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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 ...
The final shuttle mission was completed with the landing of Atlantis on July 21, 2011, closing the 30-year Space Shuttle program. The Shuttle was presented to the public in 1972 as a "space truck" which would, among other things, be used to build a United States space station in low Earth orbit in the early 1990s and then be replaced by a new ...
The engine nozzles could gimbal ±10.5° in pitch, and ±8.5° in yaw during ascent to change the direction of their thrust to steer the Shuttle. The titanium alloy reusable engines were independent of the orbiter vehicle and would be removed and replaced in between flights.
The fragment that fell off weighed 0.0056 pounds (2.6 grams) and, according to NASA, would not be big enough to damage the shuttle if it were to come off during flight. The thermal stresses of repeated filling and emptying the fuel tank with the cryogenic fuel are known to cause a degree of damage to the insulation foam.
A NASA history from 1998 says that reusable single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) rockets and space planes such as the McDonnell Douglas DC-X and the Lockheed Martin X-33 seemed attainable and represented smaller, simpler alternatives to the sprawling Shuttle program. [8] The NLS, by contrast, was more of a continuation of the Shuttle legacy.
The shuttle program was marked by triumphs and failures, including the 2003 Columbia disaster. The tragedies left a lasting mark on the perception of risks in space. The space shuttle was ...
The three Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were ignited roughly 6.6 seconds before liftoff, and computers monitored their performance as they increased thrust. If an anomaly was detected, the engines would be shut down automatically and the countdown terminated before ignition of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) at T = 0
STS-6 was the last shuttle mission with a four-person crew until STS-135, the final shuttle mission, which launched on July 8, 2011. Commander Paul Weitz had previously served as Pilot on the first Skylab crewed mission (Skylab-2), where he lived and worked in Skylab for nearly a month from May to June 1973.