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Photograph courtesy NASA
Space shuttles travel to the launchpad on a big vehicle called a crawler transporter. This one is carrying the shuttle Discovery. The crawler transporter moves very slowly, and it takes about five hours to get the shuttle to the launchpad. -
Photograph courtesy NASA
Space shuttle Atlantis launches on December 2, 1988, reaching a speed of over 17,000 miles an hour (27,000 kilometers an hour) in just 8.5 minutes. Shuttles need lots of speed to escape Earth's atmosphere. -
Photograph courtesy NASA
The runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where space shuttle Discovery is touching down, is 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) long. That's as long as about 5,000 soccer fields! -
Photograph courtesy NASA/Jim Grossmann
A crowd watches as space shuttle Atlantis launches on a mission to the International Space Station. Since 1981, shuttles have carried more than 3 million pounds (1.36 million kilograms) of cargo to the space station. -
Photograph courtesy NASA
U.S. space shuttle Discovery blasts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, heading for the International Space Station. There are three shuttles now in operation: Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. -
Photograph courtesy NASA/Carla Thomas
If the weather is good, space shuttles land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But if the weather in Florida is bad, shuttles will land at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Then they hitch a ride back to Florida on a special 747 airplane. -
Photograph courtesy NASA
On June 29, 1995, Atlantis became the first space shuttle to dock with Russia's Mir space station. -
Photograph courtesy NASA
Space shuttle Columbia launches in 1993.
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