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Challenger and Columbia were destroyed in mission accidents in 1986 and 2003 respectively, killing a total of fourteen astronauts. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger. The Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of STS-135 by Atlantis on 21 July 2011. [6]
Between T−6.6 seconds and T−3 seconds, while the RS-25 engines were firing but the SRBs were still bolted to the pad, the offset thrust would cause the Space Shuttle to pitch down 650 mm (25.5 in) measured at the tip of the external tank; the 3-second delay allowed the stack to return to nearly vertical before SRB ignition.
Non-launch costs account for a significant part of the program budget: for example, during fiscal years 2004 to 2006, NASA spent around $13 billion on the Space Shuttle program, [19] even though the fleet was grounded in the aftermath of the Columbia disaster and there were a total of three launches during this period of time. In fiscal year ...
From the initial flight of the “world’s first reusable spacecraft,” on April 12, 1981, to the final flight, the 184-foot-long shuttles flew 135 missions. Day of Remembrance held each January
In 1972, Vandenberg AFB was chosen as the western launch site for Air Force shuttle launches. Use of SLC-6 was approved in 1975, and re-construction of the former MOL launch facility occurred between January 1979 and July 1986 as SLC-6 was rebuilt to accommodate the space shuttle. [8] There were several reasons for using SLC-6: [7] Florida ...
The positioning had to be precise. The shuttle's nose was raised 200 feet into the night sky so that the rudder could clear 80 feet of space. Endeavour was then turned 17 degrees clockwise to ...
The Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida has a single 15,000-foot (4,600 m) concrete runway, 15/33. [2] It is designated Runway 15 or 33, depending on the direction of use. The first landing at the SLF was for mission STS-41B in 1984; landings were suspended at the site following brake damage and a blown tire during ...
Space Shuttle glass cockpit (simulated, composite image) A window on Endeavour 's aft flight deck. The orbiter's flight deck or cockpit originally had 2,214 controls and displays, about three times as many as the Apollo command module. [2] The crew cabin consisted of the flight deck, the mid-deck, and the utility area.