|
The NASAs Space Shuttle is a reusable spacecraft designed to be launched into orbit by rockets and then to return to the Earth's surface by gliding down and landing on a runway. The Shuttle was selected in the early 1970s as the principal space launcher and carrier vehicle to be developed by the NASA. It was planned as a replacement for the expensive, expendable booster rockets used since the late 1950s for launching major commercial and governmental satellites. Together with launch facilities, mission control and supporting centers, and a tracking and data-relay satellite system, it would complete NASA's new Space Transportation System.
After various delays, the program got under way in the early 1980s. Despite a number of problems, the craft demonstrated its versatility in a series of missions until, in January 1986, a fatal Shuttle disaster during launch forced a long delay until the program was resumed late in 1988.
|
