Officially called the ‘Space Transportation System’, the development of the Space Shuttle began as early as the late 1960s. It was not until 1972 that the Shuttle program was formally announced and development of the vehicle became serious. By 1981 the first operational Space Shuttle was put into service by NASA.
Unlike the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft, the Shuttle was not designed to fly to the moon. Because of its large size and weight the Space Shuttle can only carry enough fuel to support missions in Low Earth Orbit.
The Space Shuttle Fleet is expected to be retired in the year 2010. A replacement known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle will follow in the Shuttle’s footsteps.
The Space Shuttles
Between 1976 and 1991, six Space Shuttles were assembled. The first Shuttle was called Enterprise and it made its debut in 1976. This Shuttle was only used to test out landing capabilities and never was capable of flight in space. The Space Shuttle Enterprise is currently on display at the Air and Space Museum located outside of Washington, D.C.
The second Shuttle to debut (but the first that was actually fully operational) was Columbia which launched for the first time into space In April of 1981. The next year saw the introduction of the third space shuttle which was known as Challenger. In 1983 a fourth Space Shuttle whose name was Discovery was put into service. During 1985 a fifth Shuttle was made its maiden voyage to space and is known as Atlantis. Several years later in 1991 a sixth Shuttle named Endeavor was put into operation to replace the Space Shuttle Challenger.
Space Shuttle Accidents
In 1986 on a particularly cold Florida morning in January, the Space Shuttle Challenger suffered a catastrophe shortly after its launch. The result was the total loss of both the Shuttle and its crew of seven. The incident shocked the country as media coverage of the launch was extensive. Onboard the Challenger was Christa McAuliffe, who was the first participant in the Teacher in Space program. NASA TV broadcasted the launch live and school children across the country tuned in to watch.
It was later determined that the rubber O-rings on the Solid Rocket Boosters failed to properly seal because of the cold weather, which allowed hot gases to leak out. This produced a sequence of events that caused the Shuttle and its External Tank to disintegrate under great forces.
In February of 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia was returning home from its mission onboard the International Space Station. During reentry the Shuttle broke apart into pieces and all space shuttle crew members were lost.
During the launch of Columbia a piece of insulation broke off of the External Tank and hit one of Columbia’s wings. This created a hole a few inches in size that allowed gases heated to temperatures of nearly 3,000 degrees to seep into the wing, which lead to the breakup of the entire Space Shuttle.