Space Shuttle orbiter its maiden flight in 1977. An unpowered glider, it was carried by a modified Boeing 747 airliner called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and released for a series of atmospheric test flights and landings. "Enterprise" was partially disassembled and retired after completion of critical testing. The remaining orbiters were fully operational spacecraft, and were launched vertically as part of the Space Shuttle stack. "Columbia" was the first space-worthy orbiter, and made its inaugural flight in 1981. "Challenger", "Discovery", and "Atlantis" followed in 1983, 1984 and 1985 respectively. In 1986, "Challenger" was destroyed in an accident shortly after launch. "Endeavour" was built
The Ticket That Exploded The Ticket That Exploded The Ticket That Exploded is a 1962 novel by American author William S. Burroughs, published by Olympia Press and later by Grove Press in 1967. Together with "The Soft Machine" and "Nova Express" it is part of a trilogy, referred to as "The Nova Trilogy", created using the cut-up technique, although for this book Burroughs used a variant called 'the fold-in' method. The novel is an anarchic tale concerning mind control by psychic, electronic, sexual, pharmaceutical, subliminal, and other means. Passages from the other two books and even from this book show up in rearranged form