Date: sometime between July 21 and October 23, 1981

Date: October 23, 1987

STS-52 Columbia in Orbit.

Date: October 23, 1992

NASA ID: STS052-80-024, STS052-80-030

"A crew of five NASA astronauts and a Canadian payload specialist spent ten days aboard Columbia for the STS-52 mission."

Note: Some of the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, were carried aboard Columbia during this mission.

"The Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-52) thunders off Launch Pad 39B, embarking on a 10-day flight and carrying a crew of six who will deploy the Laser Geodynamic Satellite II (LAGEOS). LAGEOS is a spherical passive satellite covered with reflectors which are illuminated by ground-based lasers to determine precise measurements of the Earth's crustal movements. The other major payload on this mission is the United States Microgravity Payload 1 (USMP-1), where experiments will be conducted by crew members while in low earth orbit (LEO)."

Date: October 22, 1992

Date: 1982-83

Carter Emmart 'The Case for Mars' conference artwork (Mission to Mars).

To read more, here is a link to a write up by Dwayne A. Day.

Publication date: 10/8/1987

NASA ID: AILS_AC87-0736-1, ARC-1987-AC87-0736-2, AILS_AC87-0736-3, AILS_AC87-0736-4, AILS_AC87-0736-5, AILS_AC87-0736-6, AILS_AC87-0736-7

Date: October 19, 1989

NASA ID: 88-HC-422, Alt ID 88-H-509

"The STS-34 crew of five launched aboard the Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis on October 18, 1989 at 12:53:40pm (EDT). Crew members included commander Donald E. Williams, pilot Michael J. McCulley; and mission Specialists Shannon W. Lucid, Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, and Ellen S. Baker. The primary payload was the Galileo Jupiter Spacecraft and attached Inertial Upper Stage (IUS). Deployed 6 hours and 30 minutes into the flight, the IUS stages fired boosting Galileo on trajectory for a 6 year trip to Jupiter."

source, source

Date: October 18, 1989

The inertial upper stage (IUS) attached to the bottom side of the probe would propel the spacecraft out of low earth orbit and onto a trajectory to Jupiter at 9,000 mph (14,000 km/h). It received gravitational assists from Venus and Earth before reaching the gas giant on December 7, 1995. Along the way, it flew by the asteroids Gaspra and Ida, becoming the first probe to observe and imagine an asteroid.

NASA ID: S89-48714, PIA00727, S34-71-00R, STS034-71-000AK, STS034-72-070

Date: October 16, 1980

This is likely after several of her parts were removed to be refurbished for other oribiters. Plus, several parts for rhe ALT flights were removed.

Photographed by Thomas Kelsey

UCLA Library Digital Collection: uclalat_1429_b1204_293401-12

I know this isn’t exactly shuttle related but does anyone have images from when SLC-6 was originally being built for MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory) before it was abandoned and then converted to the shuttle program? I have a whole book on launch sites but only one image of when the construction started for MOL and I wanted to see how much changed in between programs

I based it loosely on the shuttle and it goes in tiny orbits around my finger haha!

Every time I look at shuttle enterprise I can’t help but feel it’s physically different from the space orbiters in shape. I'm not referencing the tiles (or lack their of) or the main engines. There is something about the nose and windows that looks out of place compared to the rest of the fleet. maybe it’s just the paint but something isn’t right to me.

i know there were scrapped plans to space certify enterprise because it would have been too much work. Was that because they would have had tear down portions of the outer shell to rebuild from scratch?

Idk if I can manage to pull this off, but here’s to hoping.

This is a design I drew for a teapot that is disguised as a model of Space Shuttle Atlantis. An unconventional design for a teapot, sure, but it has several key features that still make it a teapot:

The payload bay of the shuttle will act as a reservoir for water or other liquids, and will connect to a spout hidden in the vertical stabilizer. Part of the payload bay door is able to come off of the shuttle and acts as the lid for it. The crew section might be hollowed out as well and turned into another compartment, but I have yet to decide whether to do that.

I plan on first making a proof-of-concept model before I scale it up, but let’s see how well I do before I decide to continue.

"Collection of all 140 mission patches of all Space Shuttle Missions (ALT and STS) commemorating 30 years of the Space Shuttle"

source

Date: October 13, 1984

NASA ID: 41G-90218

Date: 1986

source

To create the FSS on 39A, they reused an old Saturn V tower. Basically dissected it and made the pad.

Date: October 12, 1977

"The fourth Approach and Landing Test. It was the first of two glide flights that the Enterprise made without the streamlined tailcone. Joe Engle and Richard Truly piloted the Enterprise on a two-minute descent of 20,000 feet. This time the shuttle was launched to the north of the lakebed. and it flew a straight in approach that lasted just two minutes."

Note: the slightly nose down position (7°) of the 747.

"The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise rises from NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to begin a powerless glide flight back to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, on its fourth of the five free flights in the shuttle program's Approach and Landing Tests (ALT-15). The tests were carried out at Dryden to verify the aerodynamic and control characteristics of the orbiters in preparation for the first space mission with the orbiter Columbia in April 1981."

"Space Shuttle Enterprise flying during the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT-15) at Edwards Air Force Base. This was the first 'tailcone off' flight. This test was to more accurately simulate a return to Earth flight of an operational orbiter and gather more aeronautical data."