To mark the 25 years since the 12 April 1981 first launch of the NASA Space Shuttle, the Flightglobal team trawled the Flight International archives, compiled two remarkable image galleries, wrote first-hand blogs and sourced exclusive original eye witness accounts of the first mission.
Orbital launch pioneer SpaceX is being contracted by the American space agency NASA to develop a so-called “US Deorbit Vehicle” that can safely return the International Space Station to Earth via controlled re-entry.