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NASA's 'Space Shuttle', officially called 'Space Transportation System' ('STS'), is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions. At launch, it consists of a rust-colored external tank (ET), two white, slender solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and a winged orbiter (the space shuttle in the narrow sense). The orbiter carries astronauts and payload such as satellites or space station parts into low earth orbit. Usually, five to seven astronauts ride in the orbiter. The payload capacity is 50,000 lb (22,700 kg). When the orbiter's mission is complete, it fires its orbital maneuvering thrusters to drop out of orbit and re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. During the descent and landing, the shuttle orbiter acts as a glider and makes a completely unpowered ("dead stick") landing. Five spaceworthy orbiters were built, of which three remain.
The Shuttle is the first orbital spacecraft designed for partial reusability. It carries payloads to low Earth orbit, provides crew rotation for the International Space Station (ISS), and performs servicing missions. The orbiter can also recover satellites and other payloads from orbit and return them to Earth, but this capacity has not been used often. However, it has been used to return large payloads from the ISS to Earth, as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft has limited capacity for return payloads. Each Shuttle was designed for a projected lifespan of 100 launches or 10 years' operational life. The man responsible for the design of the STS was Maxime Faget, who had also overseen the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft designs. The crucial factor in the size and shape of the Shuttle Orbiter was the requirement that it be able to accommodate the largest planned spy satellites, and have the cross-range recovery range to meet classified USAF missions requirement for a one-around abort for a polar launch. Factors involved in opting for 'reusable' solid rockets and an expendable fuel tank included the desire of the Pentagon to obtain a high-capacity payload vehicle for satellite deployment, and the desire of the Nixon administration to reduce the costs of space exploration by developing a spacecraft with reusable components.
Six shuttles have been built, five of which were spaceworthy. The first orbiter, ''Enterprise'', was not built for actual space flight, and was used only for testing purposes. Enterprise was followed by four operational space shuttles: ''Columbia'', ''Challenger'', ''Discovery'' and ''Atlantis''. ''Challenger'' was destroyed on launch in 1986, and ''Endeavour'' was built as a replacement. ''Columbia'' was destroyed on re-entry in 2003.
NASA announced in 2004 that the Space Shuttle will be retired in 2010 and replaced by the Orion, a new vehicle that is designed to take humans to the Moon and beyond.

Contents

Description

Orbiter Vehicle

Solid Rocket Boosters

Flight systems

Upgrades

Technical data

Launch

Reentry and landing

Fleet history

See also

Fiction and games

Physics

Similar spacecraft

Notes

Further reading

External links

Description

Shuttles are each a partially reusable launch system composed of three main assemblies: the reusable Orbiter Vehicle (OV), the expendable External Tank (ET), and the two partially-reusable Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). The tank and boosters are jettisoned during ascent; only the orbiter goes into orbit. The vehicle is launched vertically like a conventional rocket, and the orbiter glides to a horizontal landing, after which it is refurbished for reuse.
At times, the Orbiter itself is referred to as the Space Shuttle. Technically, this is a misnomer. The actual "Space Shuttle" is the combination of Orbiter, External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. This is also referred to as the "Stack".

Orbiter Vehicle

Main articles: Space Shuttle Orbiter

The Orbiter resembles an aircraft with double-delta wings, swept 81° at the inner leading edge and 45° at the outer leading edge. Its vertical stabilizer's leading edge is swept back at a 50° angle. The four elevons, mounted at the trailing edge of the wings, and the rudder/speed brake, attached at the trailing edge of the stabilizer, with the body flap, control the Orbiter during descent and landing.
The Orbiter has a large 60 by 15 ft (18 m by 4.6 m) payload bay, comprising most of the fuselage.
Three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) are mounted on the Orbiter's aft fuselage in a triangular pattern. The three engines can swivel 10.5 degrees up and down and 8.5 degrees from side to side during ascent to change the direction of their thrust and steer the Shuttle as well as push.
The orbiter structure is made primarily from aluminium alloy, although the engine thrust structure is made from titanium (alloy).

Solid Rocket Boosters

Main articles: Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster

Two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) each provide 2.8 million lbs of thrust at liftoff, which is 83% of the total thrust needed for liftoff. They are jettisoned two minutes after launch at a height of about 150,000 feet (45.7 km), then deploy parachutes and land in the ocean to be recovered. The SRB cases are made of steel about ½ inch (1.27 cm) thick.

Flight systems

Early Shuttle missions took along the GRiD Compass, arguably one of the first laptop computers. The Compass sold poorly, because it cost at least $6000, but offered unmatched performance for its weight and size.^[1] NASA was one of its main customers.
The Shuttle was one of the earliest craft to use a computerized fly-by-wire digital flight control system. This means no mechanical or hydraulic linkages connect the pilot's control stick to the control surfaces or reaction control system thrusters.
A primary concern with digital fly-by-wire systems is reliability. Much research went into the Shuttle computer system. The Shuttle uses five identical redundant IBM 32-bit general purpose computers (GPCs), model AP-101, constituting a type of embedded system. Four computers run specialized software called the Primary Avionics Software System (PASS). A fifth backup computer runs separate software called the Backup Flight System (BFS). Collectively they are called the Data Processing System (DPS).^{[2] [3]}

The design goal of the Shuttle's DPS is fail operational/fail safe reliability. After a single failure the Shuttle can continue the mission. After two failures it can land safely.
The four general-purpose computers operate essentially in lockstep, checking each other. If one computer fails, the three functioning computers "vote" it out of the system. This isolates it from vehicle control. If a second computer of the three remaining fails, the two functioning computers vote it out. In the rare case of two out of four computers simultaneously failing (a two-two split), one group is picked at random.
The Backup Flight System (BFS) is separately developed software running on the fifth computer, used only if the entire four-computer primary system fails. The BFS was created because although the four primary computers are hardware redundant, they all run the same software, so a generic software problem could crash all of them. Embedded system avionic software is developed under totally different conditions from public commercial software, the number of code lines is tiny compared to a public commercial software, changes are only made infrequently and with extensive testing, and many programming and test personnel work on the small amount of computer code. However in theory it can still fail, and the BFS exists for that contingency.
The software for the Shuttle computers is written in a high-level language called HAL/S, somewhat similar to PL/I. It is specifically designed for a real time embedded system environment.
The IBM AP-101 computers originally had about 424 kilobytes of magnetic core memory each. The CPU could process about 400,000 instructions per second. They have no hard disk drive and load software from magnetic tape cartridges.
In 1990 the original computers were replaced with an upgraded model AP-101S, which has about 2.5 times the memory capacity (about 1 megabyte) and three times the processor speed (about 1.2 million instructions per second). The memory was changed from magnetic core to semiconductor with battery backup.

Upgrades

Internally the Shuttle remains largely similar to the original design, with the exception of the improved avionics computers. In addition to the computer upgrades, the original vector graphics monochrome cockpit displays were replaced with modern full-color, flat-panel display screens, similar to those of contemporary airliners like the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777. This is called a glass cockpit. In the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project tradition, programmable calculators are carried as well (originally the HP-41C). With the coming of the ISS, the Orbiter's internal airlocks have been replaced with external docking systems to allow for a greater amount of cargo to be stored on the Shuttle's mid-deck during Station resupply missions.
The Space Shuttle Main Engines have had several improvements to enhance reliability and power. This explains phrases such as "Main engines throttling up to 104%." This does not mean the engines are being run over a safe limit. The 100% figure is the original specified power level. During the lengthy development program, Rocketdyne determined the engine was capable of safe reliable operation at 104% of the originally specified thrust. They could have rescaled the output number, saying in essence 104% is now 100%. However this would have required revising much previous documentation and software, so the 104% number was retained. SSME upgrades are denoted as "block numbers", such as block I, block II, and block IIA. The upgrades have improved engine reliability, maintainability and performance. The 109% thrust level was finally reached in flight hardware with the Block II engines in 2001. The normal maximum throttle is 104%, with 106% and 109% available for abort emergencies.

For the first two missions, STS-1 and STS-2, the external tank was painted white to protect the insulation that covers much of the tank, but improvements and testing showed that it was not required. The weight saved by not painting the tank results in an increase in payload capability to orbit.^[4] Additional weight was saved by removing some of the internal "stringers" in the hydrogen tank that proved unnecessary. The resulting "light-weight external tank" has been used on the vast majority of Shuttle missions. STS-91 saw the first flight of the "super light-weight external tank". This version of the tank is made of the 2195 aluminium-lithium alloy. It weighs 7,500 lb (3.4 t) less than the last run of lightweight tanks. As the Shuttle cannot fly unmanned, each of these improvements has been "tested" on operational flights.
The SRBs (Solid Rocket Boosters) have undergone improvements as well. Notable is the adding of a third O-ring seal to the joints between the segments, which occurred after the ''Challenger'' disaster.
Several other SRB improvements were planned in order to improve performance and safety, but never came to be. These culminated in the considerably simpler, lower cost, probably safer and better performing 'Advanced Solid Rocket Booster' which was to have entered production in the early to mid-1990s to support the Space Station, but was later cancelled to save money after the expenditure of $2.2 billion. The loss of the ASRB program forced the development of the Super LightWeight external Tank (SLWT), which provides some of the increased payload capability, while not providing any of the safety improvements. In addition the Air Force developed their own much lighter single-piece SRB design using a filament-wound system, but this too was cancelled.
STS-70 was delayed in 1995 when woodpeckers bored holes in the foam insulation of ''Discovery's external tank. Since then, NASA has installed commercial plastic owl decoys and inflatable owl balloons which must be removed prior to launch. ^[5] The delicate nature of the foam insulation has been the cause of damage to the tile heat shield and heat wrap of the shuttle during recent launches. NASA remains confident that this damage, while linked to the Columbia space shuttle disaster on February 1st, 2003, will not jeopardize the objective of NASA to complete the International Space Station (ISS) in the projected time allotted.
A cargo-only, unmanned variant of the Shuttle has been variously proposed and rejected since the 1980s. It is called the Shuttle-C and would trade re-usability for cargo capability with large potential savings from reusing technology developed for the Space Shuttle.
On the first four Shuttle missions, astronauts wore modified U.S. Air Force high-altitude full-pressure suits, which included a full-pressure helmet during ascent and descent. From the fifth flight, STS-5, until the loss of ''Challenger'', one-piece light blue nomex flight suits and partial-pressure helmets were worn. A less-bulky, partial-pressure version of the high-altitude pressure suits with a helmet was reinstated when Shuttle flights resumed in 1988. The LES ended its service life in late 1995, and was replaced by the full-pressure Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES), which resembles the Gemini space suit worn in the mid-1960s.
To extend the duration that Orbiter can stay docked at the ISS, the Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) was installed. This modification allows Orbiter to use power provided by the ISS and to preserve its consumables onboard. The SSPTS was successfully used on STS-118.

Technical data

'Orbiter specifications' (for ''Endeavour'', OV-105)

★ Length: 124.17 ft (37.24 m)

★ Wingspan: 79.06 ft (23.79 m)

★ Height: 58.58 ft (17.25 m)

★ Empty weight: 156,205 lb (69,586.6 kg)

★ Gross Liftoff Weight: 240,000 lb (109,000 kg)

★ Maximum Landing Weight: 230,000 lb (104,000 kg)

★ Main engines: Three Rocketdyne Block IIA SSMEs, each with a sea level thrust of 393,800 lbf (178,600 kgf / 1.75 MN)

★ Maximum payload: 55,250 lb (25,061.4 kg)

★ Payload bay dimensions: 15 ft by 60 ft (4.6 m by 18.3 m)

★ Operational altitude: 100 to 520 nmi (185 to 1,000 km)

★ Speed: 27,404 ft/s (7,643 m/s, 27,875 km/h, 17,321 mi/h)

★ Crossrange: 1,085 nautical miles (2,009 km)

★ Crew: Varies. The earliest shuttle flights had the minimum crew of two; many later missions a crew of five. Today, typically 'seven' people fly (commander, pilot, several mission specialists, sometimes payload specialists, and rarely also a flight engineer). On two occasions, eight astronauts have flown (STS-61-A, STS-71). Eleven people could be accommodated in an emergency mission (see STS-3xx).
'External tank specifications' (for SLWT)

★ Length: 156.8 ft (48.9 m)

★ Diameter: 32.6 ft (10.4 m)

★ Propellant volume: 535,000 US gal (2,025 m³)

★ Empty Weight: 58,500 lb (26,600 kg)

★ Gross Liftoff Weight: 1,667,000 lb (757,000 kg)
'Solid Rocket Booster Specifications'

★ Length: 149.6 ft (45.6 m)

★ Diameter: 12.17 ft (3.71 m)

★ Empty Weight (per booster): 139,490 lb (63,273 kg)

★ Gross Liftoff Weight (per booster): 1.3 million lb (590,000 kg)

★ Thrust (sea level, liftoff): 2.8 million lbf (12.5 MN)
'System Stack Specifications'

★ Height: 184.2 ft (56.14 m)

★ Gross Liftoff Weight: 4.5 million lb (2,040,000 kg)

★ Total Liftoff Thrust: 6.781 million lbf (30.16 MN)

Launch

The shuttle will not be launched under conditions where it could be struck by lightning. Aircraft are often struck by lightning with no adverse effects because the electricity of the strike is dissipated through its conductive structure and the aircraft is not electrically grounded. Like most jet airliners, the shuttle is mainly constructed of conductive aluminium, which would normally shield and protect the internal systems. However, upon takeoff the shuttle sends out a long exhaust plume as it ascends, and this plume can trigger lightning by providing a current path to ground. While the shuttle might safely endure a lightning strike, a similar strike caused problems on Apollo 12, so for safety NASA chooses not to launch the shuttle if lightning is possible(NPR8715.5).

On the day of a launch, after the final hold in the countdown at T minus 9 minutes, the Shuttle goes through its final preparations for launch, and the countdown is automatically controlled by a special computer program at the Launch Control Center known as the Ground Launch Sequencer (GLS), which stops the count if it senses a critical problem with any of the Shuttle's on-board systems. The GLS hands off the count to the Shuttle's on-board computers at T minus 31 seconds.
At T minus 16 seconds, the massive sound suppression system (SPS) begins to drench the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP) and SRB trenches with 300,000 U.S. gallons (1,100 m³) of water to protect the Orbiter from damage by acoustical energy and rocket exhaust reflected from the flame trench and MLP during liftoff. ^[6]
At T-minus 10 seconds, hydrogen igniters are activated under each engine bell to quell the stagnant gas inside the cones before ignition. Failure to burn these gases can trip the onboard sensors and create the possibility of an overpressure and explosion of the vehicle during the firing phase. The main engine turbopumps are also commanded to begin charging the combustion chambers with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen at this time. The computers reciprocate this action by allowing the redundant computer systems to begin the firing phase.
The three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) start at T minus 6.6 seconds. The main engines ignite sequentially via the shuttle's general purpose computers (GPCs) at 120 millisecond intervals. The GPCs require that the engines reach 90% of their rated performance to complete the final gimbal of the main engine nozzles to liftoff configuration.^[7] When the SSMEs start, the water from the sound suppression system flashes into a large volume of steam that shoots southward. All three SSMEs must reach the required 100% thrust within three seconds to initiate the SRB firing command. If the onboard computers verify normal thrust buildup, at T minus 0 seconds, the SRBs are ignited. At this point the vehicle is committed to takeoff, as the SRBs cannot be turned off once ignited. After the SRBs reach a stable thrust ratio, pyrotechnic nuts are detonated by radio controlled signals from the shuttle's GPC's to release the vehicle [1]. The plume from the solid rockets exits the flame trench at near the speed of sound, often causing a rippling of shockwaves along the actual flame and smoke contrails. At ignition, the GPC's mandate the firing sequences via the "Master Events Controller," a computer program integrated with the shuttle's four redundant computer systems. There are extensive emergency procedures (abort modes) to handle various failure scenarios during ascent. Many of these concern SSME failures, since that is the most complex and highly stressed component. After the Challenger disaster, there were extensive upgrades to the abort modes.


When watching a launch, look for the "nod" ("twang" in NASA lingo). After the main engines start, but while the solid rocket boosters are still clamped to the pad, the offset thrust from the Shuttle's three main engines causes the entire launch stack (boosters, tank and shuttle) to flex forwards about 2 m at cockpit level. As the boosters flex back into their original shape, the launch stack springs slowly back upright. This takes approximately 6 seconds. At the point when it is perfectly vertical, the boosters ignite and the launch commences.
Shortly after clearing the tower the Shuttle begins a roll and pitch program to set its orbital inclination and so that the vehicle is below the external tank and SRBs, with wings level. The vehicle climbs in a progressively flattening arc, accelerating as the weight of the SRBs and main tank decrease. To achieve low orbit requires much more horizontal than vertical acceleration. This is not visually obvious since the vehicle rises vertically and is out of sight for most of the horizontal acceleration. The near circular Orbital velocity at the 380 km (236 miles) altitude of the International Space Station is 7.68 km per second (27,648 km/h, 17,180 mph), roughly equivalent to Mach 23 at sea level. For missions towards the International Space Station, the shuttle must reach an azimuth of 51.6 degrees inclination to rendezvous with the station.
Around a point called "Max Q", where the aerodynamic forces are at their maximum, the main engines are temporarily throttled back to avoid overspeeding and hence overstressing the Shuttle, particularly in vulnerable areas such as the wings. At this point, a phenomenon known as the "Prandtl-Glauert Singularity" occurs, where condensation clouds form during the vehicle's transition to supersonic speed.
126 seconds after launch, "explosive bolts" release the SRBs and small separation rockets push them laterally away from the vehicle. The SRBs parachute back to the ocean to be reused. The Shuttle then begins accelerating to orbit on the Space Shuttle main engines. The vehicle at that point in the flight has a thrust to weight ratio of less than one — the main engines actually have insufficient thrust to exceed the force of gravity, and the vertical speed given to it by the SRBs temporarily decreases. However, as the burn continues, the weight of the propellant decreases and the thrust-to-weight ratio exceeds 1 again and the ever-lighter vehicle then continues to accelerate toward orbit.
The vehicle continues to climb and takes on a somewhat nose-up angle to the horizon — it uses the main engines to gain and then maintains altitude while it accelerates horizontally towards orbit. At about five and three-quarter minutes into ascent, the orbiter rolls heads up to switch communication links from ground stations to Tracking and Data Relay Satellites.
Finally, in the last tens of seconds of the main engine burn, the mass of the vehicle is low enough that the engines must be throttled back to limit vehicle acceleration to 3 g, largely for astronaut comfort.
Before complete depletion of propellant, as running dry would destroy the engines, the main engines are shut down. The oxygen supply is terminated before the hydrogen supply, as the SSMEs react unfavorably to other shutdown modes. Liquid oxygen has a tendency to react violently, and supports combustion when it encounters hot engine metal. The external tank is released by firing "explosive bolts" and falls, largely burning up in the atmosphere, though some fragments fall into the Indian Ocean. The sealing action of the tank plumbing and lack of pressure relief systems on the external tank helps it "break up" in the atmosphere. After the foam burns away during reentry, the heat causes a pressure build-up in the remaining liquid oxygen and hydrogen until the tank explodes. This ensures that any pieces that fall back to Earth are small.
To prevent the shuttle from following the external tank back into the atmosphere, the OMS engines are fired to raise the perigee out of the atmosphere. On some missions (e.g., STS-107 and missions to the ISS), the OMS engines are also used while the main engines are still firing. The reason for putting the orbiter on a path that brings it back to Earth is not just for external tank disposal. It is one of safety; if the OMS malfunction, or the cargo bay doors cannot open for some reason, the shuttle is already on a path to return to earth for an emergency abort landing.

Reentry and landing

Almost the entire Space Shuttle reentry, except for lowering the landing gear and deploying the air data probes, is normally performed under computer control. However, the reentry can be and has (once) been flown entirely manually. The approach and landing phase can be controlled by the autopilot, but is usually hand flown.
The vehicle begins reentry by firing the OMS engines, while flying upside down backside first, in the opposite direction to orbital motion for about three minutes giving roughly 200 mph (90 m/s) of delta-v. The resultant slowing of the Shuttle lowers its orbital perigee down into the atmosphere. The shuttle flips over by pulling its nose up (which is actually "down" because it's flying upside down). This OMS firing is done roughly halfway around the globe from the landing site.
The vehicle starts significantly entering the atmosphere at about 400,000 ft (120 km) at around Mach 25 (8.2 km/s). The vehicle is controlled by a combination of RCS thrusters and control surfaces, to fly at a 40 degree nose-up attitude producing high drag, not only to slow it down to landing speed, but also to reduce reentry heating. In addition, the vehicle needs to bleed off extra speed before reaching the landing site. This is achieved by performing s-curves at up to a 70 degree roll angle.
In the lower atmosphere the Orbiter flies much like a conventional glider, except for a much higher descent rate, over 10,000 feet per minute (50 m/s). It glides with a ratio of 1:1.^[8] At approximately Mach 3, two air data probes, located on the left and right sides of the Orbiter's forward lower fuselage, are deployed to sense air pressure related to vehicle's movement in the atmosphere.

When the approach and landing phase begins, the Orbiter is at a 10,000 ft (3,000 m) altitude, 7.5 miles (12 km) from the runway. The pilots apply aerodynamic braking to help slow down the vehicle. The Orbiter's speed is reduced from 424 mph (682 km/h) to approximately 215 mph (346 km/h), (compared to for a jet airliner), at touch-down. The landing gear is deployed while the Orbiter is flying at 267 mph (430 km/h). To assist the speed brakes, a 40 ft (12 m) drag chute is deployed either after main gear or nose gear touchdown (depending on selected chute deploy mode) at about 213 mph (343 km/h). It is jettisoned as the Orbiter slows through 69 mph (110 km/h).
After landing, the vehicle stands on the runway for several minutes to permit the fumes from poisonous hydrazine, used as a propellant for attitude control, to dissipate, and for the shuttle fuselage to cool before the astronauts disembark.
Conditions permitting, the Space Shuttle will always land at Kennedy Space Center. However, if the conditions make landing there unfavorable, the Shuttle can touch down at Edwards Air Force Base in California or at other sites around the world. A landing at Edwards means that the shuttle must be mated to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and returned to Cape Canaveral, costing NASA an additional 1.7 million dollars. A Space Shuttle (STS-3, ''Columbia'') has also landed once at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, but this is often a last resort, as NASA scientists believe that the sand could cause damage to the shuttle's exterior.

A list of other landing sites:^[9]

★ White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico

★ MCAS Yuma/Yuma International Airport, Arizona

★ Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York (Former site; now closed)

★ Ben Guerir Air Base, Morocco

★ Morón Air Base, Spain

★ Banjul International Airport (Yundum), The Gambia

★ Zaragoza Air Base, Spain

★ Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, The Philippines (When it was still under U.S. Air Force Control)

★ RAAF Base Amberley, Australia

★ Andersen AFB, Guam

★ Amilcar Cabral International Airport, Cape Verde

★ Hickam AFB, Hawaii

★ Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Sweden

★ Istres AB, France

★ Bangor International Airport, Maine

★ Westover Air Reserve Base/Metropolitan Airport, Massachusetts

★ Gander International Airport, Canada
A list of launch abort sites:

★ RAAF_Base_Darwin, Darwin Australia

★ Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA

★ Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, USA

★ Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, USA

★ Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, USA

★ Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA

★ Esenboğa International Airport, Ankara, Turkey

★ Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, USA

★ Fort Wayne International Airport (Air Guard Station), Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA

★ Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), Canary Islands, Spain

★ Otis Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts, USA

★ Grant County (Moses Lake), Washington, USA

★ Pease ANGB, New Hampshire, USA

★ Hao, French Polynesia

★ AFB Hoedspruit, South Africa

★ Bermuda International Airport (former NAS Bermuda)

★ King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

★ Kinshasa, Congo-Kinshasa

★ Cologne Bonn Airport, Germany

★ Lajes Field, Azores, Portugal

★ Lincoln Airport, Nebraska, USA

★ Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, USA

★ Nassau, Bahamas

★ NSA Souda Bay, Crete, Greece

★ NSF Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory

★ Orlando International Airport, Florida

★ RAF Fairford, United Kingdom

★ Roberts International Airport, Monrovia, Liberia

★ Lehigh Valley International Airport, Allentown, PA

★ Mataveri International Airport, Hanga Roa, Easter Island, Chile

★ Halifax International Airport, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Fleet history

Main articles: List of space shuttle missions

Below is a list of major events in the Space Shuttle orbiter fleet.

Date	Orbiter	Event	Remarks
February 18, 1977	''Enterprise''	First flight	Attached to Shuttle Carrier Aircraft throughout flight.
August 12, 1977	''Enterprise''	First free flight	Tailcone on; lakebed landing.
October 12, 1977	''Enterprise''	Fourth free flight	First with no tailcone; lakebed landing.
October 26, 1977	''Enterprise''	Final ''Enterprise'' free flight	First landing on Edwards AFB concrete runway.
April 12, 1981	''Columbia''	First ''Columbia'' flight	STS-1
April 4, 1983	''Challenger''	First ''Challenger'' flight	STS-6
August 30, 1984	''Discovery''	First ''Discovery'' flight	STS-41-D
October 3, 1985	''Atlantis''	First ''Atlantis'' flight	STS-51-J
January 28, 1986	''Challenger''	Disintegrated 73 seconds after launch	All seven crew members perished.
September 29, 1988	''Discovery''	First post-''Challenger'' mission	STS-26
May 7, 1992	''Endeavour''	First ''Endeavour'' flight	STS-49
October 11, 2000	''Discovery''	100th Space Shuttle mission	STS-92
February 1, 2003	''Columbia''	Disintegrated during re-entry	All seven crew members perished.
July 25, 2005	''Discovery''	First post-''Columbia'' mission	STS-114
December 9, 2006	''Discovery''	First night launch in four years	STS-116
August 8, 2007	''Endeavour''	First successful teacher-in-space mission	STS-118
'Planned fleet events'
2010	''Atlantis''	Last planned ''Atlantis'' flight	STS-131
2010	''Discovery''	Last planned ''Discovery'' flight	STS-132
2010	''Endeavour''	Last planned ''Endeavour'' flight	STS-133

See also

★ Space Shuttles

★ Criticism of the Space Shuttle program

★ GRiD Compass the early laptop carried aboard the shuttle.

★ Human spaceflight

★ List of human spaceflights

★ NASA Space Shuttle decision

★ Orbiter Processing Facility

★ Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicle

★ Shuttle SERV

★ Space disaster

★ Space exploration

★ Space Shuttle abort modes

★ Space Shuttle crews

★ Shuttle Training Aircraft

Fiction and games

★ Space shuttles in fiction

★ DOS-based shuttle simulator from the 1990s.

★ Orbiter a freeware simulator that allows users to fly various spacecraft including the Shuttle.

★ Project Space Station a 1980s Commodore 64-based game using Space Shuttles to build a space station.

★ Space Shuttle America

★ X-Plane, a flight simulator that allows players to fly the Space Shuttle's re-entry phase.

Physics

★ Atmospheric reentry

★ Lifting body

★ Reusable launch system

★ Single-stage-to-orbit

Similar spacecraft

★ Dyna-soar

★ EADS Phoenix

★ Hermes

★ HOPE-X

★ Kliper

★ Military space shuttle

★ Orion (Project Constellation)

★ Soviet space shuttle Buran

Notes

1. GRiD Compass 1101
2. Implementing Space Shuttle Data Processing System Concepts in Programmable Logic Devices Ferguson, Roscoe C.
3. IBM and the Space Shuttle
4. Space Shuttle External Tank Foam Insulation
5. Woodpeckers damage STS-70 External Tank Jim Dumoulin
6. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Sound Suppression Water System" Revised 2000-08-28. Accessed 2006-07-09.
7. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "NASA - Countdown 101" Accessed 2006-07-10.
8. NASAexplores 5-8 Lesson: Space Shuttle Glider (Teacher Sheets)
9. SPACE SHUTTLE EMERGENCY LANDING SITES

Further reading

★ Reference manual

★ How The Space Shuttle Works

★ NASA Space Shuttle News Reference - 1981 (PDF document)

★ Orbiter Vehicles

★ Lecture Series on the Space Shuttle from MIT OpenCourseWare

External links

★ NASA Human Spaceflight - Shuttle: Current status of Shuttle missions

★ NASA TV: View live streaming of launch and mission coverage

★ [news:sci.space.shuttle Space Shuttle Newsgroup - sci.space.shuttle]

★ List of all Shuttle Landing Sites

★ Map of Landing Sites

★ Official NASA Human Space Flight Orbital Tracking system

★ Track the Shuttle with Google Maps

★ Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding the Space Shuttle

★ Weather criteria for Shuttle launch

★ Newer images, audio, and video of the Space Shuttle program

★ Older images of the Space Shuttle program

★ The maiden launch of the Space Shuttle (Google Video)

★ NASA Shuttle Gallery

★ Different details and perspectives from the orbiter (Gallery drafts.de) (ger.)

★ 04/16/07: Consolidated Launch Manifest: Space Shuttle Flights and ISS Assembly Sequence.

★ NASA Further Updates Launch Schedule.