List of Space Shuttle missions. For missions flown by the Soviet Buran spacecraft, sometimes referred to as a space shuttle, see List of Buran missions. Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on 1. April 1. 98. 1 at Pad 3. A for mission STS 1. The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbitalspacecraft system operated by the U. Pinocchio 3000 Movie On Dvd here. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA. Its official program name was Space Transportation System STS, taken from a 1. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, conducted science experiments in orbit, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station ISS. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1. From 1. 98. 1 to 2. Kennedy Space Center KSC in Florida. During that time period the fleet totaled 1,3. The longest orbital flight of the shuttle was STS 8. STS 5. 1 L at one minute 1. Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch. The shuttles docked with Russian space station Mir nine times and visited the ISS 3. The highest altitude achieved by the shuttle was 3. Hubble Space Telescope. Later Jupiter C flights would be used to launch satellites. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first man made earth satellite, on October 4, 1. This was followed on November 3 with the second satellite, Sputnik 2. The United States attempted a satellite launch on December 6, using the NRLs Vanguard rocket, but it barely struggled off the ground, then fell back and exploded. On January 3. 1, 1. Braun and the ABMA space development team used a Jupiter C in a Juno I configuration addition of a fourth stage to successfully place Explorer 1, the first American satellite, into orbit around the earth. Effective at the end of March 1. U. S. Army Ordnance Missile Command AOMC, was established at Redstone Arsenal. This encompassed the ABMA and its newly operational space programs. In August, AOMC and Advanced Research Projects Agency ARPA, a Department of Defense organization jointly initiated a program managed by ABMA to develop a large space booster of approximately 1. In early 1. 95. 9, this vehicle was designated Saturn. On April 2, President Dwight D. Eisenhower recommended to Congress that a civilian agency be established to direct nonmilitary space activities, and on July 2. President signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA. The nucleus for forming NASA was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NACA, with its 7,5. Ames Research Center ARC, Langley Research Center La. RC, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory later LRC, then Glenn RC becoming the initial operations of NASA. Despite the existence of an official space agency, the Army continued with certain far reaching space programs. In June 1. 95. 9, a secret study on Project Horizon was completed by ABMA, detailing plans for using the Saturn booster in establishing a manned Army outpost on the moon. Project Horizon, however, was rejected, and the Saturn program was transferred to NASA. Ceremony of transfer from Army to NASA July 1, 1. The U. S. manned satellite space program, using the Redstone as a booster, was officially named Project Mercury on November 2. With a future goal of manned flight, monkeys Able and Baker were the first living creatures recovered from outer space on May 2. They had been carried in the nose cone on a Jupiter missile to an altitude of 3. Their survival during speeds over 1. Americas first biological step toward putting a man into space. On October 2. 1, 1. President Eisenhower approved the transfer of all Army space related activities to NASA. This was accomplished effective July 1, 1. AOMCABMA to NASAs George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. MSFC officially opened at Redstone Arsenal on this same date, then was dedicated on September 8 by President Eisenhower in person. The Center was named in honor of General of the Army.