Space & Strategic :: Spaceships :: Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

Program Status: Retired No Longer Operational
IOC: 1981
Total Production: 5
Origin: United States of America

Contractor/s: Boeing

Description: The NASA Space Shuttle is the world's first reusable spacecraft designed to carry large satellites both to and from the orbit. It launches like a rocket, maneuvers in Earth orbit like a spacecraft and lands like an airplane. The Space Shuttle was developed in the 1970s and entered into service in 1981 carrying payloads into orbit. Each spacecraft comprises an expendable external fuel tank for the orbiter's main engines, two reusable solid rocket boosters which provide liftoff during the first two minutes and the orbiter which houses the crew and the payload. Five spacecrafts were produced until 1991 with each orbiter designed to fly at least 100 missions.

The first orbiter, Challenger, was delivered in 1979 to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and was lost in February 2003 during re-entry. The Challenger was delivered in 1982 and was destroyed in an explosion during ascent in January 1986. Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour were delivered in 1983, 1985 and 1991 respectively. The Endeavour was built as a replacement for the doomed Challenger. The Enterprise was an early Shuttle orbiter that never flew into space and was used for landing tests at the Dryden Flight Research Center and several launch pad studies in the late 1970s.

The Space Shuttle was designed for a crew of up to eight-man but the orbiter can be piloted by a two-man crew. Average missions require a crew of five to seven persons for five to 16 days at orbits ranging from about 185 kilometers to 643 kilometers high. During the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s the Space Shuttle design suffered thousands of major and minor modifications making it safer, more reliable and more capable. The engine and system improvements that are estimated to have tripled the safety of flying the Space Shuttle. The number of problems experienced while a Space Shuttle is in flight has decreased by 70 percent.

Amid safety and reliability concerns and after the lost of two spacecrafts and rising launch and operating costs, NASA has scheduled the Space Shuttle program for termination by 2011. The Orion crew exploration vehicle and Ares space launch systems are expected to replace the Space Shuttle carrying astronauts into orbit by 2015. More realistic estimates suggest that an effective replacement would be available at a later date in the 2020-2025 timeframe.

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:: Specifications ::

Crew: 8
Service Life Flights: 100

Dimensions
Height: 57 foot
Length: 122 foot (37.2 meter)
Wingspan: 78 foot

Performance
Orbit: 400 mile (644 kilometer)

Speed
Top Speed: 17,321 mph

Time
Mission Endurance: 17.5 day

Weight
Max Takeoff Weight: 4,500,000 pound (2,041,200 kilogram)

:: News ::

There are 7 news between
22 Oct 2008
and
14 Sep 2011

NASA Announces Design for SLS Deep Space Exploration System NASA Space Shuttle Lifts Off for Last Time Boeing Selected for 2nd Round of NASA Commercial Crew Development X-37B Unmanned Spacecraft Set to Launch NASA Successfully Completes First Ares I-X Flight Test Roll Out of Ares I-X Space Launch System PlanetSpace Adds Boeing to Lockheed Martin/ATK Team for NASA ISS Commercial Resupply Services Bid

:: Operators ::

Operators
	Country	Items	Country	Items
	United States of America	5

fully confirmed operational planned retired cancelled destroyed

:: Related Equipment ::

Related Equipment
		Qty
	Rocket Engines
	Solid Rocket Booster	x2
	Space Shuttle Main Engine	x3

:: Ship Listing ::

Ship Listing
	Serial	Ship's Name	Flag	Keel Laying	Launch Date	Commissioning	Decommissioning
		Columbia		-	-	March 1979	1 February 2003
		Challenger		-	-	July 1982	January 1986
		Discovery		-	-	November 1983	2011
		Atlantis		-	-	April 1985	July 2011
		Endeavour		-	-	May 1991	2011

:: Image Gallery ::

There are 28 images added between
28 Jan 2007
and
16 Sep 2011

1 2 3

:: Notes & Resources ::

NASA

Last Updated:
Saturday, February 2, 2013

(*) lead contractor

IOC: Initial Operating Capability
FOC: Full Operating Capability
CEP: Circular Error Probable
Comm: Commissioning Date
Meters (m) Kilometers (km) Nautic Miles (nm) Inch (in) Yard (yd) Foot (ft) Millimeter (mm)
Pound (lb) Kilogram (kg) kN (KiloNewton) Ton (t)
Meters per Second (mps) Kilometers per Hour (kph) Knot (kt) Miles per Hour (mph)
Liter (l) Galon (gl)
Year (yr) Minutes (min) Second (sec)
Shaft-Horse-Power (shp)

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