Launch Complex 39B

Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart just 73 seconds after launch when a failed O-ring seal in a solid rocket booster allowed hot gas to burn through the external fuel tank, killing all seven crew members including teacher Christa McAuliffe.

STS-26 returned the Space Shuttle to flight nearly three years after the Challenger disaster, sending Discovery's crew safely to orbit and back on a mission that restored confidence in NASA's redesigned rocket boosters.

STS-31 carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit aboard Discovery and deployed it using the Shuttle's robotic arm, launching what would become one of the most productive scientific instruments in history.

STS-61 sent Endeavour's seven-person crew to correct the Hubble Space Telescope's flawed mirror through a record five spacewalks, rescuing one of NASA's most important scientific instruments.

STS-93 made Eileen Collins the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission, deploying the Chandra X-ray Observatory aboard Columbia despite an electrical short and a hydrogen leak during ascent.

STS-114 returned the Space Shuttle to flight two and a half years after the Columbia disaster, with Eileen Collins commanding Discovery on a mission that introduced new on-orbit inspection and repair techniques.

The first integrated flight test of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and supporting ground systems.

The first crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft and the first human journey around the Moon since Apollo 17.

A crewed 2027 demonstration mission in low Earth orbit designed to test Orion and commercial lunar lander operations before the first Artemis surface landing.

NASA's first planned Artemis crewed lunar landing, targeting the Moon's south polar region in early 2028.