Cohetes

Space shuttles

The space shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System (STS), is the only spacecraft that is currently use to transport astronauts from the U.S. the great thing abour itis that is partially reusable.

Since the launch of the first space shuttle mission (STS-1) This has been used to transport large loads into several orbits, for the supply and installation oforbital modules on the International Space Station (ISS) and to perform maintenance tasks (for example Hubble Space Telescope), but one of the original use has not been exploited, which is the possibilityto bring back to earth the satellites to be repaired here.

The vehicle is set initially for about 100 flights.

The space shuttle program started at the end of the 60’s and became the NASApriority. Launch of the Columbia (1981) .was the first fully functional orbiter, Columbia, was built in Palmdale, California, and sent to the Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979. Two crew members wereon the maiden voyage of Columbia on April 12, 1981. Eventually the crews start growing: the first crew of five astronauts was on STS-7 in 1983 and six were on STS-9 at the end of same year. Thefirst crew of 7 people was on STS 41-C in 1984 and the record were eight people in 1985 aboard STS 61-A. eventually the crews were bigger than 8 people so the crews were divided in categories for theflights.


The second part of the project, called Space Station Freedom, announced in 1984, became with modifications and reductions in the International Space Station. On the morning of June 28,1986 the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch (STS-51-L). The problem was due to a leak in a seal of auxiliary rockets. A crew of seven people lost their lifes. To replace it, the Endeavour wasbuilt, who arrived in May 1991.

Last to take off was Columbia: on February 1, of 2003 another tragic accident struck the family of the NASA space shuttle the Columbia disintegrated in the skie...