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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shut1a.jpgThe space shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified Nasa 747 aircraft, takes off today (April 17th) headed for its final home at The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Photograph: Reuters/Pierre Ducharme.
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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shut2a.jpgThe space shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified Nasa 747 aircraft, heads for its final home at The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Photograph: Reuters/Pierre Ducharme.
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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shut3a.jpgThe space shuttle Discovery, attached to a modified Nasa 747 aircraft, heads for its final home at The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Photograph: Reuters/Joe Skipper
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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shut5a.jpgA final fly-by over the White House and the statue of General Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, Washington. Photograph: Reuters/Jim Bourg
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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shut4a.gifThe shuttle passes the Washington Monument and the US Capitol. Photograph: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shut6a.jpgDiscovery arrives at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Photograph: Reuters/Gary Cameron
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shuttle6a.jpg"Mission complete, Houston," Commander Chris Ferguson tells mission control today (July 21st). The landing of 'Atlantis' at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, marks the end of the 30-year-old US shuttle programme. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shuttle5a.jpg'Atlantis' comes in for its final landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida, today (July 21st). Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shuttle4a.jpgThe 'Atlantis' crew - Commander Chris Ferguson, Sandy Magnus, Rex Walheim and Pilot Doug Hurley - wave farewell at the end of the last crew news conference from aboard a shuttle. Photograph: Nasa
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shuttle2a.gifA view from the orbiting space station as it and the shuttle perform their relative separation on July 19th. Photograph: Reuters/Nasa
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shuttle1a.jpgSpace shuttle 'Atlantis' is pictured while still docked with the International Space Station on July 18th. Photograph: Reuters/Nasa
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Lift-off!
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/shuttle.jpgThe space shuttle Atlantis, STS-135 lifts off from launch pad 39A on its final mission. Photograph: Scott Audette/Reuters
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/161.jpgAtlantis STS-135 sits on launch pad 39A while being fuelled for launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral ahead of the final flight in the 30-year US shuttle program. Photograph: Scott Audette/Reuters
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/171.jpgDavid Ramsey, from Houston, Texas, writes a message on a poster that reads, "Best Wishes Atlantis," at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/21.jpgThe Atlantis STS-135 is lifted to the vertical position for mating to the external tank and solid rocket boosters inside the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral 2011. Photograph: Reuters/Scott Audette
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/152.jpgAtlantis lands at California's Edwards Air Force base in the Mojave Desert. Photograph: Tom Tschida/Handout/Reuters
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/141.jpgThe earth is seen behind Atlantis in this photograph taken from the Russian Mir space station. Photograph: Nasa/Reuters
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Atlantis
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/131.jpgAn astronaut aboard Atlantis took this photograph of Hurricane Florence in the Atlantic Ocean using a handheld camera. Photograph: Nasa/Reuters
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Endeavour
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/19.jpgEndeavour is seen with the earth in the background after undocking from the International Space Station (ISS). Photograph: Nasa/Reuters
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Endeavour
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/18.jpgEndeavour begins the nine-minute rendezvous pitch maneuver, or 'backflip,' in order to be photographed then dock on its last visit to the International Space Station in 2011. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images
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Challenger
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/17.jpgThe Challenger and her seven-member crew were lost when a ruptured O-ring in the right solid rocket booster caused an explosion soon after launch in 1986. Photograph: Reuters/Nasa Handout
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Buran
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/20.jpgThe only Russian shuttle built was the Buran meaning 'blizzard'. It completed one unmanned spaceflight in 1988 before the programme was officially closed in 1993. Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters
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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/71.jpgThe shuttle later landed successfully at Edwards Air Force base in California. Photograph: Gene Blevins/Reuters
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Discovery
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/61.jpgDiscovery lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center as onlookers watch in 2005. It was the first shuttle launched since the Columbia disaster two years previously. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Columbia
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/101.jpgA helmet was found in a yard in Texas after many parts of the shuttle, as well as human remains, fell in the area. Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters
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Columbia
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/91.jpgNasa crash investigators place debris from Columbia on a grid on the floor of a hangar on at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in an attempt to learn what caused the shuttle to break up during re-entry on February 1st 2003 killing all seven astronauts aboard. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images
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Columbia
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/81.jpgThe crew of Columbia's tragic STS-107 mission pose for the traditional crew portrait. Seated in front are astronauts Rick D Husband (L), mission commander; Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; and William C McCool, pilot. Standing are (L to R) astronauts David M Brown, Laurel B Clark, and Michael P Anderson, all mission specialists; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist representing the Israeli Space Agency. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images
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Columbia
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/111.jpgColumbia flies into a cloudbank after lift off from the Kennedy Space Center during a successful mission in 2002. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images
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Pre-shuttle space flight
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/51.jpgEight years later the Apollo 11 mission put the first man on the moon. The lunar module with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin aboard is photographed from the command and service modules where Michael Collins remained during the mission. Photograph: Reuters/Nasa File
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Pre-shuttle space flight
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/41.jpgThe Soviet Vostok-1 spaceship with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on board blasts off on top of Rocket R-7 for the first manned trip into space in 1961. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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Pre-shuttle space flight
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/gallery/files/2011/07/31.jpgThe world's first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 was launched from Kazakhstan in 1957. The launch prompted the US to enter the space race with the launch of the Explorer-1 satellite four months later.
