Space Shuttle Patches 1986-1990

The first flight of the Space Shuttle program in 1896 was STS-61C on January 12. Unfortunately, the next launch would end in tragedy as a malfunction resulted in the loss of the shuttle Challenger and all 7 of her crew. Unusually cold temperatures caused a rubber o-ring in one of the solid rocket boosters to fail, resulting in hot gases leaking and burning a hole in the fuel tank. NASA grounded the entire fleet to make upgrades. Because of this, there were only 15 shuttle flights from 1986 to 1990. After a 2 and a half year hiatus, the remaining shuttles were flying again. Flights resumed with STS-26 on September 29, 1988. STS-30 became the first shuttle flight to launch an interstellar probe. The Magellan Venus probe was carried into orbit aboard shuttle Atlantis.
STS-31 launched the Hubble space telescope into orbit in 1989. The final launch of 1990 was STS-35 on December 2.