From 1981 to 2011, 135 Space Shuttle missions were flown. The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbitalspacecraft system operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Its official program name was Space Transportation System, taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. Operational missions launched numerous satellites (including the Hubble Space Telescope), conducted science experiments in orbit, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). The longest orbital flight of the shuttle was STS-80 at 17 days 15 hours, while the shortest flight was STS-51-L at one minute 13 seconds, cut short when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch. The shuttles docked with Russian space station Mir nine times and visited the ISS 37 times. The highest altitude achieved by the shuttle was 350 miles when servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. (Full list...)
