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 as part of... Wikipedia

• Function:  Crewed orbital launch and reentry
• Manufacturer:  United Space Alliance, Thiokol/Alliant Techsystems (SRBs), Lockheed Martin/Martin Marietta (ET), Boeing/Rockwell (orbiter)
• Country of origin:  United States
• Project cost:  US$211 billion (2012)
• Cost per launch:  US$450 million (2011)
• Height:  17.4 m (57.09 ft)
• Diameter:  8.7 m (28.54 ft)
• Mass:  2,030,000 kg (4,475,383.92 lb)
• Stages:  1½:126, 140
• Status:  Retired
• Launch sites:  Kennedy, LC-39A & LC‑39B, Vandenberg, SLC-6 (unused)
• Total launches:  135
• Successes:  133
• Failures:  2, Challenger (launch failure, 7 fatalities), Columbia (re-entry failure, 7 fatalities)
• First flight:  12 April 1981 (STS-1)
• Notable payloads:  Tracking and data relay satellites, Spacelab, Hubble Space Telescope, Galileo, Magellan, Ulysses, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, Mir Docking Module, Chandra X-ray Observatory, ISS components
• Data source:  DuckDuckGo