The US Space Shuttle was first launched in 1981. It has flown more than 120 times. Currently the Space Shuttle is being used to construct the International Space Station. Click here to check out books. The next mission is Space Shuttle Discovery STS-131 on 5 April 2010.

The Space Shuttle stack consists of the Shuttle Orbiter, 2 solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and an expendable external tank (ET). The Orbiter uses 3 SSME Rocket Engines which use Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen as propellants. 

The payload is carried in the cargo bay. One of the most famous payloads is the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Space Shuttle Launch:

The Space Shuttle is launched from Florida. There were plans in the 1980's to launch the space Shuttle from Vandenberg in California.

There are 3 shuttles in the US fleet: Discovery (1983), Atlantis (1985) and Endeavour (1991), which replaced Challenger. The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster happend on 1st February, 2003.

The solid rocket motor (SRM) is the first solid rocket motor designed for re-use and is the largest to be flown on manned missions. The 2 SRB's are attached to the external tank! The SRM's are manufactured by Thiokol in Birmingham City, Utah.

In the future more will be covered on the shuttle orbiters, solid rocket boosters, kenedy space center, and more with more picture. 

Future Space Shuttle

Nasa started the Space Launch Intiative in 2001 in order to find a shuttle successor with a planned replacement date of 2012. The program was replaced with the Orbital Space Plane concept which was going to function as a small space taxi to the ISS. In January 2004 Project Constellation was announced and the new Crew Exploration Vehicle will be Orion. The CEV design for the ISS is  a capsule. It will be launched by Ares I and not on top of a Delta 4 or Atlas V.

Did you know?

The Space Shuttle is carried on the same crawler transporter that moved the Saturn 5 rockets from the assembly building to the launch pad.

Books

Spce Shuttle Book: This page has a variety of books.

Space Shuttle Links:

• United Space Alliance: They run the Shuttle for NASA
  
  
• NASA Space Shuttle Launches:
  
  
• SPACE SHUTTLE: FIRST REUSABLE SPACECRAFT:
  
  
• Mwade's Space Shuttle:
  
  
• Futureshuttle.com: Dedicated to the Shuttle

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