantis color:NASA
from:09/09/2006 till:20/09/2006 shift: text:STS-115
from:08/06/2007 till:22/06/2007 shift: text:STS-117
from:07/02/2008 till:20/02/2008 shift: text:STS-122
from:11/05/2009 till:24/05/2009 shift: text:STS-125
from:16/11/2009 till:27/11/2009 shift: text:STS-129
from:14/05/2010 till:26/05/2010 shift: text:STS-132
from:16/11/2009 till:27/11/2009 shift: text:STS-129
from:08/07/2011 till:21/07/2011 shift: text:STS-135

Discovery

bar: Discovery color:NASA
from:26/07/2005 till:08/08/2005 shift: text:STS-114
from:04/07/2006 till:16/07/2006 shift: text:STS-121
from:09/12/2006 till:21/12/2006 shift: text:STS-116
from:23/10/2007 till:07/11/2007 shift: text:STS-120
from:31/05/2008 till:14/06/2008 shift: text:STS-124
from:15/03/2009 till:28/03/2009 shift: text:STS-119
from:29/08/2009 till:11/09/2009 shift: text:STS-128
from:05/04/2010 till:20/04/2010 shift: text:STS-131
from:24/02/2011 till:09/03/2011 shift: text:STS-133

Endeavour

bar: Endeavour color:NASA
from:08/08/2007 till:21/08/2007 shift: text:STS-118
from:11/03/2008 till:26/03/2008 shift: text:STS-123
from:14/11/2008 till:30/11/2008 shift: text:STS-126
from:15/07/2009 till:31/07/2009 shift: text:STS-127
from:08/02/2010 till:21/02/2010 shift: text:STS-130
from:16/05/2011 till:01/06/2011 shift: text:STS-134

Complete timeline

All measures are in pixels

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Period = from:1975 till:2011
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Atlantis

bar: Atlantis color:NASA
from:03/10/1985 till:07/10/1985 shift: text:STS-51-J
from:26/11/1985 till:02/12/1985 shift: text:STS-61-B
from:02/12/1988 till:06/12/1988 shift: text:STS-27
from:04/05/1989 till:08/05/1989 shift: text:STS-30
from:18/10/1989 till:22/10/1989 shift: text:STS-34
from:28/02/1990 till:04/03/1990 shift: text:STS-36
from:15/11/1990 till:19/11/1990 shift: text:STS-38
from:05/04/1991 till:10/04/1991 shift: text:STS-37
from:02/08/1991 till:10/08/1991 shift: text:STS-43
from:24/11/1991 till:30/11/1991 shift: text:STS-44
from:24/03/1992 till:01/04/1992 shift: text:STS-45
from:31/07/1992 till:07/08/1992 shift: text:STS-46
from:03/11/1994 till:13/11/1994 shift: text:STS-66
from:27/06/1995 till:06/07/1995 shift: text:STS-71
from:12/11/1995 till:20/11/1995 shift: text:STS-74
from:22/03/1996 till:31/03/1996 shift: text:STS-76
from:16/09/1996 till:26/09/1996 shift: text:STS-79
from:12/01/1997 till:22/01/1997 shift: text:STS-81
from:15/05/1997 till:24/05/1997 shift: text:STS-84
from:25/09/1997 till:05/10/1997 shift: text:STS-86
from:19/05/2000 till:28/05/2000 shift: text:STS-101
from:08/09/2000 till:19/09/2000 shift: text:STS-106
from:07/02/2001 till:19/02/2001 shift: text:STS-98
from:12/07/2001 till:24/07/2001 shift: text:STS-104
from:08/04/2002 till:18/04/2002 shift: text:STS-110
from:07/10/2002 till:17/10/2002 shift: text:STS-112
from:09/09/2006 till:20/09/2006 shift: text:STS-115
from:08/06/2007 till:22/06/2007 shift: text:STS-117
from:07/02/2008 till:20/02/2008 shift: text:STS-122
from:11/05/2009 till:24/05/2009 shift: text:STS-125
from:16/11/2009 till:27/11/2009 shift: text:STS-129
from:14/05/2010 till:26/05/2010 shift: text:STS-132
from:08/07/2011 till:21/07/2011 shift: text:STS-135

Challenger

bar: Challenger color:NASA
from:04/04/1983 till:09/04/1983 shift: text:STS-6
from:18/06/1983 till:24/06/1983 shift: text:STS-7
from:30/08/1983 till:05/09/1983 shift: text:STS-8
from:03/02/1984 till:10/02/1984 shift: text:STS-41-B
from:06/04/1984 till:12/04/1984 shift: text:STS-41-C
from:05/10/1984 till:13/10/1984 shift: text:STS-41-G
from:29/04/1985 till:06/05/1985 shift: text:STS-51-B
from:29/07/1985 till:05/08/1985 shift: text:STS-51-F
from:30/10/1985 till:06/11/1985 shift: text:STS-61-A
from:28/01/1986 till:28/01/1986 shift: text:STS-51-L_
at:28/01/1986 mark:

Columbia

bar: Columbia color:NASA
from:12/04/1981 till:14/04/1981 shift: text:STS-1
from:12/11/1981 till:14/11/1981 shift: text:STS-2
from:22/03/1982 till:30/03/1982 shift: text:STS-3
from:27/06/1982 till:04/07/1982 shift: text:STS-4
from:11/11/1982 till:16/11/1982 shift: text:STS-5
from:28/11/1983 till:08/12/1983 shift: text:STS-9
from:12/01/1986 till:18/01/1986 shift: text:STS-61-C
from:08/08/1989 till:13/08/1989 shift: text:STS-28
from:09/01/1990 till:19/01/1990 shift: text:STS-32
from:02/12/1990 till:10/12/1990 shift: text:STS-35
from:05/06/1991 till:14/06/1991 shift: text:STS-40
from:25/06/1992 till:08/07/1992 shift: text:STS-50
from:22/10/1992 till:31/10/1992 shift: text:STS-52
from:26/04/1993 till:05/05/1993 shift: text:STS-55
from:18/10/1993 till:01/11/1993 shift: text:STS-58
from:04/03/1994 till:17/03/1994 shift: text:STS-62
from:08/07/1994 till:22/07/1994 shift: text:STS-65
from:20/10/1995 till:04/11/1995 shift: text:STS-73
from:22/02/1996 till:08/03/1996 shift: text:STS-75
from:20/06/1996 till:06/07/1996 shift: text:STS-78
from:19/11/1996 till:06/12/1996 shift: text:STS-80
from:04/04/1997 till:07/04/1997 shift: text:STS-83
from:01/07/1997 till:16/07/1997 shift: text:STS-94
from:19/11/1997 till:04/12/1997 shift: text:STS-87
from:17/04/1998 till:02/05/1998 shift: text:STS-90
from:23/07/1999 till:27/07/1999 shift: text:STS-93
from:01/03/2002 till:11/03/2002 shift: text:STS-109
from:16/01/2003 till:31/01/2003 shift: text:STS-107_
at:31/01/2003 mark:

Discovery

bar: Discovery color:NASA
from:30/08/1984 till:05/09/1984 shift: text:STS-41-D
from:08/11/1984 till:15/11/1984 shift: text:STS-51-A
from:24/01/1985 till:27/01/1985 shift: text:STS-51-C
from:12/04/1985 till:18/04/1985 shift: text:STS-51-D
from:17/06/1985 till:24/06/1985 shift: text:STS-51-G
from:27/08/1985 till:03/09/1985 shift: text:STS-51-I
from:29/09/1988 till:03/10/1988 shift: text:STS-26
from:13/03/1989 till:17/03/1989 shift: text:STS-29
from:22/11/1989 till:27/11/1989 shift: text:STS-33
from:24/04/1990 till:29/04/1990 shift: text:STS-31
from:06/10/1990 till:10/10/1990 shift: text:STS-41
from:28/04/1991 till:06/05/1991 shift: text:STS-39
from:12/09/1991 till:17/09/1991 shift: text:STS-48
from:22/01/1992 till:30/01/1992 shift: text:STS-42
from:02/12/1992 till:09/12/1992 shift: text:STS-53
from:08/04/1993 till:17/04/1993 shift: text:STS-56
from:12/09/1993 till:21/09/1993 shift: text:STS-51
from:03/02/1994 till:10/02/1994 shift: text:STS-60
from:09/09/1994 till:19/09/1994 shift: text:STS-64
from:03/02/1995 till:11/02/1995 shift: text:STS-63
from:13/07/1995 till:21/07/1995 shift: text:STS-70
from:11/02/1997 till:20/02/1997 shift: text:STS-82
from:07/08/1997 till:18/08/1997 shift: text:STS-85
from:02/06/1998 till:11/06/1998 shift: text:STS-91
from:29/10/1998 till:06/11/1998 shift: text:STS-95
from:27/05/1999 till:05/06/1999 shift: text:STS-96
from:19/12/1999 till:26/12/1999 shift: text:STS-103
from:11/10/2000 till:23/10/2000 shift: text:STS-92
from:08/03/2001 till:20/03/2001 shift: text:STS-102
from:10/08/2001 till:21/08/2001 shift: text:STS-105
from:26/07/2005 till:08/08/2005 shift: text:STS-114
from:04/07/2006 till:16/07/2006 shift: text:STS-121
from:09/12/2006 till:21/12/2006 shift: text:STS-116
from:23/10/2007 till:07/11/2007 shift: text:STS-120
from:31/05/2008 till:14/06/2008 shift: text:STS-124
from:15/03/2009 till:28/03/2009 shift: text:STS-119
from:29/08/2009 till:11/09/2009 shift: text:STS-128
from:05/04/2010 till:20/04/2010 shift: text:STS-131
from:24/02/2011 till:09/03/2011 shift: text:STS-133

Endeavour

bar: Endeavour color:NASA
from:07/05/1992 till:15/05/1992 shift: text:STS-49
from:12/09/1992 till:19/09/1992 shift: text:STS-47
from:13/01/1993 till:18/01/1993 shift: text:STS-54
from:21/06/1993 till:30/06/1993 shift: text:STS-57
from:02/12/1993 till:12/12/1993 shift: text:STS-61
from:09/04/1994 till:20/04/1994 shift: text:STS-59
from:30/09/1994 till:11/10/1994 shift: text:STS-68
from:02/03/1995 till:18/03/1995 shift: text:STS-67
from:07/09/1995 till:17/09/1995 shift: text:STS-69
from:11/01/1996 till:19/01/1996 shift: text:STS-72
from:19/05/1996 till:29/05/1996 shift: text:STS-77
from:22/01/1998 till:30/01/1998 shift: text:STS-89
from:04/12/1998 till:15/12/1998 shift: text:STS-88
from:11/02/2000 till:22/02/2000 shift: text:STS-99
from:30/11/2000 till:10/12/2000 shift: text:STS-97
from:19/04/2001 till:30/04/2001 shift: text:STS-100
from:05/12/2001 till:16/12/2001 shift: text:STS-108
from:05/06/2002 till:18/06/2002 shift: text:STS-111
from:23/11/2002 till:06/12/2002 shift: text:STS-113
from:08/08/2007 till:21/08/2007 shift: text:STS-118
from:11/03/2008 till:26/03/2008 shift: text:STS-123
from:14/11/2008 till:30/11/2008 shift: text:STS-126
from:15/07/2009 till:31/07/2009 shift: text:STS-127
from:08/02/2010 till:21/02/2010 shift: text:STS-130
from:16/05/2011 till:01/06/2011 shift: text:STS-134

Enterprise

bar: Enterprise color:NASAtest
from:12/08/1977 till:12/08/1977 shift: text:ALT-12
from:13/09/1977 till:13/09/1977 shift: text:ALT-13
from:23/09/1977 till:23/09/1977 shift: text:ALT-14
from:12/10/1977 till:12/10/1977 shift: text:ALT-15
from:26/10/1977 till:26/10/1977 shift: text:ALT-16

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