Space shuttle endeavour model4/3/2024 ![]() ![]() A fifth operational (and sixth in total) orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger. Of these, two were lost in mission accidents: Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, with a total of 14 astronauts killed. Four fully operational orbiters were initially built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. The first orbiter, Enterprise, was built in 1976 and used in Approach and Landing Tests (ALT), but had no orbital capability. If the landing occurred at Edwards, the orbiter was flown back to the KSC atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a specially modified Boeing 747 designed to carry the shuttle above it. The orbiter was protected during reentry by its thermal protection system tiles, and it glided as a spaceplane to a runway landing, usually to the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC, Florida, or to Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base, California. At the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to deorbit and reenter the atmosphere. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, while the main engines continued to operate, and the ET was jettisoned after main engine cutoff and just before orbit insertion, which used the orbiter's two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines. The Space Shuttle was launched vertically, like a conventional rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the orbiter's three main engines, which were fueled from the ET. ![]() Space Shuttle components include the Orbiter Vehicle (OV) with three clustered Rocketdyne RS-25 main engines, a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and the expendable external tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Space Shuttle fleet's total mission time was 1,323 days. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle- Mir program with Russia, and participated in the construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). They launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The first ( STS-1) of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights ( STS-5) beginning in 1982. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. The orbiter’s construction was completed in 1991 in Southern California by Rockwell International, a replacement to the original fleet’s Space Shuttle Challenger that exploded in 1986.The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. It flew on its final mission, STS-134, from May 16-June 1, 2011, the penultimate space flight of the Space Shuttle Program ahead of Atlantis’ STS-135 mission two months later.Įndeavour flew 25 missions, carrying 173 crew members and traveling more than 122 million miles. Discovery had already made its way to Virginia and Atlantis was staying put.Įndeavour, the fifth operational orbiter of the shuttle program after Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis, had its first space flight on STS-49 launching from Kennedy Space Center on May 7, 1992. 19, 2012 riding atop NASA’s modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, taking off from KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility, the last flight so to speak of the Space Shuttle Program. The orbiter left Florida for the last time on Sept. The NASA 747 ferrying the space shuttle Endeavour gains altitude to leave central Florida, as seen passing over the spires of Space Mountain at sunrise, at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. ![]() By putting the whole system on display it will allow us to talk more about the engineering and science behind it and what it takes to go into space.” “The orbiter alone could not go into space. “It will be an incredibly dramatic display, but it will also allow us to put on display the whole system,” said Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the museum. Officials were on hand Wednesday to break ground on the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the museum, where it will become the only place people will be able to see the shuttle in that position. Its future though will see the orbiter remated with the last intact external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters and put on display vertically for the public to see. It has since made the cross-country trip to its new home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles where it has been on display resting horizontally since 2012. It’s been 11 years since Space Shuttle Endeavour finished its last mission landing at Kennedy Space Center on June 1, 2011. ![]()
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