30 years, 355 astronauts, 133 successful missions and a wealth of new information for humanity: it's fair to say that the Space Shuttle program was one of mankind's greatest accomplishments.
YouTube user lunarmodule5 (we assume it's not an actual lunar module that has become sentient) has now created this mind-blowing video which collects together the launches of every single one of the Space Shuttle missions. The action takes place over a four-way split screen and, with the average trip to orbit taking eight and a half minutes, runs to an hour and forty-four minutes.
The Space Shuttle was the first winged spacecraft to achieve orbit, and remains the only reusable manned space vehicle that has ever made multiple flights into space. The first in the fleet of five that made it into space was Columbia in April 1981, with the last being Atlantis in July 2011. Two missions, STS-51 in 1986 and STS-107 in 2003, were unsuccessful, with Challenger and Columbia, respectively, both lost, along with their crews.
The true space enthusiasts should grab some popcorn and get settled in, while others can just take a quick peek at one of the most magisterial sights in the world's history.
(Images: Rex)
