When Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human into space on April 12, 1961, the American space program rose to the occasion, and less than a month later, astronaut Alan Shepard became the ...
"The flight campaign for the American space shuttle began on April 12, 1981, with the launch of STS-1 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and ended on July 21, 2011, with wheels stop of STS-135.