Original caption: The Apollo component of the Apollo-Soyuz Mission, a Saturn V carrying a NASA Apollo command module, clears the launch tower. There it would rendezvous and dock with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union, the first joint flight of the two programs. --- Image by © Ctein/Science Faction/Corbis
Florida, USA --- Rocket Garden at John F. Kennedy Space Center --- Image by © Richard T. Nowitz/Corbis
Original caption: The space shuttle Columbia streaks skyward from Kennedy Space Center. --- Image by © Ctein/Science Faction/Corbis
Florida, USA --- The Apollo 11 mission, atop a Saturn V booster, lifts off for the Moon at 9:32 AM on July 16, 1969 from Cape Kennedy. The Apollo 11 team of Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong were the first people to set foot on the Moon. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis
A Delta II rocket carries the Dawn spacecraft in an arc over the Atlantic Ocean. Liftoff was at 7:34 a.m. EDT from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Dawn is the ninth mission in NASA's Discovery Program. The spacecraft will be the first to orbit two planetary bodies, the asteroid Vesta and Ceres, during a single mission. It is also NASA's first purely scientific mission powered by three solar electric ion propulsion engines. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis
Florida, USA --- Space shuttle Atlantis races to orbit from Launch Pad 39A on a perfect Florida afternoon at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff on its STS-129 mission came at 2:28 p.m. EST Nov. 16. Aboard are crew members Commander Charles O. Hobaugh; Pilot Barry E. Wilmore; and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Robert L. Satcher Jr. On STS-129, the crew will deliver two Express Logistics Carriers to the International Space Station. --- Image by © Scott Andrews/SuperStock/Corbis
13 Mar 1989, Florida, USA --- The space shuttle Discovery is launched from John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida at the beginning of mission STS-29 to launch a TDRSS communications satellite. --- Image by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS
Florida, USA --- With nearly 7 million pounds of thrust generated by twin solid rocket boosters and three main engines, space shuttle Atlantis races to orbit over Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff on its STS-129 mission came at 2:28 p.m. EST Nov. 16. Aboard are crew members Commander Charles O. Hobaugh; Pilot Barry E. Wilmore; and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Robert L. Satcher Jr. --- Image by © Scott Andrews/SuperStock/Corbis
13 Sep 2012, Huntsville, Alabama, USA --- United States Space & Rocket Center,Huntsville,Alabama,USA --- Image by © Richard Cummins/Corbis
19 Jun 1983, Florida, USA --- Original caption: Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: The seventh Space Shuttle is on its way in this view taken by astronaut John Young from his jet aircraft. The Challenger with its five member crew was successfully launched through broken to scattered clouds. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
Florida, USA --- A jet of steam pours out of the Jupiter C rocket (in this configuration known as a Juno-1), about to launch Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral on January 31, 1958. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis
Explorer 1 lifts off from Cape Canaveral on January 31, 1958 on top of a Jupiter C rocket (in this configuration known as a Juno-1), five months after the launch of the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, by the USSR. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis
Florida, USA --- The first Redstone was fired at Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 20, 1953. Redstone was the first major rocket development program for United States by the Peenemunde group led by Dr. Wernher von Braun. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis
Original caption: Liftoff is mirrored in a pond as Space Shuttle Atlantis roars into the sky on mission STS-115. After attempts were scrubbed Aug. 27 & 29 and Sept. 3 & 8 due to weather and technical concerns, the launch was executed perfectly at 11:14 a.m. EDT. Mission STS-115 is the 116th space shuttle flight, the 27th flight for orbiter Atlantis, and the 19th U.S. flight to the International Space Station. During the mission, Atlantis' astronauts delivered the 17.5-ton bus-sized P3/P4 integrated truss segment. --- Image by © Scott Andrews/Science Faction/Corbis
Original caption: Launch of the Apollo component of the Apollo-Soyuz Mission, a Saturn V carrying a NASA Apollo command module into orbit. There it would rendezvous and dock with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union, the first joint flight of the two programs. --- Image by © Ctein/Science Faction/Corbis
Original caption: The Apollo component of the Apollo-Soyuz Mission, a Saturn V which would carry a NASA Apollo command module into orbit. There it would rendezvous and dock with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union, the first joint flight of the two programs. --- Image by © Ctein/Science Faction/Corbis
Florida, USA --- A Delta rocket launches the eighth Orbiting Solar Observatory on June 21, 1975. The Orbiting Solar Observatory from the Goddard Space Flight Center looks at the Sun in high-energy wavelength bands in the Sun's corona. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis
Ares I-X -- First Flight of a New Moon Rocket
October 28, 2009: NASA's Ares I-X rocket launches on its first test flight from Pad 39B, carrying with it NASA's hopes and dreams of a replacement for the space shuttle capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station, to the Moon, and beyond. The uncrewed, 327-foot tall vehicle lifted off from a reconfigured space shuttle pad which was originally built for the Saturn V rocket used in the United States' first moon program. The dummy upper stage and crew capsule with escape tower sat atop an active first stage based on a space shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). It burned for a little more than 2 minutes to test flight control and dynamics, reaching a top speed of Mach 4.5 and a highest altitude of 150,000 feet just to the east of the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Florida, USA --- The Gemini X spacecraft, which launched from Complex 19 at Kennedy Space Center on July 18, 1966 with astronauts John Young and Michael Collins on board. --- Image by © NASA/Science Faction/Corbis
Florida, USA --- A Delta II rocket launches NASA's Dawn asteroid mission to Ceres and Vesta. --- Image by © Ben Cooper/SuperStock/Corbis
26 Mar 1958, Florida, USA --- Original caption: 3/26/1958-Cape Canaveral, FL-: The U.S. Army's Jupiter-C rocket leaves the launch pad carrying the earth satellite Explorer III, which was placed in successful orbit. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
16 Jul 1969, Florida, USA --- Original caption: Saturn V rocket blasts off here July 16th on Apollo 11 moon landing expedition. Aboard are astronauts Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
28 Jan 1986, Florida, USA --- Original caption: Cape Canaveral, Florida: Explosion of the space shuttle, Challenger, plumes of smoke can be seen from the two solid fuel boosters free of the shuttle. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
01 Jan 1980, Florida, USA --- The Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-124 to the International Space Station, May 31, 2008 at 5:02pm EDT. --- Image by © Ben Cooper/Science Faction/Corbis
The Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-1, the first space shuttle mission, at 7:00 AM on April 12, 1981. The Columbia was destroyed on reentry in 2003. Digitally restored. --- Image by © NASA - digital version copyright/Science Faction/Corbis