Wondering About the Space Shuttles.

Yesterday, I talked about man's first landing on the moon.  Today, I am going to continue along with more of the space program, today's subject is the space shuttles.  They were a very important part in the U.S. of A's space program, although Challenger on its 10th mission, broke apart shortly after its lift-off.  I remember seeing this horrible picture on TV of the end of Challenger and the astronauts aboard:

That slowed down the space program for awhile but it did resume.  The launch of the shuttle was a mighty thing to behold.  I sure wish I could have seen a launch in person:

Those two solid fuel boosters sure did light up the sky and get the shuttle off the Earth's surface:

It had huge cargo doors that opened to release its cargo, like a satellite, or to service a satellite (like the Hubble Space Telescope) or retrieve one, like the Hubble Space Telescope:

And another picture of the shuttle in space with its cargo doors wide open:

It even serviced the space station.  Also, during the shuttles reign, they carried more than 350 people into space and flew more than five hundred million miles.  They were retired so that NASA could focus on deep-space exploration.  It was on this day, back in 2011, that the shuttle program completed its final mission of 135 flights.  Dang, I would have never guessed that they flew that many missions.

Sorry I am late with this posting, had things to do.  Better late than never, right.  Now, you all have a great evening, you hear?