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During its descent and landing, the Orbiter acts as a glider and makes a completely unpowered ("dead stick") landing.

When the Orbiter's mission is completed, the crew fires its maneuvering thrusters to drop out of orbit and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. Normally, five to seven astronauts would ride in the Orbiter, although eight have been carried and eleven could be accommodated in an emergency landing. The main person responsible for design of the STS was Maxime Faget, who had previously overseen designs of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. The Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of the final flight of Atlantis‍ on July 21, 2011.Įach Space Shuttle consisted of three main parts: The Orbiter Vehicle, the External Tank, and the two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). Each Shuttle was designed for a projected lifespan of 100 launches, or 10 years, operational life. It was used to return large payloads from the ISS to Earth, as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft has limited capacity for such return payloads. It provided crew rotation for the International Space Station (ISS) and performed servicing missions. The Orbiter carried astronauts and payloads such as satellites or space station parts into low earth orbit. The vehicle was launched vertically like a conventional rocket, and the orbiter glided to a horizontal landing, after which it could be refurbished for reuse. The tank and boosters were jettisoned during ascent only the Orbiter went into space. The Shuttle was the first orbital spacecraft designed for partial reusability. Technically, this entire combination of assemblies is called the "Space Shuttle" (or the "Stack"), although at times the Orbiter alone is referred to as the Space Shuttle. At launch, it consisted of three main assemblies: a reusable Orbiter Vehicle (OV) a large, expendable External Tank (ET) and two relatively slender, partially reusable Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System (STS), was the United States government's manned launch vehicle from 1981 to 2011. 2,800,000 lb f each, sea level liftoff)ĥ,253 kN (1,180,000 lb f combined total, sea level liftoff)ĥ3.378 kN (12,000 lb f combined total vacuum thrust) Space Shuttle Atlantis on the launch pad prior to the STS-115 mission.īoosters (Stage 0) - Solid Rocket Boostersġ2,455 kN (approx. This article is about NASA's space vehicle.