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Astronauts John W. Young, left, and Robert L. Crippen, crew members of the first flight in the Space Transportation System (STS-1) program, are shown at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in 1979. Young and Crippen piloted the Space Shuttle Columbia on its first orbital space mission from April 12 - 14, 1981. (AP Photo)

In this June 1983 NASA photo, astronaut Sally Ride, a specialist on shuttle mission STS-7, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the Shuttle Columbia flight deck. Ride became America's first woman in space when Columbia launched on June 18, 1983. (AP Photo/NASA/File)

The Space Shuttle Challenger crew, including Guion Bluford, the first African-American Astronaut to travel into space, is seen at Edwards Air Force Base in California following its first night landing to end its successful six-day mission on September 5, 1983. From left to right: William E. Thornton, Dale Gardner, Bluford, Daniel Brandenstein and Richard Truly. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Astronaut Dale A. Gardner, left, holds a "For Sale" sign, making light of the status of the retrieved communications satellite below in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery in November 1984. Astronaut John Allen IV stands on the end of the arm of the Remote Manipulator System. (AP Photo/NASA)

Sen. Jake Garn is wired for his space medicine as mission specialist Rhea Seddon checks his heart on April 14, 1985, in the mid-deck of the Space Shuttle Discovery as it orbited the earth. Rumors of his space sickness led to the nickname “Barfin’ Jake” Garn. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky/NASA-TV)

The official NASA photo of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger mission 51L. All seven members of the crew were killed when the shuttle exploded during launch. From front left, are: astronauts Michael J. Smith, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, and Ronald E. McNair. Rear left are: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik. (AP Photo)

The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after takeoff on January 28, 1986 from Kennedy Space Center killing all seven crew members. One of the shuttle's booster rockets, whose faulty O-rings were blamed for the disaster, shoots off to the right. (AP Photo/NASA)

The Space Shuttle orbiter Discovery lifts off from Launch Pad 398 in Kennedy Space Center on the morning of April 24, 1990, carrying a crew of five and the Hubble Space Telescope, launched on the mission. (AP Photo/Paul Kizzle)

U.S. President Bill Clinton, joined by Vice President Al Gore, talk by phone from the Oval Office on December 10, 1993, with Hubble Mission astronauts to congratulate them for the success in repairing optics on the Hubble Space Telescope. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson)

Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Dezhurov shows off a symbolic medallion joined together aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis by the combined crews of Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir on June 30, 1995. The medallion was launched into orbit aboard separate vehicles and was joined together during a ceremonial gift exchange between the crews. Also shown in the image are Robert "Hoot" Gibson, left, Gregory Harbaugh, top, and Nikolai Budarin. (AP Photo/NASA TV)

Astronaut Shannon Lucid shares a laugh with President Clinton during a welcome-home ceremony for her at Ellington Field in Houston on September 27, 1996. Lucid stayed in space 188 days, longer than any American, and set a world record for women. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson)

Alongside a photo of his earlier space mission, Sen. John Glenn (D-OH) gestures during a news conference at NASA headquarters on January 16, 1998, where it was announced that NASA would rocket Glenn, 76, back into space. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth 36 years earlier and at 77, became the oldest man to fly into space. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

President Clinton greets Eileen Collins at a White House ceremony on March 5, 1998. Collins, a 41-year-old Air Force lieutenant colonel and the nation's first female space shuttle pilot, becomes the first woman to command a shuttle mission. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The International Space Station is shown in a digital still camera view on December 9, 2000, during a fly-around by the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The 240-foot solar array was installed by the crew during three spacewalks stretches across the frame. (AP Photo/NASA)

John Herrington, the first tribal registered American Indian to fly on a space shuttle, suits up at astronaut headquarters on November 22, 2002 prior to leaving for the launch pad. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

This undated file photo released by NASA shows STS-107 crew members in their group photo. Space Shuttle Columbia crew, left to right, front row, Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool, back row, David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon are shown. Columbia was destroyed on February 1, 2003 on its return to Earth because of a hole in its wing that allowed in superhot atmospheric gases. The hole was caused by a piece of foam insulation that struck the spacecraft days earlier when it was launched. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

In this file photo, debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia streaks across the sky over Tyler, Texas. (AP Photo/Dr. Scott Lieberman)

Crowds watch as the Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 26, 2005. The seven astronauts launched into orbit on America's first manned space mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

School children hold portraits of Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and wave the Indian national flag during a prayer ceremony for her safe return from space in Ahmadabad, India on June 21, 2007. Williams had set the record for longest single space flight by a woman. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

The Space Shuttle Atlantis deploys its braking parachute during landing on February 20, 2008, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Atlantis delivered Columbus, the European Space Agency’s new laboratory, to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Pool/Pierre Ducharme, Reuters)

Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off of pad 39a at the Kennedy Space Center on April 5, 2010, in Cape Canaveral, Florida on a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, their daughters Sasha and Malia, and Astronaut Janet Kavandi, walk under the landing gear from beneath the nose of Space Shuttle Atlantis as they visit Kennedy Space Center on April 29, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

The Space Shuttle Atlantis astronauts left to right, mission specialists Rex Walheim, Sandy Magnus, pilot Doug Hurley and commander Chris Ferguson wave after leaving the operations and check-out building on their way to the pad on July 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Alex Menendez)

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Atlantis and a crew of four are on a mission to the International Space Station. Shuttle Atlantis is the 135th and final space shuttle launch for NASA. (AP Photo/NASA,HO)