The Space Shuttle is a retired,partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. 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.
Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world,Challenger was the second Space Shuttle orbiter to fly into space after Columbia,and launched on its maiden flight in April 1983. It was destroyed in January 1986 soon after launch in an accident that killed all seven crewmembers aboard. Initially manufactured as a test article not intended for spaceflight,it was utilized for ground testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter's structural design. However,after NASA found that their original plan to upgrade Enterprise for spaceflight would be more expensive than upgrading Challenger,the orbiter was pressed into operational service in the Space Shuttle program. Lessons learned from the first orbital flights of Columbia led to Challenger's design possessing fewer thermal protection system tiles and a lighter fuselage and wings. This led to it being 1,000 kilograms lighter than Columbia,though still 2,600 kilograms heavier than Discovery.
The Glenn L. Martin Company,also known as The Martin Company from 1917 to 1961,was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin,which operated from 1917 to 1961. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the US and allies,especially during World War II and the Cold War. During the 1950s and '60s,the Martin Company moved from the aircraft industry into the guided missile,space exploration,and space utilization industries.
The RM-81 Agena was an American rocket upper stage and satellite bus which was developed by Lockheed Corporation initially for the canceled WS-117L reconnaissance satellite program. Following the split-up of WS-117L into SAMOS and Corona for image intelligence,and MIDAS for early warning,the Agena was later used as an upper stage,and an integrated component,for several programs,including Corona reconnaissance satellites and the Agena Target Vehicle used to demonstrate rendezvous and docking during Project Gemini. It was used as an upper stage on the Atlas,Thor,Thorad and Titan IIIB rockets,and considered for others including the Space Shuttle and Atlas V. A total of 365 Agena rockets were launched between February 28,1959 and February 1987. Only 33 Agenas carried NASA payloads and the vast majority were for DoD programs.
VentureStar was a single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch system proposed by Lockheed Martin and funded by the U.S. government. The goal was to replace the Space Shuttle by developing a re-usable spaceplane that could launch satellites into orbit at a fraction of the cost. While the requirement was for an uncrewed launcher,it was expected to carry passengers as cargo. The VentureStar would have had a wingspan of 68 feet (20.7 m),a length of 127 feet (38.7 m),and would have weighed roughly 1000 t.
The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was the first solid-propellant rocket to be used for primary propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight. A pair of these provided 85% of the Space Shuttle's thrust at liftoff and for the first two minutes of ascent. After burnout,they were jettisoned and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean where they were recovered,examined,refurbished,and reused.
The Lockheed Martin X-33 was a proposed uncrewed,sub-scale technology demonstrator suborbital spaceplane that was developed for a period in the 1990s. The X-33 was a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar orbital spaceplane,which was planned to be a next-generation,commercially operated reusable launch vehicle. The X-33 would flight-test a range of technologies that NASA believed it needed for single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicles,such as metallic thermal protection systems,composite cryogenic fuel tanks for liquid hydrogen,the aerospike engine,autonomous (uncrewed) flight control,rapid flight turn-around times through streamlined operations,and its lifting body aerodynamics.
The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the three RS-25 main engines in the orbiter. The ET was jettisoned just over 10 seconds after main engine cut-off (MECO) and it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. Unlike the Solid Rocket Boosters,external tanks were not re-used. They broke up before impact in the Indian Ocean,away from shipping lanes and were not recovered.
Titan IV was a family of heavy-lift space launch vehicles developed by Martin Marietta and operated by the United States Air Force from 1989 to 2005. Launches were conducted from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base,California.
The Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device or MUSTARD,usually written as Mustard,was a reusable launch system concept that was explored by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) during the mid-1960s.
Lockheed Martin Space is one of the four major business divisions of Lockheed Martin. It has its headquarters in Littleton,Colorado,with additional sites in Valley Forge,Pennsylvania;Sunnyvale,California;Santa Cruz,California;Huntsville,Alabama;and elsewhere in the United States and United Kingdom. The division currently employs about 20,000 people,and its most notable products are commercial and military satellites,space probes,missile defense systems,NASA's Orion spacecraft,and the Space Shuttle external tank.
Shuttle-derived vehicles (SDV) are space launch vehicles and spacecraft that use components,technology,and infrastructure originally developed for the Space Shuttle program.
A wet workshop is a space station made from a spent liquid-propellant rocket stage. Such a rocket stage contains two large,airtight propellant tanks;it was realized that the larger tank could be retrofitted into the living quarters of a space station,while the smaller one could be used for the storage of waste. A large rocket stage would reach a low Earth orbit and undergo later modification. This would make for a cost-effective reuse of hardware that would otherwise have no further purpose,but the in-orbit modification of the rocket stage could prove difficult and expensive. As of April 2023,no wet-workshop space station has been built or flown.
Before the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969,NASA began studies of Space Shuttle designs as early as October 1968. The early studies were denoted "Phase A",and in June 1970,"Phase B",which were more detailed and specific. The primary intended use of the Space Shuttle was supporting the future space station,ferrying a minimum crew of four and about 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) of cargo,and being able to be rapidly turned around for future flights.
Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is a launch pad and support area. The site was originally developed for Titan IIIM rockets and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory,but these were cancelled before construction of SLC-6 was complete. The complex was later rebuilt to serve as the west coast launch site for the Space Shuttle,but went unused due to budget,safety and political considerations. The pad was subsequently used for several Athena rocket launches before being modified to support the Delta IV launch vehicle family,which used the pad since 2006. The pad sat vacant for a few months after the launch of NROL-91 on September 24,2022. On April 24,2023,SLD 30 announced that they had leased SLC-6 to SpaceX.
The Ares V was the planned cargo launch component of the cancelled NASA Constellation program,which was to have replaced the Space Shuttle after its retirement in 2011. Ares V was also planned to carry supplies for a human presence on Mars. Ares V and the smaller Ares I were named after Ares,the Greek god of war.
Atlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas. The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Atlas was a liquid propellant rocket burning RP-1 kerosene fuel with liquid oxygen in three engines configured in an unusual "stage-and-a-half" or "parallel staging" design:two outboard booster engines were jettisoned along with supporting structures during ascent,while the center sustainer engine,propellant tanks and other structural elements remained connected through propellant depletion and engine shutdown.
The DC-3 was one of several early design proposals for the NASA Space Shuttle designed by Maxime Faget at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston. It was nominally developed by North American Aviation (NAA),although it was a purely NASA-internal design. Unlike the design that eventually emerged,the DC-3 was a fully reusable launch vehicle two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane design with a small payload capacity of about 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) and limited maneuverability. Its inherent strengths were good low-speed handling during landing,and a low-risk development that was relatively immune to changes in weight and balance.
The Lockheed Star Clipper was a proposed Earth-to-orbit spaceplane based on a large lifting body spacecraft and a wrap-around drop tank. Originally proposed during a United States Air Force program in 1966,the basic Star Clipper concept lived on during the early years of the NASA Space Shuttle program,and as that project evolved,in a variety of new versions like the LS-200.
During the lifetime of the Space Shuttle,Rockwell International and many other organizations studied various Space Shuttle designs. These involved different ways of increasing cargo and crew capacity,as well as investigating further reusability. A large focus of these designs were related to developing new shuttle boosters and improvements to the central tank,but also looked to expand NASA's ability to launch deep space missions and build modular space stations. Many of these concepts and studies would shape the concepts and programs of the 2000s such as the Constellation,Orbital Space Plane Program,and Artemis program.
