What is the smallest number of crew members to fly a space shuttle mission?
The early space shuttle missions flew with a crew of just two members, a mission commander and a pilot. On the first shuttle flight, Robert Crippen was the pilot and John Young was the commander of the space shuttle Columbia. How many space shuttles are there? Five space shuttles have flown into orbit. They are Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavor and Atlantis. The test shuttle Enterprise would make six. Of these, Challenger and Columbia were destroyed by in-flight malfunctions. When do the solid rocket boosters detach from the shuttle? The solid rocket boosters (SRB) provide thrust for about the first two minutes of the space shuttle’s flight before they run out of fuel and detach. When the SRBs separate from the shuttle, they are traveling at more than 3,000 miles per hour, and they continue to coast upward for 13 more miles before they begin their 41-mile fall back to Earth. Parachutes slow the descent of the spent SRBs so that they are not damaged by the impact of landing in t
