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Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on 12 April 1981 at Pad 39A for mission STS-1. The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
The Shuttle program operated accident-free for seventeen years and 88 missions after the Challenger disaster, ... Following the loss of two Space Shuttle missions, ...
In 2007, NASA engineers devised a solution so Space Shuttle flights could cross the year-end boundary. [27] Space Shuttle missions typically brought a portable general support computer (PGSC) that could integrate with the orbiter vehicle's computers and communication suite, as well as monitor scientific and payload data.
The Space Shuttle Columbia was lost as it returned from a two-week mission when previously detected damage to the shuttle's thermal protection system (TPS) resulted in the spacecraft breaking apart during reentry at an altitude of just under 65 km and a speed of about Mach 19. Investigation revealed that a piece of foam insulation had fallen ...
A new era of human spaceflight lifted off on April 12, 1981, when Space Shuttle Columbia took to the sky, a new generation of spacecraft that could launch into orbit around the Earth, deliver a ...
U.S. Space Shuttle missions were capable of carrying more humans and cargo than the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, resulting in more U.S. short-term human visits until the Space Shuttle program was discontinued in 2011. Between 2011 and 2020, Soyuz was the sole means of human transport to the ISS, delivering mostly long-term crew.
Space Shuttle missions to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California were planned to conclude with a landing at Runway 12/30 at the site. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] The runway was lengthened to support shuttle landings. [ 32 ]
Following their first mission of détente on the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the Soviet Union and the United States again collaborated with each other on the Shuttle-Mir initiative, efforts which led to the International Space Station (ISS), which has been continuously inhabited by humans for over 20 years.