This One Beautiful Video Sums Up All of Space Shuttle History

This weekend marked the one-year anniversary of the launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the final shuttle mission, STS-135, and artist McLean Fanestock‘s video Grand Finale 2010-11 brings the shuttles’ 30 year tenure together by simultaneously displaying all 135 flights, from 1981 right on through to 2011.

Of special note, the two-minute mark heralds the mid-launch disintegration of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Also seen is the launch of the Columbia‘s final flight, STS-107, which broke up on re-entry seventeen days later.

Now that the shuttle era has come to a close, the five remaining ships have been spread out across the U.S. for display. The shuttle Endeavour will soon live at the California Science Center, Discovery is housed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, and Atlantis will rest at the Kennedy Space Center.

The back-up shuttles Explorer and Enterprise, which never flew, were carted off to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the U.S.S. Intrepid‘s floating Sea, Air and Space Museum, respectively.

More from Smithsonian.com:

Final Farewell to the Space Shuttle

Colin Schultz | | READ MORE

Colin Schultz is a freelance science writer and editor based in Toronto, Canada. He blogs for Smart News and contributes to the American Geophysical Union. He has a B.Sc. in physical science and philosophy, and a M.A. in journalism.