Short answers, pulled from the story.
Wernher von Braun and 127 missile specialists signed work contracts with the United States Army Ordnance Corps in August 1945. These men had previously worked on V-2 missile development at Peenemünde during World War II.
The primary mission of Marshall Space Flight Center under the Apollo program was developing the heavy-lift Saturn family rockets. This required the development and qualification of three new liquid-fueled rocket engines: the J-2, F-1, and H-1.
The first crew stayed in orbit with Skylab for 28 days following its launch on the 14th of May 1973. Two additional missions followed with durations of 59 and 84 days respectively before the last crew returned to Earth on the 8th of February 1974.
Space Shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-51-L on the 28th of January 1986 and exploded one minute and thirteen seconds into flight due to an O-ring failure in a solid rocket booster joint. Cold weather was a contributing factor that led to the destruction of the vehicle and loss of the crew.
The Hubble Space Telescope launched April 1990 but gave flawed images due to spherical aberration found when the telescope was in orbit. Maintenance resulted in performance considerably better than planned through multiple servicing missions including STS-61, STS-82, STS-103, and STS-109.