The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.
Officially, the space shuttle program was known as the Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development.
The space shuttle was originally designed to collect Soviet satellites and return them to the USA for reverse engineering.
Space Shuttles were used to carry astronauts and cargo into space. Cargo such as satellites, parts of the International Space Station or scientific instruments were taken up into space by the space shuttle. Numerous satellites including the Hubble Space Telescope were launched.
NASA sprayed masses of water underneath the space shuttle before launch – it was there to absorb acoustic shock waves which might otherwise have done massive damage to the shuttle itself.
The 122 ft NASA space shuttles were the largest objects ever to be transported by air. They were ‘piggy-backed’ on top of extensively modified Boeing 747 jets to ferry them back from landing sites to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The shuttles weighed about 100 tonnes each.
The first experimental orbiter of the Space Shuttle System, Enterprise, was a high-altitude glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747. Its first test flight was on February 18, 1977.
The first orbiter was originally planned to be named Constitution, but a massive write-in campaign from fans of Star Trek convinced the White House to change its name to Enterprise. At the dedication, Gene Roddenberry and cast members from the show were in attendance.
Four fully operational orbiters were initially built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis.
The Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was the first Space Shuttle to fly into space, on April 12, 1981. It was named after a US Navy ship that circumnavigated the world in 1836. Columbia was also the name of the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module.
On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into the flight killing all seven astronauts on board. The tragedy caused a year long stall in space flight.
One of the main engineers behind NASA's Challenger, Roger Boisjoly, revealed that after NASA would not heed his warnings against launching in the cold weather, he told his wife the night before the launch, "It's going to blow up."
Immediately after the Challenger explosion, shares of every corporation involved in the Space Shuttle dropped. But by the end of the day, most had rebounded; only Morton Thiokol remained low. This was months before the official investigation found Thiokol to be responsible for the disaster.
A fifth operational (and sixth in total) orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger.
On April 1, 1993 a San Diego Radio station reported that the space shuttle Discovery had to make an emergency landing at the local airport at 8:30 am. Over 1000 people headed for the landing site to catch a glimpse, crowding the airport and causing traffic jams. It was an April Fools hoax.
The Endeavor Space Shuttle—used by NASA from 1992 through 2011—was made up of spare parts from other shuttles.
The Columbia Space Shuttle broke apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, killing all seven people who were on it at the time.
After the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 the debris field stretched from Texas through Louisiana, and the search team was so thorough they found nearly 84,000 pieces of the shuttle, as well as a number of murder victims and a few meth labs.
On August 3, 2005, astronaut Stephen Robinson became the first human to perform an in-flight repair to the Space Shuttle's exterior. Material sticking out between the heat panels on Discovery had to be removed to avoid burning up on re-entry. He improvised tools, including a saw made with duct tape, and removed it on a spacewalk.
The Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantis's final flight on July 21, 2011.
The U.S. has since relied primarily on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station.
A total of 135 Space Shuttle missions were flown from 1981 to 2011 with a flight computer that had less than 1% of the computing power as an XBox 360.
The shuttles docked with Russian space station Mir nine times and visited the International Space Station 37 times.
Officially, the space shuttle program was known as the Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development.
The space shuttle was originally designed to collect Soviet satellites and return them to the USA for reverse engineering.
Space Shuttles were used to carry astronauts and cargo into space. Cargo such as satellites, parts of the International Space Station or scientific instruments were taken up into space by the space shuttle. Numerous satellites including the Hubble Space Telescope were launched.
 |
| The Space Shuttle Discovery lifting off from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad |
NASA sprayed masses of water underneath the space shuttle before launch – it was there to absorb acoustic shock waves which might otherwise have done massive damage to the shuttle itself.
The 122 ft NASA space shuttles were the largest objects ever to be transported by air. They were ‘piggy-backed’ on top of extensively modified Boeing 747 jets to ferry them back from landing sites to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The shuttles weighed about 100 tonnes each.
The first experimental orbiter of the Space Shuttle System, Enterprise, was a high-altitude glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747. Its first test flight was on February 18, 1977.
The first orbiter was originally planned to be named Constitution, but a massive write-in campaign from fans of Star Trek convinced the White House to change its name to Enterprise. At the dedication, Gene Roddenberry and cast members from the show were in attendance.
 |
| Enterprise at SLC-6 at Vandenberg AFB |
Four fully operational orbiters were initially built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis.
The Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was the first Space Shuttle to fly into space, on April 12, 1981. It was named after a US Navy ship that circumnavigated the world in 1836. Columbia was also the name of the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module.
On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into the flight killing all seven astronauts on board. The tragedy caused a year long stall in space flight.
 |
| The Challenger explodes during takeoff in 1986 |
One of the main engineers behind NASA's Challenger, Roger Boisjoly, revealed that after NASA would not heed his warnings against launching in the cold weather, he told his wife the night before the launch, "It's going to blow up."
Immediately after the Challenger explosion, shares of every corporation involved in the Space Shuttle dropped. But by the end of the day, most had rebounded; only Morton Thiokol remained low. This was months before the official investigation found Thiokol to be responsible for the disaster.
A fifth operational (and sixth in total) orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger.
On April 1, 1993 a San Diego Radio station reported that the space shuttle Discovery had to make an emergency landing at the local airport at 8:30 am. Over 1000 people headed for the landing site to catch a glimpse, crowding the airport and causing traffic jams. It was an April Fools hoax.
The Endeavor Space Shuttle—used by NASA from 1992 through 2011—was made up of spare parts from other shuttles.
 |
| Endeavour docked to the International Space Station during its final mission. |
The Columbia Space Shuttle broke apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, killing all seven people who were on it at the time.
After the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 the debris field stretched from Texas through Louisiana, and the search team was so thorough they found nearly 84,000 pieces of the shuttle, as well as a number of murder victims and a few meth labs.
On August 3, 2005, astronaut Stephen Robinson became the first human to perform an in-flight repair to the Space Shuttle's exterior. Material sticking out between the heat panels on Discovery had to be removed to avoid burning up on re-entry. He improvised tools, including a saw made with duct tape, and removed it on a spacewalk.
The Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantis's final flight on July 21, 2011.
The U.S. has since relied primarily on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station.
A total of 135 Space Shuttle missions were flown from 1981 to 2011 with a flight computer that had less than 1% of the computing power as an XBox 360.
The shuttles docked with Russian space station Mir nine times and visited the International Space Station 37 times.
Space Shuttles did not require fuel to land upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, in fact they typically tried to burn all fuel before re-entry. Space Shuttles glided half-way around the Earth to their landing destination.
Because the Space Shuttle was so hard to land, shuttle crews had to train in a modified Gulfstream with its main landing gears down, its engines in reverse, and its left hand side windows covered.
The longest orbital flight of the shuttle was STS-80, a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Columbia. It lasted at 17 days 15 hours between November 19, 1996 and December 7, 1996. The mission went beyond its planned after bad weather prevented landing for two days.
The shortest flight was STS-51-L at one minute 13 seconds, cut short when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch in 1986.
The highest altitude achieved by the shuttle was 350 miles when servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.
Because the Space Shuttle was so hard to land, shuttle crews had to train in a modified Gulfstream with its main landing gears down, its engines in reverse, and its left hand side windows covered.
The longest orbital flight of the shuttle was STS-80, a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Columbia. It lasted at 17 days 15 hours between November 19, 1996 and December 7, 1996. The mission went beyond its planned after bad weather prevented landing for two days.
The shortest flight was STS-51-L at one minute 13 seconds, cut short when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch in 1986.
The highest altitude achieved by the shuttle was 350 miles when servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.
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