By The Star Queen · Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · Star Queen Chronicles
Featured image: NASA/Kim Shiflett. Atlantis rolls toward Launch Pad 39A past the Vehicle Assembly Building, Sept. 4, 2008 (NASA image KSC-08pd2536).
Part 1 of 15 · Space Shuttle series hub
My loves, if you’ve read The Little Astronaut Inside Me, you’ve already met the kid I’m writing this series for: the one with the shuttle posters taped crooked on her bedroom wall, who pressed her face to the TV every time a launch countdown started, and who cried real tears when the last shuttle touched down in 2011. 🚀
Those tears are why I want to tell the whole story. I live on the Space Coast now, a short drive from the pads where it all happened, and I have never written down what the Space Shuttle program actually was. So over the next eight weeks I’m going to do it, one honest, NASA-sourced post at a time.
What this series is (and isn’t)
It’s 15 parts, not 135. Each one covers an era, an orbiter or a mission that deserves a spotlight. Every fact comes from NASA, with the pages listed at the bottom of each post. When NASA’s pages disagree, I’ll say so, or skip the number rather than guess.
Two posts are about the accidents that took Challenger and Columbia and fourteen astronauts. I’ve written those quietly, with the space they deserve.
The program in a few numbers
| Fact | Number |
|---|---|
| First launch | April 12, 1981 (STS-1, Columbia) |
| Last landing | July 21, 2011 (STS-135, Atlantis) |
| Missions | 135 |
| People who flew | 355 people, in 852 seats |
| Who they were | 306 men and 49 women, from 16 countries |
About “355 people, in 852 seats”: NASA’s Kennedy fact sheet counts 355 individual people, and because many flew more than once, they filled 852 seats across the 135 missions.
The five orbiters that flew in space
| Orbiter | Flights | First launch | What became of her |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia (OV-102) | 28 | April 12, 1981 | Lost February 1, 2003 |
| Challenger (OV-099) | 10 | April 4, 1983 | Lost January 28, 1986 |
| Discovery (OV-103) | 39 | August 30, 1984 | Displayed at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center |
| Atlantis (OV-104) | 33 | October 3, 1985 | Displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex |
| Endeavour (OV-105) | 25 | May 7, 1992 | Displayed at the California Science Center |
Those flights add up to 135. A sixth orbiter, Enterprise (OV-101), never flew in space but made the others possible. She gets the next post.
The shuttle in one paragraph
A shuttle “stack” was the winged orbiter, two solid rocket boosters and a big orange external tank. For the physics of getting off the ground, see Basic Rocket Science.
Terms to know ✨
- Orbiter: the winged part of the shuttle that carried the crew and cargo, flew in orbit, and landed like a glider.
- OV: “orbiter vehicle,” NASA’s numbering for each one (OV-102 is Columbia).
- STS: Space Transportation System, the official name of the shuttle program; each mission is “STS-” plus a number or code.
- Payload: whatever the shuttle carried in its cargo bay, such as a satellite or a laboratory.
The roadmap
Posts go live on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Eastern, with a Thanksgiving break. Each title becomes a link as it publishes.
| Post | Planned date | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | The Shuttle That Never Left the Sky: Enterprise and the 1977 Glide Tests ✈️ | Fri, Nov 6 |
| 3 | Columbia’s First Ride: April 12, 1981 🌅 | Tue, Nov 10 |
| 4 | From Test Flights to Truckers of Space: The Satellite and Spacelab Years 🛰️ | Fri, Nov 13 |
| 5 | Challenger: Ten Flights of Firsts | Tue, Nov 17 |
| 6 | January 28, 1986: Remembering Challenger | Fri, Nov 20 |
| 7 | 32 Months Later: How the Shuttle Came Back 🔧 | Tue, Nov 24 |
| 8 | The Telescope the Shuttle Rescued: Hubble, 1990–2009 🔭 | Tue, Dec 1 |
| 9 | Handshakes in Orbit: Shuttle-Mir and Building the Space Station 🤝 | Fri, Dec 4 |
| 10 | Columbia: The Pioneer | Tue, Dec 8 |
| 11 | February 1, 2003: Losing Columbia, and the Long Road Back | Fri, Dec 11 |
| 12 | Discovery: The Fleet Leader (39 Flights) 🌟 | Tue, Dec 15 |
| 13 | Atlantis: The Planet-Chaser Who Came Home to Florida 🪐 | Fri, Dec 18 |
| 14 | Endeavour: Built to Carry On, and Built to Build 🛠️ | Tue, Dec 22 |
| 15 | The Last Landing: STS-135 and the Final Flights (And Why I Cried) 🌙 | Tue, Dec 29 |
New here? My About page is the place to start. Otherwise, buckle up.
— The Star Queen 👑
Coming next: The Shuttle That Never Left the Sky: Enterprise and the 1977 Glide Tests ✈️
Sources
- NASA: Space Shuttle
- NASA Kennedy Space Center: Space Shuttle Era Facts (April 2012)
- NASA: Retired Space Shuttle Locations (March 23, 2015)
- NASA: STS-1 mission page
- NASA Image and Video Library: KSC-08pd2536