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Major milestones of the Space Shuttle program's 135 missions included the launches of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the first American woman and African-American astronauts in space.
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The inaugural space shuttle flight in 1981 was the first use of solid rocket engines to propel a spacecraft into orbit, as well as the first runway landing of a spacecraft.
The 1983 STS-7 saw Sally Ride become the first American woman in space, and STS-8 later that year saw Guion Bluford become the first African-American in space, with both milestones taking place aboard Challenger.
A year later, Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart conducted the first untethered spacewalks using a robotic backpack with its own thrusters.
In 1995, STS-71 saw the Atlantis space shuttle dock with the Russian space station Mir—a predecessor to the collaboration that would establish the International Space Station.
STS-51L and STS-107—the 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia disasters—contributed to sweeping changes at NASA and the Space Shuttle program, including a shuttle safety overhaul and the eventual retirement of the fleet.
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