"honor those who lost their lives aboard the shuttle and during the recovery efforts, the Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum ""Remembering Columbia"" was opened in Hemphill, Sabine County, Texas. The museum tells the story of Space Shuttle ""Columbia"" explorations throughout all its missions, including the final STS-107. Its exhibits also show the efforts of local citizens during the recovery period of the ""Columbia"" shuttle debris and its crew's remains. An area is dedicated to each STS-107 crew member, and also to the Texas Forest Service helicopter pilot who died in the recovery effort. The museum houses many objects and artifacts"
"by ""The New York Times"" as a ""political neophyte"". Jack Swigert, who had flown on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, was elected in November 1982 to the United States House of Representatives representing Colorado, based on a plan he developed that ""evolved from his training as an astronaut and the success of the Apollo exploration of the Moon"", but died before taking office. NASA's Shuttle program has produced American and foreign politicians. In 1985, Senator Jake Garn went into space aboard the STS-51-D flight as a payload specialist and in 1986 Rep. Bill Nelson of Florida became the second sitting"
"to 1993, the district was based in Brevard County, including the Kennedy Space Center. In 1986, weeks before the Challenger disaster, the district's then-congressman, Bill Nelson, (now Florida's Senior Senator) flew on board the Space Shuttle Columbia as part of mission STS-61-C. From 1993 to 2013 the district was based in Tampa plus the shoreline of Tampa Bay; the city's long-serving congressman Sam Gibbons retired in 1997 after nearly 35 years in the House. Florida's 11th congressional district Florida's 11th congressional district is an congressional district in the U.S. state of Florida. It was reassigned in 2012, effective January 3,"
"compared to data obtained from Glenn's ""Friendship 7"" orbital mission in 1962. In addition to becoming the oldest person to fly into space, Glenn also became the third sitting member of Congress to do so. He was preceded by Utah Senator Jake Garn (STS-51-D) and Florida Representative (later Senator) Bill Nelson (STS-61-C). At the time, Glenn was Ohio's senior or ranking Senator. Other astronauts who later entered politics include Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17), later senator from New Mexico, and Jack Swigert (Apollo 13), who was elected to Congress in Colorado but died before being sworn in. In a reprise of"
"the ISS. Before 2004, the year it was legalized in the US, no privately operated manned spaceflight had ever occurred. The only private individuals to journey to space went as space tourists in the Space Shuttle or on Russian Soyuz flights to Mir or the International Space Station. All private individuals who flew to space before Dennis Tito's self-financed International Space Station visit in 2001 had been sponsored by their home governments or by private corporations. Those trips include US Congressman Bill Nelson's January 1986 flight on the Space Shuttle Columbia and Japanese television reporter Toyohiro Akiyama's 1990 flight to"
"Garn Horne, who was experiencing progressive kidney failure as a result of diabetes. Jake Garn Edwin Jacob ""Jake"" Garn (born October 12, 1932) is an American astronaut and politician, a member of the Republican Party, who served as a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1974 to 1993. Garn became the first sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle ""Discovery"" as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-51-D (April 12–19, 1985). Born in Richfield, Utah, Garn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business and finance from the University of"
"Space Shuttle, which would facilitate development of permanent space stations in Earth and lunar orbit, perhaps a base on the lunar surface, and the first human flight to Mars as early as 1986 or as late as 2000. Nixon had a better sense of the declining political support in Congress for a new Apollo-style program, which had disappeared with the achievement of the landing, and he intended to pursue detente with the USSR and China, which he hoped might ease Cold War tensions. He cut the spending proposal he sent to Congress to include funding for only the Space Shuttle,"
"Jake Garn Edwin Jacob ""Jake"" Garn (born October 12, 1932) is an American astronaut and politician, a member of the Republican Party, who served as a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1974 to 1993. Garn became the first sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle ""Discovery"" as a Payload Specialist during NASA mission STS-51-D (April 12–19, 1985). Born in Richfield, Utah, Garn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business and finance from the University of Utah in 1955, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity."
"February 20, 1962, and the first astronaut elected to Congress when he won a Senate seat in 1974. He's been the most successful American Astronaut-politician thus far, serving 25 years in the Senate. He left the manned space program in 1964 and announced that he would challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Stephen M. Young in the Democratic primary at the end of Young's first term in office. Criticism of ""astronaut turned politician"" Glenn immediately followed his announcement, with critics taking issue with the ""undesirable precedent in astronauts' capitalizing on their fame to enter political roles"" and some grumbling that Glenn did"
"to the ISS. The last shuttle mission to fly with just four crew members occurred 28 years earlier: STS-6 on 4 April 1983 aboard . With support from both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the fate of STS-135 ultimately depended on whether lawmakers could agree to fund converting the mission from launch-on-need to an actual flight. On 15 July 2010, a Senate committee passed the 2010 NASA reauthorization bill, authored by Senator Bill Nelson, to direct NASA to fly an extra space shuttle mission (STS-135) pending a review of safety concerns. The bill still needed the approval of"
"active duty from 1968 to 1970, attaining the rank of captain, and he remained in the Army until 1971. Nelson was admitted to the Florida bar in 1968, and began practicing law in Melbourne in 1970. In 1971, he worked as legislative assistant to Governor Reubin Askew. In 1972, Nelson married Grace Cavert. The couple have two adult children: Charles William ""Bill Jr."" Nelson and Nan Ellen Nelson. In 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of Congress (and the first member of the House) to travel into space. He went through NASA training with Senator Jake Garn of Utah."
"criticized for giving limited Shuttle flight positions to civilian aerospace engineers such as Greg Jarvis (killed aboard ""Challenger""), politicians such as US Representative Bill Nelson, and others civilians such as Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe (also killed aboard ""Challenger""). Even the rationale for the Shuttle flight of former Mercury astronaut and US Senator John Glenn was questioned. The concern was that these people had replaced career astronauts in very limited flight opportunities, and some may have flown without understanding the level of danger. A 1986 post-""Challenger"" article in ""The Washington Post"" reviewed the issue, reporting that as far back as"
"September 2008, and was passed again by the House on 27 September 2008. It was signed by President George W. Bush on 15 October 2008. The bill authorized NASA to add another space shuttle flight to the schedule before the space shuttle program was discontinued. In January 2009 NASA restored AMS-02 to the shuttle manifest. On 26 August 2010, AMS-02 was delivered from CERN to the Kennedy Space Center by a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. It was delivered to the International Space Station on May 19, 2011 as part of station assembly flight ULF6 on shuttle flight STS-134, commanded by Mark"
"several lessons from space as part of the Teacher in Space Project and Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP). The flight marked the first American orbital mission to involve in-flight fatalities. It was also the first American human spaceflight mission to launch and fail to reach space; the first such mission in the world had been the Soviet Soyuz 18a mission, in which the two crew members had survived. Gregory Jarvis was originally scheduled to fly on the previous shuttle flight (STS-61-C), but he was reassigned to this flight and replaced by Congressman Bill Nelson. Although the crew died in the"
"photographer took a gag photo of the STS-61-C crew with their heads and faces obscured by their helmets and visors. STS-61-C STS-61-C was the twenty-fourth mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the seventh mission of Space Shuttle ""Columbia"". It was the first time that ""Columbia"", the first space-rated Space Shuttle orbiter to be constructed, had flown since STS-9. The mission launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on 12 January 1986, and landed six days later on 18 January. STS-61-C's seven-person crew included the second African-American shuttle pilot, future NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the first Costa Rican-born astronaut, Franklin Chang-Diaz,"
"and finishing in 6th place. Glenn returned to space on October 29, 1998 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95) while still a sitting Senator. The next year he retired from Congress. Two Apollo astronauts were elected to the United States Congress. ""Astronaut turned Sen. Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt"", whose participation on the Apollo 17 mission made him the only geologist to walk on the Moon, resigned from NASA in August 1975 and shortly thereafter ran as a Republican, winning the New Mexico Senate seat in 1976 over two-term Democratic incumbent, Joseph Montoya by a margin of 57% to 42%, despite being described"
"in orbit using expendable launch vehicles rather than the shuttle. In August 1986, President Reagan also announced that the shuttle would no longer carry commercial satellite payloads. After a 32-month hiatus, the next shuttle mission, STS-26, was launched on September 29, 1988. Although changes were made by NASA after the ""Challenger"" accident, many commentators have argued that the changes in its management structure and organizational culture were neither deep nor long-lasting. After the Space Shuttle ""Columbia"" disaster in 2003, attention once again focused on the attitude of NASA management towards safety issues. The ""Columbia"" Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) concluded that"
"the first two shuttles were modified versions of the seats used in the Lockheed SR-71. The approach and landing tests flown by ""Enterprise"" had these as an escape option, and the first four flights of ""Columbia"" had this option as well. But STS-5 was the first mission to have a crew of more than two, and the commander made the decision that the ethical thing to do was to fly with the ejection seats disabled. ""Columbia""'s next flight (STS-9) was likewise flown with the seats disabled. By the time ""Columbia"" flew again (STS-61-C, launched on January 12, 1986), it had"
"Jack R. Lousma Jack Robert Lousma (born February 29, 1936), (Col, USMC, Ret.), is an American aeronautical engineer, retired United States Marine Corps officer, former naval aviator, NASA astronaut, and politician. He was a member of the second manned crew on the Skylab space station in 1973. In 1982, he commanded STS-3, the third Space Shuttle mission. Lousma was later the Republican nominee for a seat in the United States Senate from Michigan in 1984, losing to incumbent Carl Levin who won his second of six terms as a result. Lousma was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 29,"
"the names of the mission's two crew members, and includes an image of a bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, decorated with the colors of the US flag. NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. STS-2 STS-2 was the second Space Shuttle mission conducted by NASA, and the second flight of the orbiter ""Columbia"". The mission launched on 12 November 1981 and landed two days later on 14 November. STS-2 marked the first time in history that a"
"three of the planned Apollo Moon landings were cancelled. The Nixon administration approved the beginning of the Space Shuttle program in 1972, but did not support funding of other projects such as a Mars landing, colonization of the Moon, or a permanent space station. The Space Shuttle first launched in 1981, during Ronald Reagan's administration. Reagan in 1982 announced a renewed active space effort, which included initiatives such the construction of Space Station Freedom, and the military Strategic Defense Initiative, and, later in his term, a 30 percent increase in NASA's budget. The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in January 1986"
"its technical characteristics and performance. Its first operational mission, with a four-man crew, was STS-5, which launched on November 11, 1982. At this point ""Columbia"" was joined by ""Challenger"", which flew the next three shuttle missions, while ""Columbia"" underwent modifications for the first Spacelab mission. In 1983, ""Columbia"", under the command of John Young on what was his sixth spaceflight, undertook its second operational mission (STS-9), in which the Spacelab science laboratory and a six-person crew was carried, including the first non-American astronaut on a space shuttle, Ulf Merbold. After the flight, ""Columbia"" spent 18 months at the Rockwell Palmdale"
"had been STS-41-G in October 1984. STS-61-A was not the first Space Shuttle flight of an ESA astronaut or a West German citizen, as Ulf Merbold, who also served as the backup on this mission, had previously flown on the STS-9 mission in 1983, but Wubbo Ockels became the first Dutch citizen in space. Guion S. Bluford at the time was already the first African-American in space, having previously flown on STS-8. With STS-61-A he became the first African-American to fly in space twice. He would later go on to fly on STS-39 in 1991 and on STS-53 in 1992."
"For nine years, he was active as an advisor to key national leaders involved in planning space policy. Among other activities, he served on an advisory board involved in developing the Strategic Defense Initiative. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan selected Fletcher to administer NASA for a second time, to help the agency recover from the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" accident. Shuttle flights went into a two-year hiatus while Fletcher ensured that NASA reinvested heavily in the program's safety and reliability, made organizational changes to improve efficiency, and restructured its management system. He oversaw a complete reworking of the components of the"
"on August 11, 1985. The mission insignia was designed by Houston artist Skip Bradley. Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" is depicted ascending toward the heavens in search of new knowledge in the field of solar and stellar astronomy, with its Spacelab 2 payload. The constellations Leo and Orion are shown in the positions they were in relative to the Sun during the flight. The nineteen stars indicate that the mission is the 19th shuttle flight. C. Gordon Fullerton died on August 21, 2013, aged 76. Karl Gordon Henize died October 5, 1993 on an expedition to Mount Everest studying the effects of"
"all parts of the program except the Space Shuttle, which inherited the STS name. As funded, the Shuttle was greatly scaled back from its planned degree of reusability, and deferred in time. The Shuttle first flew in 1981, and was retired in 2011. A second part of the system, Space Station Freedom, was approved in the early 1980s and announced in 1984 by president Ronald Reagan. However, this also became politically unviable by 1993, and was replaced with the International Space Station (ISS), with substantial contribution by Russia. The ISS was completed in 2010. Planned uses for NERVA included a"
"a result. On January 28, 1986, McAuliffe boarded ""Challenger"" with the other six crew members of STS-51-L. Just 73 seconds into its flight at an altitude of 48,000 feet, the shuttle broke apart, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members. According to NASA, it was in part because of the excitement over her presence on the shuttle that the accident had such a significant effect on the nation. Many schoolchildren were viewing the launch live, and media coverage of the accident was extensive. The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" Accident—also known as the Rogers Commission—was formed"
"of the Mercury Seven. Glenn resigned from NASA in January 1964. He planned to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio, but an injury in February 1964 forced his withdrawal. He retired from the Marine Corps the following year. He lost a close primary election in 1970. A member of the Democratic Party, Glenn first won election to the Senate in 1974 and served for 24 years until January 1999. In 1998, while still a sitting Senator, Glenn flew on the ""Discovery"" space shuttle's STS-95 mission, and became the oldest person to fly in space and the only person"
"same level of training as career NASA astronauts and were not employed by NASA, so they were essentially private astronauts. In the early days of the Shuttle program, NASA was also eager to prove its capability to Congressional sponsors, and Senator Jake Garn and (then-Representative, now Senator) Bill Nelson were both given opportunities to fly on a Shuttle mission. As the Shuttle program expanded, NASA developed the Space Flight Participant Program, where civilians, with an emphasis on creative people, would be sent into space to increase public awareness of NASA's mission. The initial goal was that two or three shuttle"
"wake of the January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" disaster, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan traveled to JSC on January 31 to speak at a memorial service honoring the astronauts. It was attended by 6,000 NASA employees and 4,000 guests, as well as by the families of the crew. During the ceremony, an Air Force band led the singing of ""God Bless America"" as NASA T-38 Talon supersonic jets flew directly over the scene in the traditional missing-man formation. All activities were broadcast live by the national television and radio networks. A similar memorial service was held"
"(later renamed the John C. Stennis Space Center), this was primarily to test the vehicles built at the rocket factory. On January 5, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon announced plans to develop the Space Shuttle, a reusable Space Transportation System (STS) for routine access to space. The Shuttle was composed of the Orbiter Vehicle (OV) containing the crew and payload, two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), and the External Tank (ET) that carried liquid fuel for the OV's main engines. MSFC was responsible for the SRBs, the OV's three main engines, and the ET. The Center also received responsibility for Spacelab,"
"President Gerald Ford to name the first Space Shuttle the ""Enterprise"", replacing the previously slated name for the prototype vehicle, ""Constitution"". The ""Enterprise"" was rolled out for public display on September 17, 1976, Constitution Day. Hoagland authored the book ""The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever"" (published in 1987), and co-authored the book ""Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA"", which was ranked 21st on November 18, 2007 on The New York Times Best Seller list for paperback nonfiction. Richard Grossinger, the founder of North Atlantic Books, writes that ""Monuments"" became the most successful title published"
"Space Shuttle, which would be responsible for all government and commercial launches. Production of Delta, Atlas-Centaur, and Titan 34D had ended. The ""Challenger"" disaster of 1986 and the subsequent halt of Shuttle operations changed this policy, and President Ronald Reagan announced in December of that year that the Space Shuttle would no longer launch commercial payloads, and NASA would seek to purchase launches on expendable vehicles for missions that did not require crew or Shuttle support. McDonnell Douglas, at that time the manufacturer of the Delta family, signed a contract with the U.S. Air Force in 1987 to provide seven"