What will take the place of the space shuttle

All these potential benefits of the shuttle were piled on top of one key promise: rapid turnaround of the spacecraft between flights. Some NASA personnel even anticipated that a shuttle would be able to carry out back-to-back flights within just a week or two. Many of the predictions for the Space Shuttle came true: the fleet helped build the ISS, docked with the Mir space station , made extensive use of Spacelab, and carried many important payloads to orbit — including the Hubble Space Telescope , the Chandra X-ray Observatory , and interplanetary probes Magellan , Ulysses , and Galileo , among others.

By any yardstick, NASA can be proud of these accomplishments. First — and perhaps most importantly — the program was wildly expensive. While the shuttle was proposed to make disposable rockets a thing of the past, it did exactly the opposite. Most customers who wanted to put satellites into orbit found conventional rockets to be a cheaper alternative. Second, the proposed launch schedules and turnaround times for the shuttle fleet were essentially fantasy.

The fastest turnaround for any shuttle in the history of the program was 54 days. And after the Challenger disaster, the fastest turnaround was 88 days — a far cry from what NASA officials thought they could accomplish. Slower turnarounds meant fewer flights, which meant less access to space for paying customers, further driving business away from NASA. Safety was also an issue of paramount importance for the Space Shuttle Program. By the mids, much of the American public thought that spaceflight was routine.

NASA was even launching astronauts into space wearing just simple coveralls and helmets, having ditched the pressure suits used in the Mercury , Gemini , and Apollo programs. This forever dispelled the notion that spaceflight was routine.

The shuttle was revealed to be a high-risk, experimental vehicle — something most astronauts had known all along. Still, the space agency took its lashings and made the changes required to get the shuttle flying again. Yet again, the entire crew — this time featuring the highly publicized first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon — was killed. Although the technical cause of the Columbia disaster was very different than what led to the loss of Challenger , the investigation again found deep cultural problems at NASA.

The crew of STS, seen here, had their flight aboard Space Shuttle Columbia delayed 18 times before launching in Test orbiter Enterprise will fly to New York City next month. The structure was designed to support the unique needs of the Space Shuttle Program. Its new design will feature a "clean pad" for rockets to come with their own launcher, making it more versatile for a number of vehicles.

Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Seen here is the view from inside the spacecraft's airlock looking toward the payload bay. Endeavour flew 25 missions, spent days in space, orbited Earth 4, times and traveled ,, miles over the course of its year career. United Space Alliance technicians secure several of space shuttle Endeavour's main propulsion system tanks after they were removed from the orbiter's mid-body, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on March 21, The tanks will be retained for possible future use on the agency's Space Launch System Program.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, technicians monitor the progress as a large crane lifts and moves the forward reaction control system closer for installation on space shuttle Endeavour, on February 8, The FRCS helped maneuver a shuttle while it was in orbit.

Inside NASA's Orbiter Processing Facility-1 in Florida, among hundreds of signatures, technicians transfer seats to the middeck of space shuttle Discovery for installation, on February 14, A crane lifts the airlock from the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis in Orbiter Processing Facility-2 in Florida, on December 21, The airlock was the connecting point between the shuttle and International Space Station.

It was removed as part of the ongoing work to prepare the shuttles for public display. An employee guides a replica shuttle main engine toward installation on space shuttle Discovery, on December 5, This is the first of three replica engines to be installed. The insulation damaged the heat protection tiles on the wing. When Columbia re-entered the atmosphere, hot gases entered the wing through the damaged area and melted the airframe. The shuttle lost control and broke up.

Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Prev NEXT. Space Transportation Systems. Close the cargo bay doors. In most cases, they have been flying nose-first and upside down, so they then fire the RCS thrusters to turn the orbiter tail first. Once the orbiter is tail first, the crew fires the OMS engines to slow the orbiter down and fall back to Earth; it will take about 25 minutes before the shuttle reaches the upper atmosphere.

The Starliner adapted a best practice from the commercial industry, with backup manual controls for the pilot. Boeing designed the Starliner to fit seven passengers comfortably or any combination of crew plus cargo. The Starliner team North Star means launching a safe spacecraft on a successful mission. The legacy of 14 historically black colleges and universities on board Starliner on mission to the space station.

A computer Starliner software engineer received as a teen from his grandmother changed his life forever. Learn how a fluid systems engineer from Sri Lanka found chemistry in combining culture and career. A Starliner fluid systems test engineer, Lyndsey Conley was a multi-sport athlete in high school. Her team spirit, coaching skills and strategizing plays a critical role on the Starliner fluids team.

Boeing and NASA partner with top trauma health care providers to ensure crew safety during Starliner landings. Starliner electrician influenced daughters into aerospace field. Boeing simulates more worst-case scenarios to further validate the safety of Starliner parachutes even under adverse environmental factors. The Boeing CST Starliner's first mission ended historically when it became the first American orbital space capsule to land on American soil rather than in an ocean.

Boeing cleared a crucial test on the way to returning the United States to human spaceflight launch capabilities by completing a successful pad abort test of the CST Starliner. Starliner passed another major test, demonstrating that its parachute landing system can provide a safe landing for the capsule and its crew.

Using crash dummies, lab test teams simulate what it will feel like inside Starliner when it safely lands back on Earth. The world's orbital outpost celebrates a milestone as it undergoes a massive reconfiguration project to usher in new era of space exploration. To prepare, employees are testing the spacecraft to the outer limits.

Helping to design a space capsule would be amazing, but Kavya Manyapu is designing a space capsule she might ride in one day.

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