Lockheed Martin Space Systems "Columbia" launched on January 12, 1986, Bob Cenker became RCA Astro-Electronic's first astronaut. Following the destruction of "Space Shuttle Challenger" with the next Shuttle mission, civilian Payload Specialists were excluded from flying Shuttle missions until 1990. By that time, RCA had been purchased by General Electric, and RCA Astro-Electronics became part of GE. As a result, Cenker was the only RCA Astro-Electronics employee, and only employee in the history of the facility under all of its subsequent names, to ever fly in space. The facility operated as GE Astro Space until it was sold to Martin Marietta in 1993. Then
Space Shuttle Mission 2007 Space Shuttle Mission 2007 Space Shuttle Mission 2007, is a highly realistic Space Shuttle stand-alone mission simulator for Microsoft Windows. The simulator was released on January 1, 2008 after having been under development for more than six years. The main purpose of "Space Shuttle Mission 2007" is to allow the gamer to experience real historical NASA Space Shuttle missions from liftoff (T-00:01:50:00) to landing. Initially, "Space Shuttle Mission 2007" was released with a set of 11 missions but as time passed, the development team has been releasing new missions as free add-ons. The missions include satellite deployment and servicing (including