Today in 1990, NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery completed its eleventh mission. While it was only a four day expedition, many different scientific experiments were conducted during its flight. Among them were the behavior of fire and plant cells in space, and the effects of microgravity on the heart and bones. Discovery was also equipped with multiple instruments for studying the sun.
Today in 1985, NASA's STS-51-J, the Space Shuttle Atlantis, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The payload was classified by the Department of Defense, but contained at least two satellites that were launched into stationary orbit.
Today in 1992, NASA launched the Space Shuttle Endeavor (its second trip). It was also the 50th mission of the Space Shuttle program. While the mission itself was mostly for experimentation, it is notable for three of its crew members: Mae Jemison, who became the first African-American woman in space (and the subject of a previous Today Years Ago), and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space. As married couples were previously banned from being crew members of the same flight, Lee and Davis secretly married a few months before the launch. NASA didn't have enough time to cancel or alter…