President Nixon announced the Space Shuttle Program in 1972 as the Apollo Program was coming to an end. The first Space Shuttle was launched on April 12, 1981 and included many firsts in space flight history. Now that the Space Shuttle program has come to an end, the United States will move in a different direction of space travel. The Space Shuttle has seen the building of the International Space Station, the Hubble telescope and hundreds of projects in space. During these past 30 years, there have been great achievements along with tragic accidents.
