What was the Space Shuttle Program?
The Space Shuttle Program was a great part of NASA history and helped us learn a lot about space. Through the Space Shuttle Program, NASA was able to help inspire the next generation of scientists and astronauts. NASA was also able to conduct lots of research on the space shuttles and lead the way on the building of the ISS and deploying all kinds of satellites.
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| Endeavor in orbit the Earth during STS-123 |
The Space Shuttle Program first started development in 1972. It was NASA’s next program after the Apollo program. NASA’s aim for the Shuttle Program was to make spaceflight cheaper and more routine. To do this, NASA knew they had to have a reusable spacecraft to save money. NASA decided to outsource many of the pieces that needed to be built for the spacecraft. These companies included North American Rockwell (service module), Morton Thiokol (solid rocket boosters), Martin Marietta (external tank), and Rocketdyne (Space Shuttle main engine). This helped NASA save money in developing the space shuttle. There are many exciting design concepts for the space shuttle.
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| Early Space Shuttle Concepts |
Ultimately, NASA decided to use a reusable winged orbiter, reusable solid rocket boosters, and an expendable external tank to drive the Space Shuttle engines. NASA’s first space shuttle, Enterprise, was first rolled out on September 17, 1976. Testing was completed in 1977. This shuttle served as a test shuttle and the blueprint for all the future space shuttles that would be built. The next spacecraft to finish development was Columbia in March 1979. More spacecraft was being built. Challenger was delivered to KSC in July 1982. Discovery was delivered to KSC in November 1983. Atlantis was delivered to KSC in April 1985. Finally, Endeavour was delivered to KSC in May 1991.
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| All the Space Shuttles in the Space Shuttle Program |
Columbia was the first space shuttle to launch. On April 12, 1981, Columbia took off from KSC. The launch was a success. Since then, every launch took place from KSC. Though there were plans to take off from Vandenberg Air Force, these never came to fruition. The space shuttle program ended on July 21, 2011. During these 30 years, there were 135 missions, with 133 missions being a success. During the shuttle program, there were two disasters. There was the Challenger disaster in 1986 (Check out the Netflix documentary for more info on this) and the Columbia disaster in 2003.
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| Launch of Columbia during STS-1 |
Through the use of space shuttles, NASA was able to do many things. NASA often did a lot of research in space and microgravity environments. However, this later changed. Along with 4 other nations (see my blog titled “Why Does the ISS Exist?” for more information), NASA started to build the ISS. NASA also used the space shuttles to deploy satellites. These included satellites for the US military, satellites developed by NASA, and the Hubble space telescope. After the construction of the ISS, the space shuttle often orbited the Earth or docked with it. The space shuttle also made many missions to the Hubble telescope to fix it.
After the end of the space shuttle program, the remaining space shuttles were retired and put in museums for people worldwide to see. The end of the shuttle program marked the beginning of a new era. After the shuttle program ended, NASA created a dependency on the Soyuz rocket from Roscosmos. However, this all changed in November 2020, with SpaceX now being certified to do routine flights to the ISS. Ultimately, the shuttle program was a success and one of the most amazing things created by NASA.
“Space Shuttle Endeavour.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Endeavour.
“Space Shuttle Program.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_program.
“Space Shuttle.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle.
“STS-1.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Oct. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-1.
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