What is a Space Shuttle?
The Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System, or STS, has been the primary US spacecraft used for manned missions since 1981. Five Space Shuttles were built for a total cost of approximately $2.2 billion USD: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. One additional Shuttle, Enterprise, was non-space-worthy and built only for testing purposes. As of December 2007, there have been 118 successful shuttle missions and two failures. The two failures, of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, were due to catastrophic rocket failure and break-up during reentry respectively. During both occasions, all seven astronauts on board were killed. The Space Shuttle has had an illustrious history as the first reusable launch vehicle. The concept of a reusable launch vehicle was initially introduced as a way of lowering the costs of spaceflight, though it failed in that regard, instead being the most expensive project in the history of NASA. Notable Space Shuttl
A space shuttle is a reusable rocket that was designed to go into orbit. It is designed to be reusable because the space shuttle is very expensive to rebuild over and over again! So that is why they make them reusable rockets. Why do we need space shuttles? We need space shuttles because they help us by transporting us to space on missions, and that way we gain more scientific information about space. Space tiles are important to the space shuttle because they help the shuttle return and enter the Earth’s atmosphere. This is a space shuttle!
