On April 12, 1981, NASA launched the world's first space shuttle, Columbia. This was a huge achievement for the US. Two rocket boosters fired the shuttle into the sky. After gaining altitude, they fell into ocean, to be reused later. The crew included John W. Young, the commander, and Robert L. Crippen, the pilot. The two of them spent a couple of days orbiting the Earth. On April 14, they landed the shuttle like a plane, using a dry lake at the Edwards Air Force Base in California as a runway. More than 200,000 people watched the landing. Columbia was used a few more times on other missions.
Venera 13 was launched on October 30, 1981, by USSR. Its mission was to take soil samples of Venus, and bring back the first sound recording of another planet. It took the first color pictures of Venus as it landed. The probe lasted 127 minutes on the planet, when it was predicted to last only 30.
On February 7, 1984, Bruce McCandless and Robert L. Stewart became the first people to "walk" in space without being attached to the space shuttle. They were launched aboard the U.S. Challenger. 300 pound nitrogen backpacks propelled them through space. They were, in fact, the first human satellites if you think about it. They left the shuttle two times on this mission. The first "walk" lasted 5 hours and 55 minutes. The second lasted 6 hours and 17 minutes. This was the first untethered extra-vehicular activity, or spacewalk.
In April, 1984, George Nelson and James Van Hoften became the first astronauts to repair another spacecraft. In this case, it was the Solar Max Satellite. They used a robot arm to retrieve the probe from space, and attach it to the shuttle. With space suits on, they used the nitrogen packs to exit the shuttle and repair the satellite. Using special instruments, they fixed the problem, and sent it back into its orbit.
Throughout the 1980's, Voyager 2 flew by planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Voyager 2 shot the first high resolution pictures of these planets, and transmitted them back to NASA. It was the first planet to ever fly by Uranus and Neptune. Closest approach to Uranus(50,600 miles) took place on January 24, 1986. Closest approach to Neptune(3,000 miles) took place on August 25, 1989. Voyager 2 also studied Neptune's moon, Triton, from a close distance.