The Space Shuttle On January 5, 1972, President Nixon announced that NASA would proceed with the development of a reusable low cost space shuttle system The Space Shuttle program plays a vital role in NASA's goal to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system by providing critical support for the assembly and operation of the International Space Station. On September 17, 1976, the first orbiter spacecraft, Enterprise, was rolled out. A total of thirteen test flights were performed. The Enterprise was built as a test vehicle and not equipped for space flight

The Space Shuttle To test the shuttle landing capabilities it had to be loaded on top of a 747 and then released in flight. It is unpowered so it flies and lands as a glider 5 manned flights took place where the astronauts separated from the 747 and landed the Enterprise There were 5 shuttles. Starting with Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour The shuttle has carried people into orbit, launched, recovered and repaired satellites, conducted cutting- edge research and built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station.

The Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle Columbia On April 12, 1981 the space shuttle Columbia became the first of NASA’s orbiter fleet to make into space Columbia was named after the first American ocean vessel to circle the globe and the command module for the Apollo 11 Moon landing It flew 28 missions into space Columbia broke apart on February 1, 2003 as it returned to Earth from a 16-day science mission. All seven astronauts aboard were killed.

The Space Shuttle Columbia The physical cause was damage to Columbia’s left wing by a 1.7 pound piece of insulating foam that detached from the and struck the orbiter’s left wing 81.9 seconds after launch It created a hole in a panel on the leading edge of the wing, allowing superheated air to enter the wing during reentry. The extreme heat caused the wing to fail structurally, and eventually the shuttle blew up

The Space Shuttle Columbia

Shuttle Challenger Originally was not built for space, was a test model for a lighter shuttle. Was revamped to be able to fly in space Entered space April 4, First spacewalk of the Space Shuttle program First Satellite Tracking system was deployed

Shuttle Challenger Carried the first US woman, Sally Ride, into space Carried the first two woman crew First night launch and landing of a shuttle Spacelabs 2 and 3 were on missions They first developed technology to monitor astronauts vital signs in space…heart rate, blood pressure, temperature Eventually developed that same technology for use in hospitals and continued to develop medical monitoring They have developed systems to help monitor natural disasters and relief efforts

Shuttle Challenger Jan. 28, 1986, 73 seconds into lift off, a booster failure caused an explosion that resulted in the loss of seven astronauts, as well as the vehicle.

ShuttleDiscovery Discovery, the third shuttle, was launched on its first mission on August 30, It carried three communications satellites for deployment by its astronaut crew. It deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990 Flew 39 missions deploying and repairing satellites

Shuttle Atlantis Lifted off on its maiden voyage on Oct. 3, 1985 Launched the Galileo interplanetary probe to Jupiter in October 1989 Deployed several satellites for the Department of Defense Atlantis pioneered the Shuttle-Mir missions, flying the first seven missions to dock with the Russian space station. Docked numerous times with Mir creating, at the time, the largest orbiting structure in space

Shuttle Atlantis

Shuttle Endeavour For the first time, an orbiter was named through a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools. Endeavour's primary assignments was to capture INTELSAT VI, an orbiting, but not functioning, communications satellite, and replace its rocket motor. They conducted medical tests assessing the human body's performance in microgravity The crew also took part in the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth experiment. The research tested the production of protein crystals grown in microgravity.