Space Shuttle tribute (1981–2011)
Space Shuttle explained
The Shuttle in 74 seconds (Short)
On April 12, 1981, twenty years to the day after Yuri Gagarin's flight, Columbia lifted off from Kennedy Space Center with John Young and Robert Crippen aboard. STS-1 was the first flight of a winged spacecraft that launched like a rocket and landed like a glider on a runway.
Over the next thirty years NASA flew the Space Shuttle 135 times, all from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy. It launched and repaired the Hubble Space Telescope, carried laboratories and probes, and built the International Space Station. The orbiters and the solid rocket boosters were reused; the orange external tank was the only part thrown away. Atlantis closed the program on STS-135, landing at Kennedy on July 21, 2011.
Space Shuttle at a glance
- Missions
- 135 (1981–2011)
- First flight
- STS-1, April 12, 1981 (Columbia)
- Last flight
- STS-135, July 8–21, 2011 (Atlantis)
- Orbiters flown
- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour
- Most-flown orbiter
- Discovery, 39 missions
- Stack height
- 184 ft (about 56 m)
- Orbiter length / wingspan
- 122 ft / 78 ft
- Payload bay
- 60 × 15 ft
- Liftoff weight
- about 4.5 million lb
- Astronauts flown
- 355 people from 16 countries
- Longest mission
- 17.5 days (STS-80)
The five orbiters
- Columbia (OV-102): 28 flights, first to fly (STS-1). Lost on STS-107, February 1, 2003.
- Challenger (OV-099): 10 flights. Lost on STS-51-L, January 28, 1986.
- Discovery (OV-103): 39 flights, the most of any orbiter; flew both return-to-flight missions.
- Atlantis (OV-104): 33 flights, including the final mission, STS-135.
- Endeavour (OV-105): 25 flights. Built to replace Challenger.
- Enterprise (OV-101) never went to space; it flew the 1977 approach and landing tests.
In memory
Two orbiters and fourteen astronauts were lost. Their names belong on this page.
Challenger, STS-51-L
January 28, 1986Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff when an O-ring seal in a joint of the right solid rocket booster failed in the cold. The Shuttle returned to flight with Discovery on STS-26 in September 1988.
Crew: Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair, Gregory B. Jarvis, S. Christa McAuliffe
Columbia, STS-107
February 1, 2003Foam from the external tank struck Columbia's left wing during launch. Sixteen days later, hot gas entered the damaged wing during re-entry and the orbiter broke apart over Texas. Discovery returned the fleet to flight on STS-114 in July 2005.
Crew: Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, Ilan Ramon
Keep exploring
Sources
Photos: public domain. Our videos: @t0rockets.