Launched 20 years ago this week, STS-46 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission of the orbiter Atlantis that marked a number of European firsts. Launched on 31 July 1992, the crew of seven included ESA's Claude Nicollier and Franco Malerba of the Italian space agency ASI. Together with NASA astronauts Loren Shriver, Andrew Allen, Jeff Hoffman, Franklin Chang-Diaz and Marsha Ivins, they would spend nearly eight days in space. Read more