and it never served in space. For propulsion on final approach, the Buran was designed to incorporate two Saturn AL-31 jet engines situated on either side of the shuttle’s tailfin. However ...

NASA officials noticed the bat before shuttle's liftoff and brought in a wildlife expert to look at video images ... engines ignited. The crew of the Discovery safely docked at the International ...

It gave the mission team a chance to test the spacecraft's instruments in deep space, including the thermal imager E-THEMIS (short for Europa Thermal Imaging System), which will eventually scan ...