How many operational space shuttles were built by NASA?
"during the STS-51-L mission in January 1986. The next five TRW-built TDRSS satellites were successfully launched on other Space Shuttles. Three follow-up Boeing-built satellites were launched by Atlas rockets in 2000 and 2002. A NASA Press Release summarized the capabilities of the system as a whole: ""Working solo, TDRS-1 provided more communication coverage, in support of the September 1983 Shuttle mission, than the entire network of NASA tracking stations had provided in all previous Shuttle missions."" The first generation of TDRS are planned to be retired in 2015. The two TDRSS satellite ground terminals are located at NASA White Sands"
"Shuttle ""Columbia"" disaster. The Shuttle fleet lost two orbiters and 14 astronauts in two disasters: ""Challenger"" in 1986, and ""Columbia"" in 2003. While the 1986 loss was mitigated by building the Space Shuttle ""Endeavour"" from replacement parts, NASA did not build another orbiter to replace the second loss. NASA's Space Shuttle program had 135 missions when the program ended with the successful landing of the Space Shuttle ""Atlantis"" at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. The program spanned 30 years with over 300 astronauts sent into space. The International Space Station (ISS) combines NASA's ""Space Station Freedom"" project"
"Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle ""Columbia"" (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service, it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members. Construction began on ""Columbia"" in 1975 at Rockwell International's (formerly North American Aviation/North American Rockwell) principal assembly facility in Palmdale, California, a suburb of Los"
"Space Shuttle Discovery Space Shuttle ""Discovery"" (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, gathering more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. ""Discovery"" became the third operational orbiter to enter service, preceded by ""Columbia"" and ""Challenger"". It embarked on its last mission, STS-133, on February 24, 2011 and touched down for the final time at Kennedy Space Center on"
"from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, only for initial atmospheric landing tests (ALT). ""Enterprise""'s first test flight was on February 18, 1977, only five years after the Shuttle program was formally initiated; leading to the launch of the first space-worthy shuttle ""Columbia"" on April 12, 1981 on STS-1. The Space Shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by ""Atlantis"", in July 2011, retiring the final Shuttle in the fleet. The Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31, 2011. Before the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, NASA began early studies of space shuttle designs."
"Space Shuttle Challenger Space Shuttle ""Challenger"" (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099) was the second orbiter of NASA's space shuttle program to be put into service, after ""Columbia"". ""Challenger"" was built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division, in Downey, California. Its maiden flight, STS-6, began on April 4, 1983. The orbiter was launched and landed nine times before breaking apart 73 seconds into its tenth mission, STS-51-L, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members, including a civilian school teacher. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed in flight, the other being ""Columbia"","
"space flights, such as the Shuttle–Mir Program and the International Space Station. The Space Shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Planned as a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttle orbiters were built by 1985. The first to launch, ""Columbia"", did so on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first known human space flight. Its major components were a spaceplane orbiter with an external fuel tank and two solid-fuel launch rockets at its side. The external tank, which was bigger than the spacecraft itself, was the only major"
"from the two destroyed orbiters. The Space Shuttle program was extended several times beyond its originally envisioned 15-year life span because of the delays in building the United States space station in low Earth orbit—a project which eventually evolved into the International Space Station. It was formally scheduled for mandatory retirement in 2010 in accord with the directives President George W. Bush issued on January 14, 2004 in his Vision for Space Exploration. A$2.5 billion spending provision allowing NASA to fly the Space Shuttle beyond its then-scheduled retirement in 2010 passed the Congress in April 2009, although neither NASA nor"
"Space Shuttle orbiter The Space Shuttle orbiter was the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle, a partially reusable orbital spacecraft system that was part of the Space Shuttle program. Operated by NASA, the U.S. space agency, this vehicle could carry astronauts and payloads into low Earth orbit, perform in-space operations, then re-enter the atmosphere and land as a glider, returning its crew and any on-board payload to the Earth. Six orbiters were built for flight: ""Enterprise"", ""Columbia"", ""Challenger"", ""Discovery"", ""Atlantis"", and ""Endeavour"". All were built in Palmdale, California, by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rockwell International company. The first orbiter, ""Enterprise"", made"
"mission. Eleven were killed during spaceflight, on Space Shuttle missions STS-51-L and STS-107. Another four (Elliot See, Charles Bassett, Theodore Freeman, and Clifton Williams) were killed in T-38 plane crashes during training for space flight during the Gemini and Apollo programs. Another was killed in a 1967 automobile accident, and another died in a 1991 commercial airliner crash while traveling on NASA business. Two members of the Corps have been involuntarily dismissed: Lisa Nowak and William Oefelein. Both were returned to service with the U.S. Navy. NASA Astronaut Corps The NASA Astronaut Corps is a unit of the United States"
"new program is still in-flux. The Space Shuttle program occupied over 654 facilities, used over 1.2 million line items of equipment, and employed over 5,000 people. The total value of equipment was over $12 billion. Shuttle-related facilities represented over a quarter of NASA's inventory. There were over 1,200 active suppliers to the program throughout the United States. NASA's transition plan had the program operating through 2010 with a transition and retirement phase lasting through 2015. During this time, the Ares I and Orion as well as the Altair Lunar Lander were to be under development, although these programs have since"
"Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official name, Space Transportation System (STS), was taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. The Space Shuttle—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank—carried up to eight astronauts and up to of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its"
"""operational"" after STS-4. However, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), in its report on the loss with all crew aboard of ""Columbia"" during STS-107 in 2003, asserted that the orbiter should never have been considered operational and that, while not intrinsically unsafe, it was in fact an experimental vehicle. The CAIB's rationale was that civilian and military aircraft that are considered operational must have been tested and proven over thousands of safe flights in their final operational configurations, whereas the shuttle had conducted under 200 flights, with continuous modification. NASA operated the Space Shuttle as an experimental vehicle for the"
"throughout the 1980s in designing a cheaper successor vehicle. Several official design studies were done, but most were basically smaller versions of the existing Shuttle concept. Most cost analysis studies of the Space Shuttle have shown that workforce is by far the single greatest expense. Early shuttle discussions speculated airliner-type operation, with a two-week turnaround. However, senior NASA planners envisioned no more than 10 to 12 flights per year for the entire shuttle fleet. The absolute maximum flights per year for the entire fleet was limited by external tank manufacturing capacity to 24 per year. Very efficient (hence complex and"
"on the band's last studio album, ""The Story"", ends with a recording of her voice introducing the song. Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle ""Columbia"" (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service, it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members. Construction began on ""Columbia"" in 1975 at"
"salaries, etc.) by the number of launches. With 135 missions, and the total cost of US$192 billion (in 2010 dollars), this gives approximately $1.5 billion per launch over the life of the shuttle program. A 2017 study found that carrying one kilogram of cargo to the ISS on the shuttle cost $272,000 in 2017 dollars, twice the cost of Cygnus and three times that of Dragon. NASA used a management philosophy known as success-oriented management during the Space Shuttle program which was described by historian Alex Roland in the aftermath of the ""Columbia"" disaster as ""hoping for the best"". Success-oriented"
"Space Shuttle Atlantis Space Shuttle ""Atlantis"" (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV‑104) is a Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Constructed by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985, ""Atlantis"" is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J from 3 to 7 October 1985. ""Atlantis"" embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on 8 July 2011."
"landing at Edwards, the orbiter was flown back to the KSC on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a specially modified Boeing 747. The first orbiter, ""Enterprise"", was built in 1976, used in Approach and Landing Tests and 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 a total of fourteen astronauts killed. A fifth operational (and sixth in total) orbiter, ""Endeavour"", was built in 1991 to replace ""Challenger"". The Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion"
"in orbit using expendable launch vehicles rather than the shuttle. In August 1986, President Reagan also announced that the shuttle would no longer carry commercial satellite payloads. After a 32-month hiatus, the next shuttle mission, STS-26, was launched on September 29, 1988. Although changes were made by NASA after the ""Challenger"" accident, many commentators have argued that the changes in its management structure and organizational culture were neither deep nor long-lasting. After the Space Shuttle ""Columbia"" disaster in 2003, attention once again focused on the attitude of NASA management towards safety issues. The ""Columbia"" Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) concluded that"
"the spacecraft's ground crew while the astronaut flight crews changed for every mission. Each shuttle's Flow Director was supported by a Vehicle Manager for the same spacecraft. Space Shuttle ""Discovery""'s Flow Directors were: Space Shuttle Discovery Space Shuttle ""Discovery"" (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, gathering more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. ""Discovery"" became the third"
"since then. A prototype, ""AMS-01"", was flown and tested on Space Shuttle mission STS-91 in 1998. The main mission, ""AMS-02"", was then planned for launch by the Shuttle and mounting on the International Space Station. This project is a massive $1.5 billion undertaking involving 500 scientists from 56 institutions and 16 countries. After the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, NASA announced that the Shuttle was to be retired by 2010 and that ""AMS-02"" was not on the manifest of any of the remaining Shuttle flights. Dr. Ting was forced to (successfully) lobby the United States Congress and the public to"
"of Defense's assistance and refused the request for the spacewalk, and thus the feasibility of scenarios for astronaut repair or rescue by ""Atlantis"" were not considered by NASA management at the time. NASA retired the Space Shuttle in 2011, after 30 years of service. The Shuttle was originally conceived of and presented to the public as a ""Space Truck"", which would, among other things, be used to build a United States space station in low earth orbit in the early 1990s. When the U.S. space station evolved into the International Space Station project, which suffered from long delays and design"
"in 2011 after 135 missions, with ""Atlantis"" making the final launch of the three-decade Shuttle program on July 8, 2011. The program ended after ""Atlantis"" landed at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. Major missions included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, and servicing and construction of space stations. The first orbiter vehicle, named ""Enterprise"", was used in the initial Approach and Landing Tests phase but installation of engines, heat shielding, and other equipment necessary for orbital flight was cancelled. A total of five operational orbiters were built, and of these, two were destroyed"
"During the development of the Space Shuttle orbiter in the 1970s, NASA used two modified Boeing 747 airliners, known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, to launch the Space Shuttle ""Enterprise"", a manned atmospheric test vehicle used to test the orbiter's approach and landing capabilities. These aircraft were subsequently used throughout the Space Shuttle Program to transport the shuttles across long distances. The Pegasus launch vehicle became the first air-launched orbital rocket when it was launched on April 5, 1990 by the private company Orbital Sciences Corporation (now Orbital ATK), from a NASA-owned B-52 Stratofortress. It has flown more than 40"
"shuttle design that best balanced capability, development cost and operating cost. Ultimately chosen was a design using a reusable winged orbiter, reusable solid rocket boosters, and an expendable external fuel tank for the orbiter's main engines. The shuttle program was formally launched on January 5, 1972, when President Nixon announced that NASA would proceed with the development of a reusable space shuttle system. The stated goals of ""transforming the space frontier...into familiar territory, easily accessible for human endeavor"" was to be achieved by launching as many as 50 missions per year, with hopes of driving down per-mission costs. The prime"
"development, but NASA's conclusion was that the shuttle's expected high reliability would preclude the need for one. Modified SR-71 Blackbird ejection seats and full pressure suits were used for the two-man crews on the first four shuttle orbital missions, which were considered test flights, but they were removed for the ""operational"" missions that followed. (The Columbia Accident Investigation Board later declared, after the 2003 ""Columbia"" re-entry disaster, that the space shuttle system should never have been declared operational because it is experimental by nature due to the limited number of flights as compared to certified commercial aircraft.) The multi-deck design"
"limited to one per institution. Each orbiter incorporated over 24,000 tiles. About 42 reusable SSMEs (Pratt & Whitney RS-25/26) have been part of the STS program, with three used per orbiter per mission. The decision was made to retain all engines with plans to make use of them in future launch vehicles. Worn out engine nozzles are typically considered scrap, although nine nozzles were refurbished for display on the donated orbiters, so the actual engines can be retained by NASA. Three Shuttle arms were used by NASA; the arms of both ""Discovery"" and ""Atlantis"" will be left in place for"
"million for program shutdown costs in 2017. The $1.8 billion expensed in 2005 consisted of: Only costs for mission and mission integration and launch site processing for the 33 ISS-related Shuttle flights are included in NASA's ISS program costs. Basic costs of the Shuttle program are, as mentioned above, not considered part of the overall ISS costs by NASA, because the Shuttle program is considered an independent program aside from the ISS. Since December 1998 the Shuttle has, however, been used nearly exclusively for ISS flights (since the first ISS flight in December 1998, until October 2007 only 5 flights"
"for frequent flights. Various shuttle concepts had been explored since the late 1960s. The program formally commenced in 1972, becoming the sole focus of NASA's manned operations after the Apollo, Skylab, and Apollo-Soyuz programs in 1975. The Shuttle was originally conceived of and presented to the public in 1972 as a 'Space Truck' which would, among other things, be used to build a United States space station in low Earth orbit during the 1980s and then be replaced by a new vehicle by the early 1990s. The stalled plans for a U.S. space station evolved into the International Space Station"
"called the Space Transportation System (STS), is the United States government's most recent manned launch vehicle. A total of five usable orbiters were built, of which three were in use until the program's retirement in 2011. The winged shuttle Orbiter is launched vertically, usually carrying five to seven astronauts (although eight have been carried and eleven could be accommodated in an emergency) along with up to of payload into low earth orbit. When its mission is complete, it fires its manoeuvring thrusters to drop out of orbit and re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. During the descent and landing, the shuttle Orbiter"
"Space Shuttle retirement The retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet took place from March to July 2011. ""Discovery"" was the first of the three active space shuttles to be retired, completing its final mission on March 9, 2011; ""Endeavour"" did so on June 1. The final shuttle mission was completed with the landing of ""Atlantis"" on July 21, 2011, closing the 30-year Space Shuttle program. The Shuttle was presented to the public in 1972 as a ""space truck"" which would, among other things, be used to build a United States space station in low earth orbit in the early 1990s"
"STS-1 STS-1 (""Space Transportation System""-1) was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, ""Columbia"", launched on 12 April 1981 and returned on 14 April, 54.5 hours later, having orbited the Earth 36 times. ""Columbia"" carried a crew of two – mission commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. It was the first American manned space flight since the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in 1975. STS-1 was also the only maiden test flight of a new US spacecraft to carry a crew, though it was preceded by atmospheric testing of the orbiter and ground testing"
"partially reusable Dragon spacecraft, followed by Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft in late 2013. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the Russian Soyuz while work on the Commercial Crew Development program proceeds; the first crewed flight of this is planned for January 27, 2019, on the SpaceX Falcon 9 with Dragon 2 crew capsule. For missions beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion (spacecraft). Space Shuttle missions have included: Early during development of the space shuttle, NASA had estimated that the program would cost $7.45 billion ($43 billion in 2011 dollars,"