October 3, 1985: First Atlantis Mission

Today is the twenty-first anniversary of the maiden voyage of space shuttle Atlantis. On October 3, 1985, NASA's fourth operational shuttle was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its first mission consisted of classified military activities. As of September 2006, Atlantis has completed 27 flights, spent 220.40 days in space, completed 3468 orbits and flown a total of 89,908,732 miles.