KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-120 Commander Pam Melroy and Pilot George Zamka return to crew quarters after disembarking from a Shuttle Training Aircraft, or STA, on the tarmac at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. They were training for their upcoming space shuttle mission by practicing landings using an STA. Melroy is the second woman to command a shuttle mission. Also assigned to STS-120 are Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski, Stephanie Wilson, Doug Wheelock, Paolo Nespoli and Daniel Tani. Nespoli represents the European Space Agency. Tani will remain on the International Space Station as an Expedition 16 flight engineer after the STS-120 mission is complete. The mission will be the 23rd shuttle flight to the International Space Station, delivering the Italian-built U.S. Node 2, called Harmony. The crew arrived at Kennedy on Oct. 19 to prepare for launch aboard space shuttle Discovery at 11:38 a.m. EDT Oct. 23. The 14-day mission includes five spacewalks -- four by shuttle crew members and one by the station's Expedition 16 crew -- to install Harmony and move the P6 solar arrays to their permanent position and deploy them. Discovery is expected to complete its mission and return home on Nov. 6. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-07pd2898

The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.

Élisabeth Thible flew above Lyon, France in 1784. Jeanne Labrosse became the first woman to parachute. Sophie Blanchard took her first balloon flight in 1804, and was made Napoleon's chief of air service in 1811. In 1903, Aida de Acosta, an American woman vacationing in Paris piloted airship, becoming the first known woman to pilot a motorized aircraft. Katharine Wright flew the Wright Model A. Emma Lilian Todd designed her own airplanes. Her first plane flew in 1910. Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick became the first woman to jump from an aircraft in 1913. Raymonde de Laroche, was the world's first licensed female pilot. Seven other French women followed her in 1901-1902. Blanche Scott claimed to be the first American woman to fly an airplane and established herself as a daredevil pilot. Bessica Raiche recognized as the first American woman to make a solo flight. Harriet Quimby became the USA's first licensed female pilot on August 1, 1911 and the first woman to cross the English Channel by airplane the following year. Lidia Zvereva, the first female Russian license performed her first aerobatic loop in 1914. In 1913, Lyubov Golanchikova signed a contract to become the first female test pilot to test "Farman-22" manufactured in Russia. In 1916, Zhang Xiahun (Chinese: 張俠魂) China's first female pilot crashed, becoming a national heroine when she survived. Katherine Stinson became the first woman air mail pilot, when the United States Postal Service. The following year, Ruth Law flew the first official U.S. air mail to the Philippines. In 1936, Hanna Reitsch of Germany became one of the first persons to fly a fully controllable helicopter and earned the first woman helicopter pilot's license. In 1937 Sabiha Gökçen of Turkey became the first trained woman combat pilot, participating in search operations and bombing flight. In 1943 Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were flying new planes from factories to Army Air Force bases, worked as test pilots. In 1942 Soviet Union created an all-woman combat flight unit, the 588th Night-Bomber Air-Regiment or the Night Witches. They flew harassment and precision bombing missions and "dumped 23,000 tons of bombs on the German invaders". The Soviets also had the only women to be considered flying aces like Lydia Litvyak and Yekaterina Budanova.