170-723: Soyuz TMA-20 was a human spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) and was part of the Soyuz programme . It lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 15, 2010, and docked with the ISS two days later. The three-person crew of Soyuz TMA-20 – Dmitri Kondratyev , Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli – represented the ISS partner organizations of Roscosmos , NASA and
340-417: A spacecraft on a LVM 3 rocket and return them safely for a water landing at a predefined landing zone. On 15 August 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi , declared India will independently send humans into space before the 75th anniversary of independence in 2022. In 2019, ISRO revealed plans for a space station by 2030, followed by a crewed lunar mission. The program envisages the development of
510-1031: A spaceplane to a runway landing, usually to the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC, Florida, or to Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base , California. If the landing occurred at Edwards, the orbiter was flown back to the KSC atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a specially modified Boeing 747 designed to carry the shuttle above it. The first orbiter, Enterprise , was built in 1976 and used in Approach and Landing Tests (ALT), but had no orbital capability. Four fully operational orbiters were initially built: Columbia , Challenger , Discovery , and Atlantis . Of these, two were lost in mission accidents: Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 , with
680-492: A NASA engineer who had worked to design the Mercury capsule, patented a design for a two-stage fully recoverable system with a straight-winged orbiter mounted on a larger straight-winged booster. The Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory argued that a straight-wing design would not be able to withstand the high thermal and aerodynamic stresses during reentry, and would not provide the required cross-range capability. Additionally,
850-402: A Space Task Group to recommend follow-on human spaceflight programs after Apollo. The group proposed an ambitious Space Transportation System based on a reusable Space Shuttle , which consisted of a winged, internally fueled orbiter stage burning liquid hydrogen, launched with a similar, but larger kerosene -fueled booster stage, each equipped with airbreathing jet engines for powered return to
1020-497: A crewed spaceflight engineer on both STS-51-C and STS-51-J to serve as a military representative for a National Reconnaissance Office payload. A Space Shuttle crew typically had seven astronauts, with STS-61-A flying with eight. The crew compartment comprised three decks and was the pressurized, habitable area on all Space Shuttle missions. The flight deck consisted of two seats for the commander and pilot, as well as an additional two to four seats for crew members. The mid-deck
1190-591: A fully-autonomous orbital vehicle capable of carrying 2 or 3 crew members to an about 300 km (190 mi) low Earth orbit and bringing them safely back home. Since 2008, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has developed the H-II Transfer Vehicle cargo-spacecraft-based crewed spacecraft and Kibō Japanese Experiment Module –based small space laboratory. NASA is developing a plan to land humans on Mars by
1360-467: A future reusable shuttle: Class I would have a reusable orbiter mounted on expendable boosters, Class II would use multiple expendable rocket engines and a single propellant tank (stage-and-a-half), and Class III would have both a reusable orbiter and a reusable booster. In September 1969, the Space Task Group, under the leadership of U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew , issued a report calling for
1530-598: A glider. Its three-part fuselage provided support for the crew compartment, cargo bay, flight surfaces, and engines. The rear of the orbiter contained the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), which provided thrust during launch, as well as the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS), which allowed the orbiter to achieve, alter, and exit its orbit once in space. Its double- delta wings were 18 m (60 ft) long, and were swept 81° at
1700-664: A human into orbit independently. The goal of the second phase of CMS was to make technology breakthroughs in extravehicular activities (EVA, or spacewalk), space rendezvous , and docking to support short-term human activities in space. On 25 September 2008 during the flight of Shenzhou 7 , Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming completed China's first EVA. In 2011, China launched the Tiangong 1 target spacecraft and Shenzhou 8 uncrewed spacecraft. The two spacecraft completed China's first automatic rendezvous and docking on 3 November 2011. About 9 months later, Tiangong 1 completed
1870-524: A mission lasting 159 days, seven hours and 17 minutes. Russian recovery forces moved to assist the Soyuz crew, along with U.S. and Russian flight surgeons. Kondratyev and Coleman appeared to be in good shape, smiling and chatting with support personnel and sharing a satellite phone to call family members back home. However, at a press conference held after the landing, Vyacheslav Rogozhkin, the deputy head of Federal Medical and Biological Agency, said that Naspoli
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#17327802507412040-482: A mobile platform for astronauts conducting an EVA. The RMS was built by the Canadian company Spar Aerospace and was controlled by an astronaut inside the orbiter's flight deck using their windows and closed-circuit television. The RMS allowed for six degrees of freedom and had six joints located at three points along the arm. The original RMS could deploy or retrieve payloads up to 29,000 kg (65,000 lb), which
2210-534: A partial-pressure version of the high-altitude pressure suits with a helmet. In 1994, the LES was replaced by the full-pressure Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES), which improved the safety of the astronauts in an emergency situation. Columbia originally had modified SR-71 zero-zero ejection seats installed for the ALT and first four missions, but these were disabled after STS-4 and removed after STS-9 . The flight deck
2380-530: A partially reusable system would be the most cost-effective solution. The head of the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight, George Mueller , announced the plan for a reusable shuttle on August 10, 1968. NASA issued a request for proposal (RFP) for designs of the Integral Launch and Reentry Vehicle (ILRV) on October 30, 1968. Rather than award a contract based upon initial proposals, NASA announced
2550-558: A phased approach for the Space Shuttle contracting and development; Phase A was a request for studies completed by competing aerospace companies, Phase B was a competition between two contractors for a specific contract, Phase C involved designing the details of the spacecraft components, and Phase D was the production of the spacecraft. In December 1968, NASA created the Space Shuttle Task Group to determine
2720-481: A port-side hatch that the crew used for entry and exit while on Earth. The airlock is a structure installed to allow movement between two spaces with different gas components, conditions, or pressures. Continuing on the mid-deck structure, each orbiter was originally installed with an internal airlock in the mid-deck. The internal airlock was installed as an external airlock in the payload bay on Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour to improve docking with Mir and
2890-403: A porthole in the habitation module. At 21:55 UTC, the ISS began to slowly rotate by 129 degrees to provide Nespoli with the best lighting conditions and a side-on view of Endeavour . Nespoli spent about 25 minutes completing the photo survey, then removed the digital photo memory cards from his cameras and made his way back into the Soyuz descent module. Once Nespoli was strapped into the seat to
3060-700: A reserve spacecraft would be available at Baikonur for the mission, if required. On December 12, 2010, the Soyuz TMA-20 payload section was integrated with the Soyuz FG rocket and the emergency escape system, allowing the state commission to declare that the Soyuz TMA-20 mission was fully assembled. Rollout to the launch pad began in the morning of December 13, 2010. Soyuz TMA-20 blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 1 at 19:09 GMT (22:09:25 Moscow Time) on December 15, 2010, and successfully reached orbit ten minutes later. The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft docked with
3230-675: A result of an O-ring failing at low temperature, the SRBs were redesigned to provide a constant seal regardless of the ambient temperature. The Space Shuttle's operations were supported by vehicles and infrastructure that facilitated its transportation, construction, and crew access. The crawler-transporters carried the MLP and the Space Shuttle from the VAB to the launch site. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) were two modified Boeing 747s that could carry an orbiter on its back. The original SCA (N905NA)
3400-580: A runway at the Kennedy Space Center launch site. Other components of the system included a permanent, modular space station; reusable space tug ; and nuclear interplanetary ferry, leading to a human expedition to Mars as early as 1986 or as late as 2000, depending on the level of funding allocated. However, Nixon knew the American political climate would not support congressional funding for such an ambition, and killed proposals for all but
3570-671: A second orbiter. Later that month, Rockwell began converting STA-099 to OV-099, later named Challenger . On January 29, 1979, NASA ordered two additional orbiters, OV-103 and OV-104, which were named Discovery and Atlantis . Construction of OV-105, later named Endeavour , began in February 1982, but NASA decided to limit the Space Shuttle fleet to four orbiters in 1983. After the loss of Challenger , NASA resumed production of Endeavour in September 1987. After it arrived at Edwards AFB, Enterprise underwent flight testing with
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#17327802507413740-670: A separate central processing unit (CPU) and input/output processor (IOP), and non-volatile solid-state memory . From 1991 to 1993, the orbiter vehicles were upgraded to the AP-101S, which improved the memory and processing capabilities, and reduced the volume and weight of the computers by combining the CPU and IOP into a single unit. Four of the GPCs were loaded with the Primary Avionics Software System (PASS), which
3910-410: A speech. After STS-4, NASA declared its Space Transportation System (STS) operational. The Space Shuttle was the first operational orbital spacecraft designed for reuse . Each Space Shuttle orbiter was designed for a projected lifespan of 100 launches or ten years of operational life, although this was later extended. At launch, it consisted of the orbiter , which contained the crew and payload,
4080-473: A third, successful attempt at crewed spaceflight. To achieve independent human spaceflight capability, China developed the Shenzhou spacecraft and Long March 2F rocket dedicated to human spaceflight in the next few years, along with critical infrastructures like a new launch site and flight control center being built. The first uncrewed spacecraft, Shenzhou 1 , was launched on 20 November 1999 and recovered
4250-466: A total of 14 astronauts killed. A fifth operational (and sixth in total) orbiter, Endeavour , was built in 1991 to replace Challenger . The three surviving operational vehicles were retired from service following Atlantis ' s final flight on July 21, 2011. The U.S. relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts to the ISS from the last Shuttle flight until the launch of
4420-428: A two-part drag parachute system to slow the orbiter after landing. The orbiter used retractable landing gear with a nose landing gear and two main landing gear, each containing two tires. The main landing gear contained two brake assemblies each, and the nose landing gear contained an electro-hydraulic steering mechanism. The Space Shuttle crew varied per mission. They underwent rigorous testing and training to meet
4590-514: Is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft , often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously , without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts (American or other), cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers . The first human in space
4760-452: Is cooled by 1,080 interior lines carrying liquid hydrogen and is thermally protected by insulative and ablative material. The RS-25 engines had several improvements to enhance reliability and power. During the development program, Rocketdyne determined that the engine was capable of safe reliable operation at 104% of the originally specified thrust. To keep the engine thrust values consistent with previous documentation and software, NASA kept
4930-443: Is similar to the gap between the end of Apollo in 1975 and the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981, and is referred to by a presidential Blue Ribbon Committee as the U.S. human spaceflight gap. Since the early 2000s, a variety of private spaceflight ventures have been undertaken. As of November 2024, SpaceX and Boeing have launched humans to orbit, while Blue Origin has launched 8 crewed flights, six of which crossed
5100-493: Is sometimes criticized as imperialist and lacking. In addition to the lack of international inclusion, the inclusion of women and people of color has also been lacking. To make spaceflight more inclusive, organizations such as the Justspace Alliance and IAU -featured Inclusive Astronomy have been formed in recent years. The first woman to ever enter space was Valentina Tereshkova . She flew in 1963, but it
5270-513: The Columbia disaster . Beginning with STS-114 , the orbiter vehicles were equipped with the wing leading edge impact detection system to alert the crew to any potential damage. The entire underside of the orbiter vehicle, as well as the other hottest surfaces, were protected with tiles of high-temperature reusable surface insulation, made of borosilicate glass -coated silica fibers that trapped heat in air pockets and redirected it out. Areas on
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5440-702: The Kibō Japanese Experiment Module and H-II Transfer Vehicle cargo spacecraft. As an alternative to HOPE-X, NASDA in 2001 proposed the Fuji crew capsule for independent or ISS flights, but the project did not proceed to the contracting stage. From 1993 to 1997, the Japanese Rocket Society , Kawasaki Heavy Industries , and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries worked on the proposed Kankoh-maru vertical-takeoff-and-landing single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch system. In 2005, this system
5610-471: The Rassvet module's docking port at 20:12 GMT on December 17, 2010. The docking occurred as the space station flew over western Africa at an altitude of 224 miles. In preparation for the day's docking procedure, the automated rendezvous sequence aboard Soyuz TMA-20 began at about 17:49 GMT. The spacecraft's engines were fired at 18:09 GMT, and another impulse firing occurred around 18:28 GMT. Within minutes,
5780-580: The Constellation program included plans for retiring the Space Shuttle program and replacing it with the capability for spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit. In the 2011 United States federal budget , the Obama administration canceled Constellation for being over budget and behind schedule, while not innovating and investing in critical new technologies. As part of the Artemis program , NASA is developing
5950-780: The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission in May 2020. In the late 1930s, the German government launched the " Amerikabomber " project, and Eugen Sanger 's idea, together with mathematician Irene Bredt , was a winged rocket called the Silbervogel (German for "silver bird"). During the 1950s, the United States Air Force proposed using a reusable piloted glider to perform military operations such as reconnaissance, satellite attack, and air-to-ground weapons employment. In
6120-606: The European Space Agency (ESA). Soyuz TMA-20's crew represented half of the members of Expedition 27 ; the other three members of the expedition arrived at the station on board Soyuz TMA-21 on April 6, 2011. The COSPAR ID of Soyuz TMA-20 was 2010-067A. It is ISS flight 25S. On May 24, 2011, after spending 159 days in space, the Soyuz TMA-20 descent module landed safely in Zhezkazgan , Kazakhstan, carrying Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli. The Soyuz TMA-20 crew
6290-571: The ISS , along with the Orbiter Docking System . The airlock module can be fitted in the mid-bay, or connected to it but in the payload bay. With an internal cylindrical volume of 1.60 metres (5 feet 3 inches) diameter and 2.11 metres (6 feet 11 inches) in length, it can hold two suited astronauts. It has two D-shaped hatchways 1.02 m (40 in) long (diameter), and 0.91 m (36 in) wide. The orbiter
6460-542: The Indian Human Spaceflight Program , India was planning to send humans into space on its orbital vehicle Gaganyaan before August 2022, but it has been delayed to 2024, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began work on this project in 2006. The initial objective is to carry a crew of two or three to low Earth orbit (LEO) for a 3-to-7-day flight in
6630-820: The International Space Station (ISS). On 15 October 2003, the first Chinese taikonaut, Yang Liwei , went to space as part of Shenzhou 5 , the first Chinese human spaceflight. As of March 2024, humans have not traveled beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 lunar mission in December 1972. Currently, the United States, Russia, and China are the only countries with public or commercial human spaceflight-capable programs . Non-governmental spaceflight companies have been working to develop human space programs of their own, e.g. for space tourism or commercial in-space research . The first private human spaceflight launch
6800-589: The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida . Operational missions launched numerous satellites , interplanetary probes , and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle- Mir program with Russia, and participated in the construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). The Space Shuttle fleet's total mission time
6970-456: The Kurs rendezvous equipment on both the Soyuz and the ISS was activated to support the linkup. The television camera on the nose of the Soyuz spacecraft was turned on at 19:29 GMT to provide views of the docking. After checking that there were no leaks between the two spacecraft, the hatch between Soyuz TMA-20 and the space station was opened at 23:02 GMT. A welcome ceremony to mark the arrival of
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7140-727: The Kármán line , the 100 kilometres (62 mi) altitude used by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) to denote the edge of space. In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy raised the stakes of the Space Race by setting the goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s. That same year, the US began the Apollo program of launching three-man capsules atop
7310-530: The Kármán line . Virgin Galactic has launched crew to a height above 80 km (50 mi) on a suborbital trajectory. Several other companies, including Sierra Nevada and Copenhagen Suborbitals , have developed crewed spacecraft. SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic plan to fly commercial passengers in the emerging space tourism market. SpaceX has developed Crew Dragon flying on Falcon 9 . It first launched astronauts to orbit and to
7480-455: The Lynx single-passenger spaceplane since the 2000s, but development was halted in 2017. Participation and representation of humanity in space has been an issue ever since the first phase of space exploration. Some rights of non-spacefaring countries have been secured through international space law , declaring space the " province of all mankind ", though the sharing of space by all humanity
7650-610: The Martin Marietta X-24B . The program tested aerodynamic characteristics that would later be incorporated in design of the Space Shuttle, including unpowered landing from a high altitude and speed. On September 24, 1966, as the Apollo space program neared its design completion, NASA and the Air Force released a joint study concluding that a new vehicle was required to satisfy their respective future demands and that
7820-723: The Orion spacecraft to be launched by the Space Launch System . Under the Commercial Crew Development plan, NASA relies on transportation services provided by the private sector to reach low Earth orbit, such as SpaceX Dragon 2 , the Boeing Starliner or Sierra Nevada Corporation 's Dream Chaser . The period between the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 and the first launch into space of SpaceShipTwo Flight VP-03 on 13 December 2018
7990-584: The Saturn family of launch vehicles . In 1962, the US began Project Gemini , which flew 10 missions with two-man crews launched by Titan II rockets in 1965 and 1966. Gemini's objective was to support Apollo by developing American orbital spaceflight experience and techniques to be used during the Moon mission. Meanwhile, the USSR remained silent about their intentions to send humans to the Moon and proceeded to stretch
8160-569: The Shuguang spacecraft. Nineteen PLAAF pilots were selected for this goal in March 1971. The Shuguang-1 spacecraft, to be launched with the CZ-2A rocket, was designed to carry a crew of two. The program was officially canceled on 13 May 1972 for economic reasons. In 1992, under China Manned Space Program (CMS), also known as "Project 921", authorization and funding was given for the first phase of
8330-553: The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft , a Boeing 747 that had been modified to carry the orbiter. In February 1977, Enterprise began the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) and underwent captive flights, where it remained attached to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the duration of the flight. On August 12, 1977, Enterprise conducted its first glide test, where it detached from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and landed at Edwards AFB. After four additional flights, Enterprise
8500-454: The Tianhe core module , was launched into orbit by China's most powerful rocket Long March 5B on 29 April 2021. It was later visited by multiple cargo and crewed spacecraft and demonstrated China's capability of sustaining Chinese astronauts' long-term stay in space. According to CMS announcement, all missions of Tiangong Space Station are scheduled to be carried out by the end of 2022. Once
8670-633: The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and the Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network ground stations to communicate with the orbiter throughout its orbit. Additionally, the orbiter deployed a high-bandwidth K u band radio out of the cargo bay, which could also be utilized as a rendezvous radar. The orbiter was also equipped with two UHF radios for communications with air traffic control and astronauts conducting EVA. The Space Shuttle's fly-by-wire control system
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#17327802507418840-540: The external tank (ET), and the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs). Responsibility for the Space Shuttle components was spread among multiple NASA field centers. The KSC was responsible for launch, landing, and turnaround operations for equatorial orbits (the only orbit profile actually used in the program). The U.S. Air Force at the Vandenberg Air Force Base was responsible for launch, landing, and turnaround operations for polar orbits (though this
9010-484: The qualification requirements for their roles. The crew was divided into three categories: Pilots, Mission Specialists, and Payload Specialists. Pilots were further divided into two roles: Space Shuttle Commanders and Space Shuttle Pilots. The test flights only had two members each, the commander and pilot, who were both qualified pilots that could fly and land the orbiter. The on-orbit operations, such as experiments, payload deployment, and EVAs, were conducted primarily by
9180-662: The test flight phase of their development process. One large spaceliner concept currently in early development is the SpaceX Starship , which, in addition to replacing the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles in the legacy Earth-orbit market after 2020, has been proposed by SpaceX for long-distance commercial travel on Earth, flying 100+ people suborbitally between two points in under one hour, also known as "Earth-to-Earth". Small spaceplane or small capsule suborbital spacecraft have been under development for
9350-686: The 1978 flight of Vladimir Remek. As of 2010 , citizens from 38 nations (including space tourists ) have flown in space aboard Soviet, American, Russian, and Chinese spacecraft. Human spaceflight programs have been conducted by the Soviet Union–Russian Federation, the United States, Mainland China , and by American private spaceflight companies. The following space vehicles and spaceports are currently used for launching human spaceflights: The following space stations are currently maintained in Earth orbit for human occupation: Most of
9520-553: The 2030s. The first step has begun with Artemis I in 2022, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon and returning it to Earth after a 25-day mission. SpaceX is developing Starship , a fully reusable two-stage system, with near-Earth and cislunar applications and an ultimate goal of landing on Mars. The upper stage of the Starship system, also called Starship, has had 9 atmospheric test flights as of September 2021. The first test flight of
9690-448: The 2195 aluminum-lithium alloy, which was 40% stronger and 10% less dense than its predecessor, 2219 aluminum-lithium alloy. The SLWT weighed 3,400 kg (7,500 lb) less than the LWT, which allowed the Space Shuttle to deliver heavy elements to ISS's high inclination orbit. The Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) provided 71.4% of the Space Shuttle's thrust during liftoff and ascent, and were
9860-452: The Air Force required a larger payload capacity than Faget's design allowed. In January 1971, NASA and Air Force leadership decided that a reusable delta-wing orbiter mounted on an expendable propellant tank would be the optimal design for the Space Shuttle. After they established the need for a reusable, heavy-lift spacecraft, NASA and the Air Force determined the design requirements of their respective services. The Air Force expected to use
10030-641: The Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 5, 2010, according to the Interfax news agency. Engineers spotted the damage after the spacecraft was shipped by rail from Russia to Kazakhstan . After initial inspections of the damage, Russian sources said that it was not immediately clear whether the spacecraft would have to be returned to the RKK Energia factory in Moscow. Later, Russian officials replaced
10200-473: The ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, while the main engines continued to operate, and the ET was jettisoned after main engine cutoff and just before orbit insertion , which used the orbiter's two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines. At the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to deorbit and reenter the atmosphere . The orbiter was protected during reentry by its thermal protection system tiles, and it glided as
10370-525: The IMU, INS, and TACAN systems, which first flew on STS-118 in August 2007. While in orbit, the crew primarily communicated using one of four S band radios, which provided both voice and data communications. Two of the S band radios were phase modulation transceivers , and could transmit and receive information. The other two S band radios were frequency modulation transmitters and were used to transmit data to NASA. As S band radios can operate only within their line of sight , NASA used
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#173278025074110540-419: The IMUs while in orbit. The star trackers are deployed while in orbit, and can automatically or manually align on a star. In 1991, NASA began upgrading the inertial measurement units with an inertial navigation system (INS), which provided more accurate location information. In 1993, NASA flew a GPS receiver for the first time aboard STS-51 . In 1997, Honeywell began developing an integrated GPS/INS to replace
10710-513: The ISS in May 2020 as part of the Demo-2 mission. Developed as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development program, the capsule is also available for flights with other customers. A first tourist mission, Inspiration4 , launched in September 2021. Boeing developed the Starliner capsule as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development program, which is launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle. Starliner made an uncrewed flight in December 2019. A second uncrewed flight attempt
10880-400: The ISS, Nespoli took numerous photographs and several minutes of high-definition video of the station and the then-docked Space Shuttle Endeavour , which was conducting its final mission, STS-134 . The hatch between Soyuz TMA-20's descent and habitation modules, which was closed during undocking, was re-opened for the photo shoot, and Nespoli photographed the station-shuttle complex through
11050-405: The KSC. The Space Shuttle was prepared for launch primarily in the VAB at the KSC. The SRBs were assembled and attached to the external tank on the MLP. The orbiter vehicle was prepared at the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) and transferred to the VAB, where a crane was used to rotate it to the vertical orientation and mate it to the external tank. Once the entire stack was assembled, the MLP
11220-411: The Moon, and sent Frank Borman , James Lovell , and William Anders into 10 orbits around the Moon in Apollo 8 in December 1968. In 1969, Apollo 11 accomplished Kennedy's goal by landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on 21 July and returning them safely on 24 July, along with Command Module pilot Michael Collins . Through 1972, a total of six Apollo missions landed 12 men to walk on
11390-422: The Moon, half of which drove electric powered vehicles on the surface. The crew of Apollo 13 — Jim Lovell , Jack Swigert , and Fred Haise —survived an in-flight spacecraft failure, they flew by the Moon without landing, and returned safely to Earth. During this time, the USSR secretly pursued crewed lunar orbiting and landing programs . They successfully developed the three-person Soyuz spacecraft for use in
11560-476: The RS-25 experienced multiple nozzle failures, as well as broken turbine blades. Despite the problems during testing, NASA ordered the nine RS-25 engines needed for its three orbiters under construction in May 1978. NASA experienced significant delays in the development of the Space Shuttle's thermal protection system . Previous NASA spacecraft had used ablative heat shields, but those could not be reused. NASA chose to use ceramic tiles for thermal protection, as
11730-407: The Russian Federal Space Agency, which became known as the Roscosmos State Corporation . The Shuttle-Mir Program included American Space Shuttles visiting the Mir space station, Russian cosmonauts flying on the Shuttle, and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for long-duration expeditions aboard Mir . In 1993, President Bill Clinton secured Russia's cooperation in converting
11900-505: The SRBs provided structural support for the orbiter vehicle and ET, as they were the only system that was connected to the mobile launcher platform (MLP). At the time of launch, the SRBs were armed at T−5 minutes, and could only be electrically ignited once the RS-25 engines had ignited and were without issue. They each provided 12,500 kN (2,800,000 lbf) of thrust, which was later improved to 13,300 kN (3,000,000 lbf) beginning on STS-8 . After expending their fuel,
12070-558: The SRBs were jettisoned approximately two minutes after launch at an altitude of approximately 46 km (150,000 ft). Following separation, they deployed drogue and main parachutes, landed in the ocean, and were recovered by the crews aboard the ships MV Freedom Star and MV Liberty Star . Once they were returned to Cape Canaveral, they were cleaned and disassembled. The rocket motor, igniter, and nozzle were then shipped to Thiokol to be refurbished and reused on subsequent flights. The SRBs underwent several redesigns throughout
12240-461: The Shuttle, possibly to be followed by the space station. Plans for the Shuttle were scaled back to reduce development risk, cost, and time, replacing the piloted fly-back booster with two reusable solid rocket boosters , and the smaller orbiter would use an expendable external propellant tank to feed its hydrogen-fueled main engines . The orbiter would have to make unpowered landings. In 1973,
12410-399: The Space Shuttle through ascent, orbit, and reentry, but could not support an entire mission. The five GPCs were separated in three separate bays within the mid-deck to provide redundancy in the event of a cooling fan failure. After achieving orbit, the crew would switch some of the GPCs functions from guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) to systems management (SM) and payload (PL) to support
12580-474: The Space Shuttle to launch large satellites, and required it to be capable of lifting 29,000 kg (65,000 lb) to an eastward LEO or 18,000 kg (40,000 lb) into a polar orbit . The satellite designs also required that the Space Shuttle have a 4.6 by 18 m (15 by 60 ft) payload bay. NASA evaluated the F-1 and J-2 engines from the Saturn rockets , and determined that they were insufficient for
12750-583: The Spacelab module through a 2.7 or 5.8 m (8.72 or 18.88 ft) tunnel that connected to the airlock. The Spacelab equipment was primarily stored in pallets, which provided storage for both experiments as well as computer and power equipment. Spacelab hardware was flown on 28 missions through 1999 and studied subjects including astronomy, microgravity, radar, and life sciences. Spacelab hardware also supported missions such as Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing and space station resupply. The Spacelab module
12920-641: The US launched the Skylab sortie space station and inhabited it for 171 days with three crews ferried aboard an Apollo spacecraft. During that time, President Richard Nixon and Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev were negotiating an easing of Cold War tensions known as détente . During the détente, they negotiated the Apollo–Soyuz program, in which an Apollo spacecraft carrying a special docking adapter module would rendezvous and dock with Soyuz 19 in 1975. The American and Soviet crews shook hands in space, but
13090-552: The US's reusable Space Shuttle orbiter , which they called Buran -class orbiter or simply Buran , which was designed to be launched into orbit by the expendable Energia rocket, and was capable of robotic orbital flight and landing. Unlike the Space Shuttle, Buran had no main rocket engines, but like the Space Shuttle orbiter, it used smaller rocket engines to perform its final orbital insertion. A single uncrewed orbital test flight took place in November 1988. A second test flight
13260-493: The US. China was the third nation in the world, after the USSR and US, to send humans into space. During the Space Race between the two superpowers, which culminated with Apollo 11 landing humans on the Moon, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai decided on 14 July 1967 that China should not be left behind, and initiated their own crewed space program: the top-secret Project 714, which aimed to put two people into space by 1973 with
13430-585: The aft seating location, and also controlled the data on the HUD. In 1998, Atlantis was upgraded with the Multifunction Electronic Display System (MEDS), which was a glass cockpit upgrade to the flight instruments that replaced the eight MCDS display units with 11 multifunction colored digital screens. MEDS was flown for the first time in May 2000 on STS-101 , and the other orbiter vehicles were upgraded to it. The aft section of
13600-401: The associated propellant tanks. The AJ10 engines used monomethylhydrazine (MMH) oxidized by dinitrogen tetroxide (N 2 O 4 ). The pods carried a maximum of 2,140 kg (4,718 lb) of MMH and 3,526 kg (7,773 lb) of N 2 O 4 . The OMS engines were used after main engine cut-off (MECO) for orbital insertion. Throughout the flight, they were used for orbit changes, as well as
13770-562: The built-in hold at T−9 minutes, the countdown was automatically controlled by the Ground Launch Sequencer (GLS) at the LCC, which stopped the countdown if it sensed a critical problem with any of the Space Shuttle's onboard systems. At T−3 minutes 45 seconds, the engines began conducting gimbal tests, which were concluded at T−2 minutes 15 seconds. The ground Launch Processing System handed off
13940-509: The bulk of the ET, and was 29 m (96.7 ft) tall. The orbiter vehicle was attached to the ET at two umbilical plates, which contained five propellant and two electrical umbilicals, and forward and aft structural attachments. The exterior of the ET was covered in orange spray-on foam to allow it to survive the heat of ascent. The ET provided propellant to the Space Shuttle Main Engines from liftoff until main engine cutoff. The ET separated from
14110-715: The construction is completed, Tiangong will enter the application and development phase, which is poised to last for no less than 10 years. The European Space Agency began development of the Hermes shuttle spaceplane in 1987, to be launched on the Ariane 5 expendable launch vehicle. It was intended to dock with the European Columbus space station . The projects were canceled in 1992 when it became clear that neither cost nor performance goals could be achieved. No Hermes shuttles were ever built. The Columbus space station
14280-459: The construction of which took place from 1986 to 1996. Mir orbited at an altitude of 354 kilometers (191 nautical miles), at an orbital inclination of 51.6°. It was occupied for 4,592 days and made a controlled reentry in 2001. The Space Shuttle started flying in 1981, but the US Congress failed to approve sufficient funds to make Space Station Freedom a reality. A fleet of four shuttles
14450-494: The contract to build the orbiter to North American Rockwell. In August 1973, the external tank contract to Martin Marietta , and in November the solid-rocket booster contract to Morton Thiokol . On June 4, 1974, Rockwell began construction on the first orbiter, OV-101, dubbed Constitution, later to be renamed Enterprise . Enterprise was designed as a test vehicle, and did not include engines or heat shielding. Construction
14620-477: The control to the orbiter vehicle's GPCs at T−31 seconds. At T−16 seconds, the GPCs armed the SRBs, the sound suppression system (SPS) began to drench the MLP and SRB trenches with 1,100,000 L (300,000 U.S. gal) of water to protect the orbiter vehicle from damage by acoustical energy and rocket exhaust reflected from the flame trench and MLP during lift-off. At T−10 seconds, hydrogen igniters were activated under each engine bell to quell
14790-492: The controls, undocked from the Rassvet module at 21:35 UTC on May 23, 2011. The ISS was flying above eastern China at the time separated. Kondratyev occupied the center seat, with NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman to his right, and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli to his left. Kondratyev backed the spacecraft away from the ISS by about 600 feet and paused to give Nespoli a photo opportunity. Starting about 15 minutes after undocking, holding station at that vantage point directly behind
14960-407: The crew inside, reached the first traces of the Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 62 miles at 02:03 UTC. The re-entry was conducted without any significant problems. In stark contrast to the frigid cold temperatures prevailed on the previous Soyuz TMA-01M landing day, the weather this time was sunny and warm. Soyuz TMA-20's large parachute and smaller drogue chute inflated as planned, and
15130-485: The damaged descent module with a new one, flown to Baikonur aboard a cargo plane. The replacement module was originally part of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft. Despite the transportation damage, RKK Energia president Vitaly Lopota told news media that the mission would take place in December as planned. Roscosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyov also told Interfax that the December launch date would not be affected, because
15300-431: The decades, a number of spacecraft have been proposed for spaceliner passenger travel. Somewhat analogous to travel by airliner after the middle of the 20th century, these vehicles are proposed to transport large numbers of passengers to destinations in space, or on Earth via suborbital spaceflights . To date, none of these concepts have been built, although a few vehicles that carry fewer than 10 persons are currently in
15470-517: The delivery of nuclear weapons , producing rockets large enough to be adapted to carry the first artificial satellites into low Earth orbit . After the first satellites were launched in 1957 and 1958 by the Soviet Union, the US began work on Project Mercury , with the aim of launching men into orbit. The USSR was secretly pursuing the Vostok program to accomplish the same thing, and launched
15640-421: The deorbit burn prior to reentry. Each OMS engine produced 27,080 N (6,087 lbf) of thrust, and the entire system could provide 305 m/s (1,000 ft/s) of velocity change . The orbiter was protected from heat during reentry by the thermal protection system (TPS), a thermal soaking protective layer around the orbiter. In contrast with previous US spacecraft, which had used ablative heat shields,
15810-465: The development of a space shuttle to bring people and cargo to low Earth orbit (LEO), as well as a space tug for transfers between orbits and the Moon, and a reusable nuclear upper stage for deep space travel. After the release of the Space Shuttle Task Group report, many aerospace engineers favored the Class III, fully reusable design because of perceived savings in hardware costs. Max Faget ,
15980-567: The ease of refurbishing them for reuse after they landed in the ocean. In January 1972, President Richard Nixon approved the Shuttle, and NASA decided on its final design in March. The development of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) remained the responsibility of Rocketdyne, and the contract was issued in July 1971, and updated SSME specifications were submitted to Rocketdyne in that April. That August, NASA awarded
16150-492: The effects of aerodynamic and thermal stresses during launch and reentry. The beginning of the development of the RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine was delayed for nine months while Pratt & Whitney challenged the contract that had been issued to Rocketdyne. The first engine was completed in March 1975, after issues with developing the first throttleable, reusable engine. During engine testing,
16320-512: The engines during powered flight and fly the orbiter during unpowered flight. Both seats also had rudder controls, to allow rudder movement in flight and nose-wheel steering on the ground. The orbiter vehicles were originally installed with the Multifunction CRT Display System (MCDS) to display and control flight information. The MCDS displayed the flight information at the commander and pilot seats, as well as at
16490-605: The feasibility of reusable boosters. This became the basis for the aerospaceplane , a fully reusable spacecraft that was never developed beyond the initial design phase in 1962–1963. Beginning in the early 1950s, NASA and the Air Force collaborated on developing lifting bodies to test aircraft that primarily generated lift from their fuselages instead of wings, and tested the NASA M2-F1 , Northrop M2-F2 , Northrop M2-F3 , Northrop HL-10 , Martin Marietta X-24A , and
16660-672: The final decision to scrub a launch was announced. In addition to the weather at the launch site, conditions had to be acceptable at one of the Transatlantic Abort Landing sites and the SRB recovery area. The mission crew and the Launch Control Center (LCC) personnel completed systems checks throughout the countdown. Two built-in holds at T−20 minutes and T−9 minutes provided scheduled breaks to address any issues and additional preparation. After
16830-502: The first American in orbit, aboard Friendship 7 on a Mercury-Atlas rocket . The USSR launched five more cosmonauts in Vostok capsules , including the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova , aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. Through 1963, the US launched a total of two astronauts in suborbital flights and four into orbit. The US also made two North American X-15 flights ( 90 and 91 , piloted by Joseph A. Walker ), that exceeded
17000-532: The first four Shuttle missions, astronauts wore modified U.S. Air Force high-altitude full-pressure suits, which included a full-pressure helmet during ascent and descent. From the fifth flight, STS-5 , until the loss of Challenger , the crew wore one-piece light blue nomex flight suits and partial-pressure helmets. After the Challenger disaster, the crew members wore the Launch Entry Suit (LES),
17170-430: The first human into space, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin . On 12 April 1961, Gagarin was launched aboard Vostok 1 on a Vostok 3KA rocket and completed a single orbit. On 5 May 1961, the US launched its first astronaut , Alan Shepard , on a suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7 on a Mercury-Redstone rocket . Unlike Gagarin, Shepard manually controlled his spacecraft's attitude . On 20 February 1962, John Glenn became
17340-429: The first manual rendezvous and docking with Shenzhou 9 , which carried China's first female astronaut Liu Yang . In September 2016, Tiangong 2 was launched into orbit. It was a space laboratory with more advanced functions and equipment than Tiangong 1 . A month later, Shenzhou 11 was launched and docked with Tiangong 2 . Two astronauts entered Tiangong 2 and were stationed for about 30 days, verifying
17510-415: The first spacewalk, but overcame the early Soviet lead by performing several spacewalks, solving the problem of astronaut fatigue caused by compensating for the lack of gravity, demonstrating the ability of humans to endure two weeks in space, and performing the first space rendezvous and docking of spacecraft. The US succeeded in developing the Saturn V rocket necessary to send the Apollo spacecraft to
17680-481: The first time NASA performed a crewed first-flight of a spacecraft. On April 12, 1981, the Space Shuttle launched for the first time, and was piloted by John Young and Robert Crippen . During the two-day mission, Young and Crippen tested equipment on board the shuttle, and found several of the ceramic tiles had fallen off the top side of the Columbia . NASA coordinated with the Air Force to use satellites to image
17850-584: The first woman to enter space through the United States program.Since then, eleven other countries have allowed women astronauts. The first all-female spacewalk occurred in 2018, by Christina Koch and Jessica Meir . These two women had both participated in separate spacewalks with NASA. The first mission to the Moon with a woman aboard is planned for 2024. Despite these developments, women are still underrepresented among astronauts and especially cosmonauts. More than 600 people have flown in space but only 75 have been women. Issues that block potential applicants from
18020-635: The flight deck contained windows looking into the payload bay, as well as an RHC to control the Remote Manipulator System during cargo operations. Additionally, the aft flight deck had monitors for a closed-circuit television to view the cargo bay. The mid-deck contained the crew equipment storage, sleeping area, galley, medical equipment, and hygiene stations for the crew. The crew used modular lockers to store equipment that could be scaled depending on their needs, as well as permanently installed floor compartments. The mid-deck contained
18190-502: The forward separation motors and the parachute systems that were used during recovery. The rocket nozzles could gimbal up to 8° to allow for in-flight adjustments. The rocket motors were each filled with a total 500,000 kg (1,106,640 lb) of solid rocket propellant ( APCP + PBAN ), and joined in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC. In addition to providing thrust during the first stage of launch,
18360-532: The fully integrated two-stage system occurred in April 2023. A modified version of Starship is being developed for the Artemis program . Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program . Its official program name
18530-402: The inner leading edge and 45° at the outer leading edge. Each wing had an inboard and outboard elevon to provide flight control during reentry, along with a flap located between the wings, below the engines to control pitch . The orbiter's vertical stabilizer was swept backwards at 45° and contained a rudder that could split to act as a speed brake . The vertical stabilizer also contained
18700-504: The largest solid-propellant motors ever flown. Each SRB was 45 m (149.2 ft) tall and 3.7 m (12.2 ft) wide, weighed 68,000 kg (150,000 lb), and had a steel exterior approximately 13 mm (.5 in) thick. The SRB's subcomponents were the solid-propellant motor, nose cone, and rocket nozzle. The solid-propellant motor comprised the majority of the SRB's structure. Its casing consisted of 11 steel sections which made up its four main segments. The nose cone housed
18870-519: The late 1950s, the Air Force began developing the partially reusable X-20 Dyna-Soar . The Air Force collaborated with NASA on the Dyna-Soar and began training six pilots in June 1961. The rising costs of development and the prioritization of Project Gemini led to the cancellation of the Dyna-Soar program in December 1963. In addition to the Dyna-Soar, the Air Force had conducted a study in 1957 to test
19040-543: The launch pad, the Space Shuttle was used to verify the proper positioning of the launch complex hardware. Enterprise was taken back to California in August 1979, and later served in the development of the SLC-6 at Vandenberg AFB in 1984. On November 24, 1980, Columbia was mated with its external tank and solid-rocket boosters, and was moved to LC-39 on December 29. The first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1 , would be
19210-456: The left of Kondratyev's, the descent-habitation module hatch was sealed, and the Soyuz spacecraft performed a separation burn at 22:15 UTC to increase its distance from the ISS. Flying over the southern Atlantic Ocean, the Soyuz executed its deorbit burn at 01:36 UTC on May 24. The deorbit burn was a four-minute, 16-second firing. The descent, habitation and propulsion modules making up the spacecraft separated at 02:01 UTC. The descent module, with
19380-490: The limits of their single-pilot Vostok capsule by adapting it to a two or three-person Voskhod capsule to compete with Gemini. They were able to launch two orbital flights in 1964 and 1965 and achieved the first spacewalk , performed by Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2 , on 8 March 1965. However, the Voskhod did not have Gemini's capability to maneuver in orbit, and the program was terminated. The US Gemini flights did not achieve
19550-483: The lunar programs, but failed to develop the N1 rocket necessary for a human landing, and discontinued their lunar programs in 1974. Upon losing the Moon race they concentrated on the development of space stations , using the Soyuz as a ferry to take cosmonauts to and from the stations. They started with a series of Salyut sortie stations from 1971 to 1986. In 1969, Nixon appointed his vice president, Spiro Agnew , to head
19720-437: The mission specialists who were specifically trained for their intended missions and systems. Early in the Space Shuttle program, NASA flew with payload specialists, who were typically systems specialists who worked for the company paying for the payload's deployment or operations. The final payload specialist, Gregory B. Jarvis , flew on STS-51-L , and future non-pilots were designated as mission specialists. An astronaut flew as
19890-443: The new crew was held shortly after the new crew came on board, when the live television downlink communications session started. This was a textbook entry for Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman. "All of the functions of the Soyuz TMA-20 were by the book, no issues reported. – NASA MCC Commentator Rob Navias After spending 157 days docked to the ISS, the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft, with Russian cosmonaut Dmitri Kondratyev at
20060-407: The next day, marking the first step of the realization of China's human spaceflight capability. Three more uncrewed missions were conducted in the next few years in order to verify the key technologies. On 15 October 2003 Shenzhou 5 , China's first crewed spaceflight mission, put Yang Liwei in orbit for 21 hours and returned safely back to Inner Mongolia , making China the third nation to launch
20230-434: The operational mission. The Space Shuttle was not launched if its flight would run from December to January, as its flight software would have required the orbiter vehicle's computers to be reset at the year change. In 2007, NASA engineers devised a solution so Space Shuttle flights could cross the year-end boundary. Space Shuttle missions typically brought a portable general support computer (PGSC) that could integrate with
20400-424: The optimal design for a reusable spacecraft, and issued study contracts to General Dynamics , Lockheed , McDonnell Douglas , and North American Rockwell . In July 1969, the Space Shuttle Task Group issued a report that determined the Shuttle would support short-duration crewed missions and space station, as well as the capabilities to launch, service, and retrieve satellites. The report also created three classes of
20570-436: The orange foam itself was sufficiently protected, and the ET was no longer covered in latex paint beginning on STS-3. A light-weight tank (LWT) was first flown on STS-6, which reduced tank weight by 4,700 kg (10,300 lb). The LWT's weight was reduced by removing components from the hydrogen tank and reducing the thickness of some skin panels. In 1998, a super light-weight ET (SLWT) first flew on STS-91 . The SLWT used
20740-437: The orbiter vehicle 18 seconds after engine cutoff and could be triggered automatically or manually. At the time of separation, the orbiter vehicle retracted its umbilical plates, and the umbilical cords were sealed to prevent excess propellant from venting into the orbiter vehicle. After the bolts attached at the structural attachments were sheared, the ET separated from the orbiter vehicle. At the time of separation, gaseous oxygen
20910-467: The orbiter vehicle and would be removed and replaced in between flights. The RS-25 is a staged-combustion cycle cryogenic engine that used liquid oxygen and hydrogen and had a higher chamber pressure than any previous liquid-fueled rocket. The original main combustion chamber operated at a maximum pressure of 226.5 bar (3,285 psi). The engine nozzle is 287 cm (113 in) tall and has an interior diameter of 229 cm (90.3 in). The nozzle
21080-510: The orbiter vehicle's computers and communication suite, as well as monitor scientific and payload data. Early missions brought the Grid Compass , one of the first laptop computers, as the PGSC, but later missions brought Apple and Intel laptops. The payload bay comprised most of the orbiter vehicle's fuselage , and provided the cargo-carrying space for the Space Shuttle's payloads. It
21250-549: The orbiter vehicle's heat, and were opened upon reaching orbit for heat rejection. The orbiter could be used in conjunction with a variety of add-on components depending on the mission. This included orbital laboratories, boosters for launching payloads farther into space, the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), and optionally the EDO pallet to extend the mission duration. To limit the fuel consumption while
21420-528: The orbiter was docked at the ISS, the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) was developed to convert and transfer station power to the orbiter. The SSPTS was first used on STS-118, and was installed on Discovery and Endeavour . The Remote Manipulator System (RMS), also known as Canadarm, was a mechanical arm attached to the cargo bay. It could be used to grasp and manipulate payloads, as well as serve as
21590-601: The originally specified thrust at 100%, but had the RS-25 operate at higher thrust. RS-25 upgrade versions were denoted as Block I and Block II. 109% thrust level was achieved with the Block II engines in 2001, which reduced the chamber pressure to 207.5 bars (3,010 psi), as it had a larger throat area. The normal maximum throttle was 104 percent, with 106% or 109% used for mission aborts. The Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) consisted of two aft-mounted AJ10-190 engines and
21760-532: The past decade or so; as of 2017 , at least one of each type is under development. Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have craft in active development : the SpaceShipTwo spaceplane and the New Shepard capsule, respectively. Both would carry approximately a half-dozen passengers up to space for a brief time of zero gravity before returning to the launch location. XCOR Aerospace had been developing
21930-506: The planned Space Station Freedom into the International Space Station (ISS). Construction of the station began in 1998. The station orbits at an altitude of 409 kilometers (221 nmi) and an orbital inclination of 51.65°. Several of the Space Shuttle's 135 orbital flights were to help assemble, supply, and crew the ISS. Russia has built half of the International Space Station and has continued its cooperation with
22100-405: The program's lifetime. STS-6 and STS-7 used SRBs 2,300 kg (5,000 lb) lighter due to walls that were 0.10 mm (.004 in) thinner, but were determined to be too thin to fly safely. Subsequent flights until STS-26 used cases that were 0.076 mm (.003 in) thinner than the standard-weight cases, which reduced 1,800 kg (4,000 lb). After the Challenger disaster as
22270-438: The programs, and limit the space missions they are able to go on, are, for example: Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, in 1983. Eileen Collins was the first female Shuttle pilot, and with Shuttle mission STS-93 in 1999 she became the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft. For many years, the USSR (later Russia) and the United States were the only countries whose astronauts flew in space. That ended with
22440-400: The propellant for the Space Shuttle Main Engines, and connected the orbiter vehicle with the solid rocket boosters. The ET was 47 m (153.8 ft) tall and 8.4 m (27.6 ft) in diameter, and contained separate tanks for liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The liquid oxygen tank was housed in the nose of the ET, and was 15 m (49.3 ft) tall. The liquid hydrogen tank comprised
22610-429: The purpose of the flight was purely symbolic. The two nations continued to compete rather than cooperate in space, as the US turned to developing the Space Shuttle and planning the space station, which was dubbed Freedom . The USSR launched three Almaz military sortie stations from 1973 to 1977, disguised as Salyuts. They followed Salyut with the development of Mir , the first modular, semi-permanent space station,
22780-465: The requirements of the Space Shuttle; in July 1971, it issued a contract to Rocketdyne to begin development on the RS-25 engine. NASA reviewed 29 potential designs for the Space Shuttle and determined that a design with two side boosters should be used, and the boosters should be reusable to reduce costs. NASA and the Air Force elected to use solid-propellant boosters because of the lower costs and
22950-685: The reusability of the orbiter required a multi-use heat shield. During reentry, the TPS experienced temperatures up to 1,600 °C (3,000 °F), but had to keep the orbiter vehicle's aluminum skin temperature below 180 °C (350 °F). The TPS primarily consisted of four types of tiles. The nose cone and leading edges of the wings experienced temperatures above 1,300 °C (2,300 °F), and were protected by reinforced carbon-carbon tiles (RCC). Thicker RCC tiles were developed and installed in 1998 to prevent damage from micrometeoroid and orbital debris , and were further improved after RCC damage caused in
23120-529: The shuttle could then be constructed of lightweight aluminum , and the tiles could be individually replaced as needed. Construction began on Columbia on March 27, 1975, and it was delivered to the KSC on March 25, 1979. At the time of its arrival at the KSC, Columbia still had 6,000 of its 30,000 tiles remaining to be installed. However, many of the tiles that had been originally installed had to be replaced, requiring two years of installation before Columbia could fly. On January 5, 1979, NASA commissioned
23290-513: The spacecraft descended towards its landing zone near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. The safe landing of the descent module was supervised by Russian Search and Recovery forces on board three Antonov 12 and Antonov 26 planes, 14 Mi-8 helicopters and seven search and recovery vehicles, deployed in the landing zone. The final moments of the touchdown were recorded by NASA TV , with live landing footage and commentary. The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft landed safely upright at 02:27 UTC on May 24, 2011, after
23460-470: The time, the only humans in space are those aboard the ISS, which generally has a crew of 7, and those aboard Tiangong, which generally has a crew of 3. NASA and ESA use the term "human spaceflight" to refer to their programs of launching people into space. These endeavors have also formerly been referred to as "manned space missions", though this is no longer official parlance according to NASA style guides, which call for gender-neutral language . Under
23630-418: The underside of Columbia , and determined there was no damage. Columbia reentered the atmosphere and landed at Edwards AFB on April 14. NASA conducted three additional test flights with Columbia in 1981 and 1982. On July 4, 1982, STS-4 , flown by Ken Mattingly and Henry Hartsfield , landed on a concrete runway at Edwards AFB. President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy met the crew, and delivered
23800-467: The upper parts of the orbiter vehicle were coated in tiles of white low-temperature reusable surface insulation with similar composition, which provided protection for temperatures below 650 °C (1,200 °F). The payload bay doors and parts of the upper wing surfaces were coated in reusable Nomex felt surface insulation or in beta cloth , as the temperature there remained below 370 °C (700 °F). The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) carried
23970-420: The viability of astronauts' medium-term stay in space. In April 2017, China's first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou 1 docked with Tiangong 2 and completed multiple in-orbit propellant refueling tests, which marked the successful completion of the second phase of CMS. The third phase of CMS began in 2020. The goal of this phase is to build China's own space station, Tiangong . The first module of Tiangong ,
24140-444: Was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , who launched as part of the Soviet Union's Vostok program on 12 April 1961 at the beginning of the Space Race . On 5 May 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, as part of Project Mercury . Humans traveled to the Moon nine times between 1968 and 1972 as part of the United States' Apollo program , and have had a continuous presence in space for 24 years and 26 days on
24310-457: Was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from the 1969 plan led by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. The first ( STS-1 ) of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights ( STS-5 ) beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. They launched from
24480-519: Was 1,323 days. Space Shuttle components include the Orbiter Vehicle (OV) with three clustered Rocketdyne RS-25 main engines, a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and the expendable external tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen . The Space Shuttle was launched vertically , like a conventional rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the orbiter's three main engines , which were fueled from
24650-462: Was 18 m (60 ft) long and 4.6 m (15 ft) wide, and could accommodate cylindrical payloads up to 4.6 m (15 ft) in diameter. Two payload bay doors hinged on either side of the bay, and provided a relatively airtight seal to protect payloads from heating during launch and reentry. Payloads were secured in the payload bay to the attachment points on the longerons . The payload bay doors served an additional function as radiators for
24820-499: Was Space Shuttle-specific software that provided control through all phases of flight. During ascent, maneuvering, reentry, and landing, the four PASS GPCs functioned identically to produce quadruple redundancy and would error check their results. In case of a software error that would cause erroneous reports from the four PASS GPCs, a fifth GPC ran the Backup Flight System, which used a different program and could control
24990-468: Was a suborbital flight on SpaceShipOne on June 21, 2004. The first commercial orbital crew launch was by SpaceX in May 2020, transporting NASA astronauts to the ISS under United States government contract. Human spaceflight capability was first developed during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). These nations developed intercontinental ballistic missiles for
25160-641: Was a modified airport jet bridge that was used to assist astronauts to egress from the orbiter after landing, where they would undergo their post-mission medical checkups. The Astrovan transported astronauts from the crew quarters in the Operations and Checkout Building to the launch pad on launch day. The NASA Railroad comprised three locomotives that transported SRB segments from the Florida East Coast Railway in Titusville to
25330-417: Was built: Columbia , Challenger , Discovery , and Atlantis . A fifth shuttle, Endeavour , was built to replace Challenger , which was destroyed in an accident during launch that killed 7 astronauts on 28 January 1986. From 1983 to 1998, twenty-two Shuttle flights carried components for a European Space Agency sortie space station called Spacelab in the Shuttle payload bay. The USSR copied
25500-466: Was carried for 5.6 km (3.5 mi) to Launch Complex 39 by one of the crawler-transporters . After the Space Shuttle arrived at one of the two launchpads, it would connect to the Fixed and Rotation Service Structures, which provided servicing capabilities, payload insertion, and crew transportation. The crew was transported to the launch pad at T−3 hours and entered the orbiter vehicle, which
25670-565: Was closed at T−2 hours. Liquid oxygen and hydrogen were loaded into the external tank via umbilicals that attached to the orbiter vehicle, which began at T−5 hours 35 minutes. At T−3 hours 45 minutes, the hydrogen fast-fill was complete, followed 15 minutes later by the oxygen tank fill. Both tanks were slowly filled up until the launch as the oxygen and hydrogen evaporated. The launch commit criteria considered precipitation, temperatures, cloud cover, lightning forecast, wind, and humidity. The Space Shuttle
25840-686: Was completed on September 17, 1976, and Enterprise was moved to the Edwards Air Force Base to begin testing. Rockwell constructed the Main Propulsion Test Article (MPTA)-098 , which was a structural truss mounted to the ET with three RS-25 engines attached. It was tested at the National Space Technology Laboratory (NSTL) to ensure that the engines could safely run through the launch profile. Rockwell conducted mechanical and thermal stress tests on Structural Test Article (STA)-099 to determine
26010-455: Was confirmed by NASA on November 21, 2008. European astronaut Paolo Nespoli was believed to have been the tallest crew member to date ever to fly aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, with a height of 188 centimeters (6 ft 2in). According to the president of Energia , Vitaly Lopota, a custom-built seat and related hardware had to be manufactured to accommodate Nespoli's height. The Soyuz spacecraft suffered damage to its container during transport to
26180-551: Was entirely reliant on its main computer, the Data Processing System (DPS). The DPS controlled the flight controls and thrusters on the orbiter, as well as the ET and SRBs during launch. The DPS consisted of five general-purpose computers (GPC), two magnetic tape mass memory units (MMUs), and the associated sensors to monitor the Space Shuttle components. The original GPC used was the IBM AP-101B , which used
26350-657: Was equipped with an avionics system to provide information and control during atmospheric flight. Its avionics suite contained three microwave scanning beam landing systems , three gyroscopes , three TACANs , three accelerometers , two radar altimeters , two barometric altimeters , three attitude indicators , two Mach indicators , and two Mode C transponders . During reentry, the crew deployed two air data probes once they were traveling slower than Mach 5. The orbiter had three inertial measuring units (IMU) that it used for guidance and navigation during all phases of flight. The orbiter contains two star trackers to align
26520-653: Was first flown in 1975, and was used for the ALT and ferrying the orbiter from Edwards AFB to the KSC on all missions prior to 1991. A second SCA (N911NA) was acquired in 1988, and was first used to transport Endeavour from the factory to the KSC. Following the retirement of the Space Shuttle, N905NA was put on display at the JSC, and N911NA was put on display at the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark in Palmdale, California . The Crew Transport Vehicle (CTV)
26690-403: Was later improved to 270,000 kg (586,000 lb). The Spacelab module was a European-funded pressurized laboratory that was carried within the payload bay and allowed for scientific research while in orbit. The Spacelab module contained two 2.7 m (9 ft) segments that were mounted in the aft end of the payload bay to maintain the center of gravity during flight. Astronauts entered
26860-669: Was launched in May 2022. A crewed flight to fully certify Starliner was launched in June 2024. Similar to SpaceX, development funding has been provided by a mix of government and private funds. Virgin Galactic is developing SpaceshipTwo , a commercial suborbital spacecraft aimed at the space tourism market. It reached space in December 2018. Blue Origin is in a multi-year test program of their New Shepard vehicle and has carried out 16 uncrewed test flights as of September 2021, and one crewed flight carrying founder Jeff Bezos , his brother Mark Bezos , aviator Wally Funk , and 18-year old Oliver Daemen on July 20, 2021. Over
27030-406: Was located below the flight deck and was where the galley and crew bunks were set up, as well as three or four crew member seats. The mid-deck contained the airlock, which could support two astronauts on an extravehicular activity (EVA), as well as access to pressurized research modules. An equipment bay was below the mid-deck, which stored environmental control and waste management systems. On
27200-617: Was moved to the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) on March 13, 1978. Enterprise underwent shake tests in the Mated Vertical Ground Vibration Test, where it was attached to an external tank and solid rocket boosters, and underwent vibrations to simulate the stresses of launch. In April 1979, Enterprise was taken to the KSC, where it was attached to an external tank and solid rocket boosters, and moved to LC-39 . Once installed at
27370-602: Was never used). The Johnson Space Center (JSC) served as the central point for all Shuttle operations and the MSFC was responsible for the main engines, external tank, and solid rocket boosters. The John C. Stennis Space Center handled main engine testing, and the Goddard Space Flight Center managed the global tracking network. The orbiter had design elements and capabilities of both a rocket and an aircraft to allow it to launch vertically and then land as
27540-422: Was not launched under conditions where it could have been struck by lightning , as its exhaust plume could have triggered lightning by providing a current path to ground after launch, which occurred on Apollo 12 . The NASA Anvil Rule for a Shuttle launch stated that an anvil cloud could not appear within a distance of 19 km (10 nmi). The Shuttle Launch Weather Officer monitored conditions until
27710-487: Was not until the 1980s that another woman entered space. At the time, all astronauts were required to be military test pilots; women were not able to enter this career, which is one reason for the delay in allowing women to join space crews. After the rules were changed, Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to enter space; she was also from the Soviet Union . Sally Ride became the next woman to enter space and
27880-516: Was planned by 1993, but the program was canceled due to lack of funding and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Two more orbiters were never completed, and the one that performed the uncrewed flight was destroyed in a hangar roof collapse in May 2002. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought an end to the Cold War and opened the door to true cooperation between the US and Russia. The Soviet Soyuz and Mir programs were taken over by
28050-643: Was proposed for space tourism. According to a press release from the Iraqi News Agency dated 5 December 1989, there was only one test of the Al-Abid space launcher, which Iraq intended to use to develop its own crewed space facilities by the end of the century. These plans were put to an end by the Gulf War of 1991 and the economic hardships that followed. Under the George W. Bush administration,
28220-533: Was reconfigured as the European module of the same name on the International Space Station. Japan ( NASDA ) began the development of the HOPE-X experimental shuttle spaceplane in the 1980s, to be launched on its H-IIA expendable launch vehicle. A string of failures in 1998 led to funding reductions, and the project's cancellation in 2003 in favor of participation in the International Space Station program through
28390-688: Was suffering from a minor health issue with his vestibular system . The crew was flown from the landing site to Karaganda to undergo medical checks. In Karaganda, Coleman and Nespoli boarded a waiting NASA Gulfstream jet for a flight back to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston . Kontratyev was flown on a GCTC Tu-134 back to Chkalovsky airfield of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Zvezdny Gorodok . Human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight )
28560-418: Was tested on STS-2 and STS-3, and the first full mission was on STS-9. Three RS-25 engines, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), were mounted on the orbiter's aft fuselage in a triangular pattern. The engine nozzles could gimbal ±10.5° in pitch, and ±8.5° in yaw during ascent to change the direction of their thrust to steer the Shuttle. The titanium alloy reusable engines were independent of
28730-444: Was the top level of the crew compartment and contained the flight controls for the orbiter. The commander sat in the front left seat, and the pilot sat in the front right seat, with two to four additional seats set up for additional crew members. The instrument panels contained over 2,100 displays and controls, and the commander and pilot were both equipped with a heads-up display (HUD) and a Rotational Hand Controller (RHC) to gimbal
28900-551: Was vented from the nose to cause the ET to tumble, ensuring that it would break up upon reentry. The ET was the only major component of the Space Shuttle system that was not reused, and it would travel along a ballistic trajectory into the Indian or Pacific Ocean. For the first two missions, STS-1 and STS-2 , the ET was covered in 270 kg (595 lb) of white fire-retardant latex paint to provide protection against damage from ultraviolet radiation. Further research determined that
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