NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System (STS), is the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the government's current manned Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a human crew and possibly passengers. This makes it unlike robotic space probes or remotely-controlled satellites. Human spaceflight is sometimes called manned spaceflight, a term now deprecated by major space agencies in favor of its gender-neutral alternative launch vehicle In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure. Usually the payload is an artificial satellite placed into orbit, but some spaceflights are sub-orbital while others enable. The winged Space Shuttle orbiter The Space Shuttle orbiters are the orbital spacecraft of the Space Shuttle program operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Each orbiter is a reusable winged "spaceplane", a mixture of rocket, spacecraft, and aircraft. The spaceplane can carry crews and payloads into Earth orbit, perform on-orbit operations, then re-enter is launched vertically, usually carrying five to seven astronauts An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists (although eight have been carried) and up to 50,000 lb The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement. A number of different definitions have been used, the most common today being the international avoirdupois pound of exactly 0.45359237 kilogram (22 700 kg The kilogram is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI, from the French Le Système International d’Unités).[Note 2] The kilogram is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram (IPK),[Note 3] which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water. It is the only SI base unit with) of payload into low earth orbit A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km. Given the rapid orbital decay of objects below approximately 200 km, the commonly accepted definition for LEO is between 160 - 2,000 km (100 - 1,240 miles) above the Earth's surface. When its mission is complete, the shuttle The Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. Operational flights began in 1982 following four test flights. The system is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches. Major missions have included launching numerous satellites and can independently move itself out of orbit using its Orbital Maneuvering System The Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System, or OMS , is a system of rocket engines used on the space shuttle orbiter for orbital injection and modifying its orbit. It consists of two "packs" at the back of the Shuttle, the large lumps on either side of the vertical stabilizer. Each pack contains a single hypergolic engine, based on the (it orients itself appropriately and fires its main OMS engines, thus slowing it down) and re-enter Atmospheric reentry is the movement of human-made or natural objects as they enter the atmosphere of a planet from outer space, in the case of Earth from an altitude above the "edge of space." This article primarily addresses the process of controlled reentry of vehicles which are intended to reach the planetary surface intact, but the the Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest, most massive, and densest of the Solar System's four terrestrial (or rocky) planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 3] or Terra.[note 4]'s atmosphere. During descent and landing the orbiter acts as a re-entry vehicle and a glider, using its OMS system and flight surfaces to make adjustments.
The shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to achieve orbit and land, and the only reusable space vehicle that has ever made multiple flights into orbit. Its missions This is a list of missions flown by space shuttles. As of 2009, only the United States has flown human spaceflight shuttle missions in the Space Shuttle program, while the Soviet Union flew one unmanned flight of the Buran involve carrying large payloads to various orbits (including segments to be added to the International Space Station The International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015. The station can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye, and, as of 2009[), providing crew rotation for the International Space Station, and performing service missions. The orbiter can also recover satellites In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon and other payloads from orbit and return them to Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest, most massive, and densest of the Solar System's four terrestrial (or rocky) planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 3] or Terra.[note 4], but its use in this capacity is rare. However, the shuttle has previously been used to return large payloads from the ISS to Earth, as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz ; English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program. The first unmanned Soyuz mission was launched November 28, 1966; the first Soyuz mission with a crew (Soyuz 1) was has limited capacity for return payloads. Each vehicle was designed with a projected lifespan of 100 launches, or 10 years' operational life.
The program started in the late 1960s and has dominated NASA's manned operations since the mid-1970s. According to the Vision for Space Exploration The Vision for Space Exploration is the United States space policy announced on January 14, 2004 by then-U.S. President George W. Bush. It is seen as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the state of human spaceflight at NASA, and a way to regain public enthusiasm for space exploration, use of the space shuttle will be focused on completing assembly of the ISS by 2010, after which it will be retired from service, and eventually replaced by the new Orion Orion is a spacecraft design currently under development by the United States space agency NASA. Each Orion spacecraft will carry a crew of four to six astronauts. The spacecraft is designed to be launched by the Ares I, a launch vehicle, also currently under development. Both Orion and Ares I are elements of NASA's Project Constellation, which spacecraft (now expected to be ready in about 2014).
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NewsHour
The space shuttle Atlantis was launched today, on one of the last flights for the shuttle program . The six astronauts blasted off from Cape Canaveral, ...
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system by which other systems could be compared for price performance compromises Shuttle launch at sunset
William Harwood
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:20:00 GM
I guess that?s part of the reason that their calling it quits on the whole . space shuttle program. . Go back in time and think about why the . space program. even started in the first place. It was all just to prove that we were more bad ass ...
