How the shuttle revolutionised space exploration

The pioneering Space Shuttle programme flew a total of 135 missions, making it the core of US crewed spaceflight efforts for nearly four decades.

The first orbital test flight, STS-1, carried out by Space Shuttle Columbia, blasted off on April 12, 1981 from historic launchpad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Over 30 years later, when Space Shuttle Atlantis rolled to a stop on the runway July 21, 2011, the programme officially came to a close.

Flash forward to today, and a new chapter has begun, with NASA having selected private aerospace agency SpaceX to carry US astronauts back to the lunar surface.

So, what did we learn about the final frontier from the Space Shuttle era in the interim?

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