The Space Shuttle, as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) describes, represented an “entirely new generation of space vehicle,” the world’s first reusable spacecraft, which were “launched like a rocket, maneuvered in Earth’s orbit like a spacecraft and landed like an airplane.”
There are about three Space Shuttle orbiters currently in operation – Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, which are all designed to fly at least 100 missions, NASA stated on its website.
As India takes a step ahead in its space program, with Shubhanshu Shukla heading to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Axiom-4 mission this week, we take a look at the top five biggest space shuttles operated from all corners of the world:
Orbiter Enterprise
An early Space Shuttle Orbiter, the Enterprise, never flew in space but was “used for approach and landing tests at the Dryden Flight Research Center and several launch pad studies in the late 1970s,” according to the website.
Orbiter Columbia
America’s first reusable Space Shuttle, Columbia was launched for the first time with NASA astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen aboard on April 12, 1981. The space shuttle continued the heritage of intrepid exploration, becoming one of groundbreaking scientific research and notable “firsts” in space flight, as per NASA.
Commander John Young even called the flight “something just short of a miracle.”
It was delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in March 1979. One of its crowning moments remain the deployment of the gleaming Chandra X-ray Observatory in July 1999, which specialized in viewing deep space objects and finding the answers to astronomy’s most fundamental questions.
Story continues below this ad
However, it had some limitations. The heaviest of NASA’s orbiters, Columbia weighed too much and lacked the necessary equipment to assist with the assembly of the ISS.
Moreover, Columbia and its crew were tragically lost during STS-107 in 2003 after a small portion of foam broke away from the external fuel tank and hit the orbiter’s left wing, NASA noted. The consequential damage created a hole in the wing’s leading edge, causing the vehicle to break apart during re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.
Orbiter Challenger
Next in line is the Orbiter Challenger, which was built to serve as a test vehicle for the Space Shuttle program.
Being the second orbiter to join NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet, OV-099 arrived at NASA’s KSC in Florida in July 1982, bearing the name “Challenger.” Launched on her maiden voyage on April 4, 1983, Challenger saw the deployment of the first satellite in the Tracking and Data Relay System constellation, besides other scientific experiments and satellite deployments.
Story continues below this ad
Challenger’s service to America’s space program ended in tragedy on January 28, 1986 when just 73 seconds into the mission STS 51-L, a booster failure caused an explosion that resulted in the loss of seven astronauts, as well as the vehicle, the official website of NASA noted.
Orbiter Discovery
Discovery (OV-103) was NASA’s third space shuttle orbiter to join the fleet, arriving for the first time at the KSC in Florida in November 1983.
Since its inaugural flight in 1984, Discovery has completed more than 30 successful missions, surpassing the number of flights made by any other orbiter in NASA’s fleet. It has carried “satellites aloft, ferried modules and crew to the International Space Station, and provided the setting for countless scientific experiments,” as the NASA states.
This Orbiter clearly benefited from the lessons learned during the construction and testing of Enterprise, Columbia and Challenger, such that at rollout, its weight was about 6,870 pounds less than Columbia.
Orbiter Atlantis
Story continues below this ad
Another Orbiter which learnt its lessons from Enterprise, Columbia and Challenger was the Atlantis (OV-104), whose construction was completed in about half the time in man-hours spent on Columbia. Nearly 3.5 tons lighter than Columbia, the orbiter arrived at NASA’s KSC on April 9, 1985, NASA mentioned.
Atlantis served as the on-orbit launch site for various noteworthy spacecraft, including planetary probes Magellan and Galileo, as well as pioneered the Shuttle-Mir missions, flying the first seven missions to dock with the Russian space station, NASA highlighted.
It has also delivered several vital components to the ISS in the recent years.
Orbiter Endeavour
Authorized as a replacement for the Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger, Endeavour (OV-105) arrived at the KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility on May 7, 1991.
Story continues below this ad
One of the space shuttle’s primary assignments was to capture INTELSAT VI, an orbiting, but non-functioning, communications satellite, and replace its rocket motor. After numerous attempts, the satellite was finally captured for repair. “An unprecedented three-person spacewalk took place after the procedure was evaluated by the astronauts and ground team,” NASA states.
The crew onboard also conducted medical tests assessing the human body’s performance in microgravity.
It was the first time when four spacewalks were conducted on a Space Shuttle mission, with one of them being the longest in space history, lasting more than eight hours.
NASA underlines, “OV-105 became the first Space Shuttle orbiter to use a drag chute during a landing — only one of many technical improvements made to Endeavour.”
