The Space Shuttle Family Album, 1977- 2009.

The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise flies free after being released from NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) over Rogers Dry Lakebed during the second of five free flights, January 1, 1977. A tail cone over the main engine area of Enterprise smoothed air flow during flight, the cone was removed on the two last free flights.

 Aerial view of the Shuttle Enterprise from 1978 shows the shuttle orbiter being hoisted into Marshall's Dynamic Test Stand for the Mated Vertical Ground Vibration test. The test marked the first time that the entire Space Shuttle, an external tank and two solid rocket boosters were joined and had the bejeezers shaken from them.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour receives a high-flying salute from its sister Shuttle Columbia, atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, shortly after its landing October 12, 1994 at Edwards, California.

Looks like a baby Space Shuttle. The HL-20 was one of two concepts considered by NASA as a type of Personnel Launch System to serve as a space taxi to and from the space stations. This full scale engineering model is 29.5 feet long, and 23.5 feet across.

 Passed like shuttles in the night. Atlantis waits outside of the Vehicle Asssembly Building in August 1990 as Columbia heads out to the pad.

Discovery moves through the doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building just before sunrise in preparation for October 23 launch, 2007.

Columbia launch from below, 1991.

The Space Shuttle Discovery approaches the International Space Station for docking but before the link-up occurred, the shuttle "posed" for a thorough series of inspection photos July 6, 2006.

Satellite deployment, 18 March, 1989.

 Look Mom...no hands! Astronaut Bruce McCandless riding the Canadarm, February 1984.

This is one of a series of photographs of the Space Shuttle Discovery as it performed a full 360-degree backflip. The photos were taken by crew onboard the International Space Station as the two spacecraft drew near to each other on 30th August 2009.

Smile and Wave!  Five astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis look out overhead windows on the aft flight deck toward their counterparts aboard the Mir Russian space station. The crewmembers (from the top) are astronauts: Kenneth D. Cameron, Mission Commander; Jerry L. Ross, Mission Specialist; James D. Halsell Jr., Pilot; William S. McArthur Jr., and Canadian astronaut Chris A. Hadfield, both Mission Specialists.24 November 1995.