events
Space Shuttle program: Congressman and future NASA Administrator Bill Nelson lifts off from Kennedy Space Center aboard Columbia on mission STS-61-C as a payload specialist.
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Space Shuttle program
1972–2011 United States human spaceflight program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Bill Nelson
American politician and attorney (born 1942)
Clarence William Nelson II is an American politician, attorney, and former astronaut who served from 2001 to 2019 as a United States senator from Florida and from 2021 to 2025 as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A member of the…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Kennedy Space Center
United States space launch site in Florida
The John F. Kennedy Space Center, located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle orbiter (1981–2003)
Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
STS-61-C
1986 American crewed spaceflight to deploy Satcom-K1
STS-61-C was the 24th 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…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Payload specialist
Person trained for flights of a specific payload on a NASA Space Shuttle mission
A payload specialist (PS) was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a NASA Space Shuttle mission. People assigned as payload specialists included individuals selected by the research community, a company…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)