The Space Shuttle
The shuttle, a manned, multipurpose, orbital-launch space plane, was designed to
carry payloads of up to about 30,000 kg (65,000 lb) and up to seven crew members
and passengers. The upper part of the spacecraft, the orbiter stage, had a
theoretical lifetime of perhaps 100 missions, and the winged orbiter could make
unpowered landings on returning to earth. Because of the shuttle's designed
flexibility and its planned use for satellite deployment and the rescue and
repair of previously orbited satellites, its proponents saw it as a major
advance in the practical exploitation of space. Others, however, worried that
NASA was placing too much reliance on the shuttle, to the detriment of ...
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astronaut, Sally K. Ride; the ninth mission, November 28-December 8, 1983,
which carried the first of the European Space Agency's Spacelabs; the 11th
mission, April 7-13, 1984, during which a satellite was retrieved, repaired, and
redeployed; and the 14th mission, November 8-14, 1984, when two expensive
malfunctioning satellites were retrieved and returned to earth.
Despite such successes, the shuttle program was falling behind in its planned
launch program, was increasingly being used for military tests, and was meeting
stiff competition from the European Space Agency's unmanned Ariane program for
the orbiting of satellites. Then, on January 28, 1986, the shuttle Challenger
was destroyed about one minute after launch because of the failure of a sealant
ring on one of its solid boosters. Flames escaping from the booster burned a
hole in the main propellant tank of liquid hydrogen and oxygen and caused the
booster to nose into and rupture the tank. This rupture caused a ...
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The Space Shuttle. (2007, September 24). Retrieved October 30, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Space-Shuttle/71691
"The Space Shuttle." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 24 Sep. 2007. Web. 30 Oct. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Space-Shuttle/71691>
"The Space Shuttle." Essayworld.com. September 24, 2007. Accessed October 30, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Space-Shuttle/71691.
"The Space Shuttle." Essayworld.com. September 24, 2007. Accessed October 30, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Space-Shuttle/71691.
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