The space shuttle was a reusable spacecraft developed by NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program. There were six operational space shuttles in total: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour, and Enterprise.
Columbia was the first space shuttle to be built and was also the first to fly into space. It made its inaugural flight on April 12, 1981 and completed a total of 28 missions before it was tragically destroyed during its return to Earth on February 1, 2003.
Challenger was the second space shuttle to be built and it made its first flight on April 4, 1983. It completed a total of 10 missions before it was destroyed during its tenth mission on January 28, 1986.
Discovery was the third space shuttle to be built and it made its first flight on August 30, 1984. It completed a total of 39 missions before it was retired on March 9, 2011.
Atlantis was the fourth space shuttle to be built and it made its first flight on October 3, 1985. It completed a total of 33 missions before it was retired on July 21, 2011.
Endeavour was the fifth space shuttle to be built and it made its first flight on May 7, 1992. It completed a total of 25 missions before it was retired on May 16, 2011.
Enterprise was the sixth and final space shuttle to be built, but it was only used for test flights and never flew into space. It was used to test the shuttle's approach and landing characteristics, as well as its thermal protection system. Enterprise was retired on December 17, 2003 and is now on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.
The space shuttle program was a major achievement for NASA and it allowed for the construction of the International Space Station, as well as numerous scientific and military missions. The space shuttle was the first spacecraft to be reusable and it revolutionized space travel. Although the space shuttle program has now ended, it will always be remembered as a significant milestone in the history of space exploration.
Lonnie Holley
Retrieved March 22, 2020. The exterior of the ET was covered in orange spray-on foam to allow it to survive the heat of ascent. The payload bay doors and parts of the upper wing surfaces were coated in reusable felt surface insulation, as the temperature there remained below 370°C 700°F. The Space Shuttle Program: Technologies and Accomplishments. Discovery in 1993 was many years after Discovery's second flight in 1984.
Image credit: NASA 3. Retrieved 4 August 2009. Where Are Nasa Space Shuttles Now? Early in the Space Shuttle program, NASA flew with payload specialists, who were typically systems specialists who worked for the company paying for the payload's deployment or operations. Retrieved 18 December 2012. The new worms were flown to the International Space Station on the shuttle Endeavour during the STS-134 mission in May 2011. Also, the name of the orbiter was inscribed not on the payload bay doors, but on the forward fuselage just below and behind the cockpit windows. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the.
Challenger Revealed: An Insider's Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Ag. NASA managers intervened to stop the Department of Defense's imaging of the orbiter and refused the request for the spacewalk, :III—323 Atlantis were not considered by NASA management at the time. Retrieved April 24, 2019. I wrote a 'review item disposition' RID asking NASA to eliminate the outward-opening doors. Retrieved July 6, 2020. The Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantis on 21 July 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
Retrieved March 13, 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2012. Atlantis OV-101 August 12, 1977 5 suborbital ALT Free Flight 5 October 26, 1977 Retired. The nose cone and leading edges of the wings experienced temperatures above 1,300°C 2,300°F , and were protected by reinforced carbon-carbon tiles RCC. Retrieved 19 December 2012. In 2003, Columbia was Discovery completed its final flight on March 9, 2011, and Endeavour completed its final flight on June 1, 2011.
The disaster was caused by the low-temperature impairment of an O-ring, a mission-critical seal used between segments of the SRB casing. Retrieved 15 January 2021. Trying out a 13-mile space tether Two different shuttle missions — Atlantis' STS-46 in 1992 and Columbia's STS-75 in 1996 — took a crack at deploying a satellite, then dragging it through space connected by a 13-mile-long 21-kilometer conducting tether. One such study was the Wake Shield Facility WSF , a 12-foot-wide 3. Columbia also had distinctive black Challenger established a modified marking scheme for the shuttle fleet that would be matched by Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. The From 1981 to 2011 a total of 135 missions were flown, all launched from The first orbiter built, Challenger, Challenger and Columbia were destroyed in mission accidents in 1986 and 2003 respectively, killing a total of fourteen astronauts.
How many Space Shuttles were commissioned by NASA?
The OMS and RCS systems used presented the primary dangers due to their toxic :III-443 Atlantis is on display at the :III-456 Discovery is at the :III-451 Endeavour is on display at the :III-457 and Enterprise is displayed at the :III-464 Components from the orbiters were transferred to the US Air Force, ISS program, and Russian and Canadian governments. Space Shuttle program was officially referred to as the Space Transportation System STS. . Retrieved May 1, 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2012. Four years later, 12. Researchers first noticed this characteristic in studies performed aboard Atlantis' STS-115 flight in 2006 and the STS-123 mission of Endeavour two years later.
Retrieved 16 December 2012. Beginning with :II—112—113 The entire underside of the orbiter vehicle, as well as the other hottest surfaces, were protected with high-temperature reusable surface insulation. Many proposals to build a second generation of orbiters, externally compatible with the current system but internally new, refer to them as "OV-200" or "OV-2xx" in order to differentiate them from the "first generation", the OV-100s. Image credit: NASA 4. PDF from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved 19 December 2012. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
They are used to control the deviation of the azimuth from the prograde vector that results from using high bank angles to create drag. Retrieved 16 December 2012. The WSF experiments helped researchers learn how to craft better photocells and thin films of various materials, including ceramics that could be used to make C. Retrieved 16 December 2012. PDF from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
The experiment went up on three shuttle flights: Discovery's STS-60 in 1994, Endeavour's STS-69 in 1995 and Columbia's STS-80 in 1996. Retrieved 19 December 2012. Retrieved 19 December 2012. With a service history that dates back to 1993, 33 missions were accomplished with secret missions for the United States government. Astrogenetix is also performing space-based studies of other pathogens, such as dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus MRSA bacteria, with the aim of finding better treatments down the road. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
