NASA's space shuttle fleet begin setting minutes with its first launch on April 12, 1981 and sustained to set high marks of achievement and staying power through 30 years of missions. Starting with Columbia and continuing with contestant, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, the spaceship has approved people into orbit repeatedly, launched, healthier and repaired satellites, conducted cutting-edge research and built the main structure in space, the International Space Station. The last space shuttle mission, STS-135, ended July 21, 2011 when Atlantis roll to a stop at its home port, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

As humanity's first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle pressed the limits of discovery ever beyond, requiring not only higher technologies but the marvelous effort of a vast labor force. Thousands of civil servants and contractors all through NASA's field centers and across the state have established an unwavering commitment to mission achievement and the better goal of space examination.