![]() The shuttle was planned to not only visit Skylab, but also help with the construction of Skylab’s successor space stations. ![]() (Credit: NASA)įirst conceived during the heady and well-funded time around the initial Moon landings, the Space Shuttle was intended to provide NASA with a low-cost means to bring humans and payloads to low-Earth orbit. Space Shuttle Atlantis blasts off on May 14, 2010, kicking off STS-132. īut given the hiatus between the end of the Space Shuttle Program and the start of the Commercial Crew Program, many have wondered: Why did NASA stop flying the Space Shuttle in the first place? The Hype of the Space Shuttle And in just a few short days (on November 14), NASA plans to launch the first official mission, Crew-1, of their Commercial Crew Program. On May 30, 2020, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, marking the first crewed spaceflight launched from American soil since NASA retired the Space Shuttle. More than 30 years later, when Space Shuttle Atlantis rolled to a stop on the runway July 21, 2011, the shuttle program officially came to a close.Īfter the end of shuttle era, American astronauts were forced to pay for rides aboard Russian rockets - a situation many found galling. The first orbital test flight, STS-1, carried out by Space Shuttle Columbia, blasted off Apfrom historic launchpad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The Space Shuttle Program eventually flew 135 missions, making it the core of American crewed spaceflight efforts for nearly four decades. Nearly a decade later, the Space Shuttle was born. But during that same year, NASA was already beginning the design and develop their next generation of crew-carrying craft. Maybe you’ll be a member of one? Don’t forget to bring your dog.In 1972, Apollo 17 carried the last batch of astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA and other civilian companies are planning their own Mars missions. Another company named SpaceX is hoping to land civilian astronauts on Mars-the next human step into the solar system-in 20 years. A company called Planetary Resources plans to send robot astronauts to the Asteroid Belt to mine for precious metals. NASA’s shuttle program has ended, but private companies are readying their own space programs. That hasn’t stopped people from signing up and blasting off. More than 20 astronauts have died doing their job. ![]() The Voyager mission of the 1970s took advantage of a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune to shave off nearly 20 years of travel time. Getting from A to B requires complex calculations involving inertia and gravity-literally, rocket science-to "slingshot" from planet to planet (or moon) across the solar system. Space travel is nothing like in the movies. The space shuttle leaves orbit at 16,465 miles an hour (26,498 kilometers an hour) and glides to a stop on a runway without using an engine. Gagarin had to parachute from his spaceship after reentry from orbit. Space-travel technology had advanced light-years in just three decades. NASA developed reusable spacecraft-space shuttle orbiters-to ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit. Manned space stations began glittering in the sky. The U.S.’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched probes to study the solar system. The United States landed two astronauts on its stark surface in 1969, and five more manned missions followed. With Earth orbit achieved, we turned our sights on the moon. Laika was followed into orbit four years later by the first human, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri A. Our first steps into space began as a race between the United States and the former Soviet Union, rivals in a global struggle for power. By the middle of the last century, we aimed even higher. Airplanes shortened distances, simplified travel, and showed us Earth from a new perspective. Our ability to explore reached new heights-literally-in the last hundred years. Since before the dawn of civilization, we’ve been lured over the horizon to find food or more space, to make a profit, or just to see what’s beyond those trees or mountains or oceans. Her 1957 flight paved the way for space exploration back when scientists didn’t know if spaceflight was lethal for living things. She was a terrier mutt and by all accounts a good dog. The first earthling to orbit our planet was just two years old, plucked from the streets of Moscow barely more than a week before her historic launch.
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