The space shuttle Columbia was launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel
into space.
Piloted by astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, the Columbia undertook a 54-hour space flight of 36 orbits before successfully touching down at California’s Edwards Air Force
Base on April 14.
On April 8, 1993, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from
the Kennedy Space Center. On board is astronaut Ellen
Ochoa, soon to become the first Hispanic woman in space.
Ochoa started at NASA in 1988 after receiving a doctorate
in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Two years later, she was selected as an astronaut. On her
first mission, Ochoa served as a Mission Specialist on a
9-day space flight, the primary mission of which was to
study Earth’s ozone layer.
She went on to fly three more space shuttle missions,
one of which conducted further atmospheric research
and two of which carried components to the International
Space Station.
Over the course of her four flights, Ochoa compiled a
total time of 40 days, 19 hours, and 35 minutes in space.
Ellen Ochoa will be 68 in May.
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford became
the first African American to travel into space when the space
shuttle Challenger lifted off on its third mission.
It was the first night launch of a space shuttle, and many people
stayed up late to watch the spacecraft roar up from Cape
Canaveral, Florida, at 2:32 a.m.
The Challenger spent six days in space, during which time
Bluford and his crew members launched a communications
satellite for the government of India, made contact with an
errant communications satellite, conducted various scientific experiments, and tested the shuttle’s robotic arm.
Just before dawn on September 5, the shuttle landed at Edwards
Air Force Base in California, bringing an end to the most flawless
shuttle mission to that date.
Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (82)
Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, former astronaut and
former director of the Johnson Space Center. In 1993, Ochoa
became the first Latina woman to go to space when she served
on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of
the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012.
She was the first Latina director and the second female director
of Johnson Space Center.
On September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space
shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California.
Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 billion
and took nearly a decade. In 1977, the Enterprise became the first
space shuttle to fly freely when it was lifted to a height of 25,000
feet by a Boeing 747 airplane and then released, gliding back to
Edwards Air Force Base on its own accord.
The space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities and was greeted by NASA
officials and cast members from the ‘Star Trek’ TV
series.
From left to right they are: NASA Administrator Dr.
James D. Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed
Dr. "Bones" McCoy on the series; George Takei
(Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott); Nichelle Nichols
(Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series
creator Gene Roddenberry; an unnamed NASA
official; and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).
