Discover the history of American space shuttles.
When was the first space shuttle invented?
The United States was the first to design a reusable space shuttle capable of carrying large satellites into low Earth orbit and returning them to Earth. Six shuttles have been designed since 1976.
An extraordinary technological adventure
The American space shuttle (Space Transportation System, STS) is a type of spacecraft designed and used by the American space agency (NASA), whose maiden flight was on April 12, 1981, and which was retired from service in July 2011, after having completed a total of 135 flights.
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What are the names of the American space shuttles?
Six shuttles were built, five of which were intended for orbital flight:
- Columbia
- Challenger
- Discovery
- Atlantis
- Endeavour
- and one for flight tests: Enterprise.
Symbolic names...
What are the advantages of the space shuttle?
By designing a reusable spacecraft in the early 1970s, NASA hoped to significantly lower the costs of space launches, which until then relied on rockets lost after use.
With this very ambitious project by the American space agency, the construction of a space shuttle would also allow for the transport of a crew of astronauts to supply power, equipment, and food to a manned orbital station.
But the technical compromises made during design for financial reasons, and especially the inherent complexity of the concept, led to very high development and operating costs ($450 million per launch2) for the construction of spacecraft capable of leaving Earth orbit.
A very expensive dream!
When its operational career began in 1982, all American satellite launches were handled by the fleet of four space shuttles. Thanks to significant price dumping, the shuttle even held a dominant position in the commercial launch market.
But it quickly became apparent that the shuttle would never be a competitive launch vehicle compared to rockets, as the hoped-for launch frequency could not be maintained.
From the late 1990s, its primary mission was to service the Mir space station, and then the International Space Station.
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Which shuttles exploded?
The Challenger shuttle explosion
The Challenger space shuttle accident was an astronautical accident that occurred on January 28, 1986, resulting in the disintegration of NASA's Challenger space shuttle 73 seconds after liftoff, and the death of all seven astronauts of the STS-51-L mission crew, two women and five men:
- Christa McAuliffe
- Judith Resnik
- Gregory Jarvis
- Ronald McNair
- Ellison Onizuka
- Francis Scobee
- Michael Smith
The first explosion of an American space shuttle
After the destruction of the Challenger space shuttle in early 1986, which resulted in the loss of its crew, the use of the shuttle was limited to launching non-commercial satellites and scientific experiments in orbit.
If you would like more details on the Challenger shuttle explosion, here is a very interesting link in French:
Link to Wikipedia for more details on the Challenger shuttle explosion
The Columbia shuttle explosion
A second accident in 2003, once again with the loss of the crew, accelerated the decision to retire the shuttle fleet, whose last flight took place on July 21, 2011. Soyuz then became the only spacecraft capable of ensuring the relief of the International Space Station's permanent crew until the first Commercial Crew Development launch on May 30, 2020.
The Columbia space shuttle accident was the space accident that occurred on February 1, 2003, during mission STS-107.
The 2nd explosion of an American space shuttle
During re-entry into the atmosphere, the Columbia shuttle was destroyed over Texas and Louisiana, and all seven crew members were killed.
If you would like more details on the Challenger shuttle explosion, here is a very interesting link in French:
https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/navette-challenger-explosion-de-la/
The main debris from the shuttle was found along an axis stretching from the Dallas suburbs (Denton and Tarrant counties) to Tyler, as well as in Louisiana.
History of NASA Space Shuttles
SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE
On July 26, 1972, the contract for its manufacture by Rockwell International was awarded. Its construction began on June 4, 1974, and its assembly was completed on March 12, 1975.
A shuttle that will never go into space
Image source: Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Its first free flight took place on August 12, 1977, and its last on October 26, 1977. It was never actually put into orbit, being initially used for experimental tests, and approach and landing tests of the American space shuttle.
The Enterprise has been on display at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York since July 19, 2012.
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SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA
Columbia was built from 1975 in California and delivered to Cape Canaveral in 1979.
The first major incident involving Columbia occurred before its first flight, on March 14, 1981, when two technicians were killed and four others injured during a ground test.
Built after Enterprise, it was nevertheless the first to make a space flight on April 12, 1981, the very day of the twentieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first space flight.
The 2nd shuttle built by NASA
Source: https://www.cidehom.com/apod_grand.php?_taille=2&_date=010412
Concerns about its fate were already raised at that time, after cameras showed protective tiles had fallen off the shuttle's tail during its liftoff. It completed NASA's first five missions using this type of craft.
It completed 28 space flights for a total of 300.74 days in orbit, during which it completed 4,808 rotations around Earth and traveled 201,497,772 kilometers. It holds the record for the longest shuttle flight, set during mission STS-80, at 17 days and 15 hours.
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It was the first shuttle commanded by a woman, Eileen Collins, during mission STS-93 in 1999.
During mission STS-107, Columbia disintegrated on February 1, 2003, during its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. All seven crew members perished, including:
- Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut,
- and Kalpana Chawla, the first female astronaut of Indian origin to fly in space.
SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER
Challenger or OV-099 (Orbital Vehicle-099) was an American space shuttle originally designed for test purposes (STA-099).
It is named after the ship, HMS Challenger, which made an expedition from 1872 to 1876 to measure, among other things, the depth of the oceans, this ship also giving its name to the deepest point on Earth, Challenger Deep (in the Mariana Trench, 10,916 m below the surface of the water).
Challenger Shuttle
Source: https://www.presse-citron.net/challenger-retour-sur-laccident-de-la-navette-35-ans-apres-le-drame/
Challenger disintegrated on January 28, 1986, during liftoff, after only 73 seconds of flight while traveling at 3,200 km/h. All seven crew members perished. These were:
- Francis R. Scobee, Commander
- Michael J. Smith, Pilot
- Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair, Mission Specialists
- Gregory B. Jarvis, Payload Specialist
- Christa McAuliffe, High School Teacher
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Challenger Shuttle Missions
STS stands for Space Transportation System. This is the official term for missions.
In total, Challenger completed nine missions during which it spent 62.41 days in space and traveled 41,527,416 km. It deployed 10 satellites in total.
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY
History
The third American space shuttle put into orbit after Columbia and Challenger, it made its first flight on August 30, 1981. (Its construction began on August 27, 1979.) In service until March 9, 2011, it deployed the Hubble telescope and launched the Ulysses probe.
After the Columbia and Challenger accidents, it had to undertake space missions twice. Mission STS-114 was its 31st launch and represented the highest number of missions completed by a space shuttle.
Discovery Shuttle
Source: https://www.lapresse.ca/sciences/astronomie-et-espace/200901/14/01-817587-la-navette-discovery-installee-sur-son-pas-de-tir.php
As of August 9, 2005, Discovery had spent 255.85 days in space and traveled over 168 million kilometers. It docked twice with the Mir station and twelve times with the ISS. In addition, it deployed 26 satellites.
After two unsuccessful attempts due to bad weather, it was successfully re-launched into space on July 4, 2006, heading for the ISS.
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From October 23 to November 7, 2007, Discovery carried out the STS-120 mission, which was to continue the construction of the International Space Station and, in particular, deliver the Harmony module. This mission was the third commanded by a woman, Pamela Melroy.
In February 2011, its 39th mission was its last before being decommissioned. On March 9, 2011, it made its final return to Earth, landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:57 a.m.
The oldest of the orbiters was installed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the National Air and Space Museum, near Washington2,3.
SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS
The Space Shuttle Atlantis (Orbital Vehicle-104 or OV-104) is a space shuttle belonging to NASA, the American space agency.
It was the fourth operational shuttle built, and the last to fly, after the destructions of Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003) and the decommissioning of the Discovery and Endeavour shuttles.
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Source: https://lenewbie.com/2011/08/27/the-big-picture-le-blog-dedie-au-photojournalisme-du-boston-globe/
Its last flight was on July 21, 2011.
The assembly of the Atlantis shuttle took place from March 30, 1980 to April 10, 1984.
On October 3, 1985, Atlantis carried out its inaugural mission STS-51-J.
On November 26, 1985, Atlantis carried out its second mission STS-61-B, only 50 days later, which represents the record for the shortest interval between two launches of the same shuttle (when developing the shuttle program, NASA initially aimed for a one-week interval between two launches).
In 1989, Atlantis deployed two space probes, Magellan and Galileo, and in 1991, launched the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory.
From 1995, Atlantis made seven direct flights to the Soviet Mir space station. During the second flight to Mir, it brought a docking module allowing astronaut exchanges during subsequent flights.
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From November 1997 to July 1999, Atlantis underwent a refurbishment operation, with some 165 modifications made to the shuttle, including the installation of an all-glass cockpit (Multifunction Electronic Display System). It then made six flights, all of which involved International Space Station assembly activities.
In October 2002, Atlantis and its crew of six carried out an eleven-day mission to the International Space Station, which required three extra-vehicular activities.
Flight cancellations: NASA scheduled Atlantis' 27th launch between September 9 and 24, 2005, but the launch window was missed due to incidents during Discovery's launch during the STS-114 mission, for which Atlantis was the backup shuttle. For the STS-121 mission in July 2006, Atlantis was replaced by Discovery.
On May 14, 2010, Atlantis' 32nd flight, STS-132, an International Space Station assembly mission, was scheduled to be its last (before the addition of mission STS-135, the ultimate mission of an American space shuttle).
The main cargo to be transported consisted of the Russian Mini Research Module 1 and the Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable (ICC-VLD) module. Liftoff took place on May 14, 2010, and landing on May 26, 2010.
Atlantis was finally used for the ultimate flight of the American space shuttle fleet, STS-135: on July 8, 2011, it lifted off at 3:30 p.m. GMT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with four astronauts on board, to resupply the International Space Station, while the rescue mission was provided by two Russian Soyuz spacecraft, each capable of being launched with only one cosmonaut on board, in case the recovery of the four astronauts from flight STS-135 in orbit proved necessary1. The Atlantis shuttle landed at the Kennedy Space Center runway on July 21, 2011, at 9:56 a.m. GMT, ending three decades of American space shuttle flights.
SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR
The Space Shuttle Endeavour (English pronunciation [inˈdevər]) (designation: Orbital Vehicle 105, or OV-105) is the fifth and most recent of NASA's space shuttles.
The space shuttle is named after the Endeavour, a ship commanded by explorer James Cook in the 18th century1.
Construction of Endeavour began in 1987 to replace Challenger, lost in an accident in 1986.
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1592.html
In a very particular setting above the colorful Earth horizon, the silhouette of the space shuttle Endeavour appears in this photo taken by an Expedition 22 crew member aboard the International Space Station, as the shuttle approached for docking on February 9 as part of the STS-130 mission.
The acquisition contract signed on July 31, 1987, was for 1.3 billion US dollars.
Structural spare parts from the construction of the Discovery and Atlantis shuttles were used for its assembly.
Endeavour was first launched in 1992 and on its first mission it captured and redeployed a faulty communications satellite. In 1993, Endeavour made the first STS-61 service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour was taken out of service for eight months in 1997 for modifications, including the installation of a new airlock.
Between 1998 and 2002, Endeavour completed 8 missions. Notable among these was the delivery of the Unity module to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 1998.
Endeavour was taken out of service for several months for maintenance, then, due to the loss of Columbia in 2003, resumed service with 4 ISS assembly missions between 2003 and 2010.
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Endeavour's last mission, STS-134, initially scheduled for April 29, 2011, and postponed to May 16, 2011, carried the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 3 (ELC 3) and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02). The Endeavour shuttle landed on June 1, 2011, at Cape Canaveral, thus completing its ultimate mission in space.
It is now on display as a museum exhibit at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
On May 30, 2020, the Crew Dragon C206 capsule was named Endeavour by astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken in honor of the shuttle.
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