On Dec. 3, 1985, Army astronaut mission specialist Lt. Col. Sherwood "Woody" Spring and the crew of STS 61-B Atlantis concluded their seven-day flight by landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon marked the pinnacle of achievement of the human spaceflight effort through the sixties. But Apollo was only the last step in a series of spaceflight programs, ...