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  • Essay / Development of the Space Shuttle - 987

    The development of the Space Shuttle provided many opportunities to explore the universe. There is so much about other planets and space that we don't know. Space shuttles allow people to travel in space and send objects into space. There are six space shuttles: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor. Currently, they are all on display in various museums and centers across the United States, except for the two, Challenger and Columbia, which were destroyed in flight. Space shuttles not only allow for greater exploration, but they also allow supplies to be delivered to a space station. The very first space shuttle, called Enterprise, was built in 1976. 1 It was originally developed as a test shuttle, with no possibility of actual spaceflight, and was the only one of the six shuttles to never leave the space shuttle. atmosphere. Enterprise is currently on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York since July 2012.2 Although Enterprise never reached space, it remains useful for continued Space Shuttle research. For example, after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated, the Enterprise was studied and tested to find out the cause of the accident.3After the Enterprise, a new type of space vehicle began to be built. “The components of the Space Shuttle include: the orbiter, three main engines, the external tank and two solid rocket boosters. In total, the launch weight is approximately 4.5 million pounds. »4 The first ship built in this way was the Columbia. The difference between it and the Enterprise was that the Enterprise had no engine or heat shield. The orbiter is the aluminum part of the Space Shuttle, built to last more than 100 flights, the...... middle of paper ......Franklyn M. The History of the Space Shuttle: Columbia and beyond. New York: Philomel Books, 1979. Print. Brown, Irene. “Bravo Galileo A tribute to the little spaceship that could.” Popular Science 261.5 (2002): 1. Electronic library. Internet. December 13, 2013. Collins, Mary. “Ready for the close-up.” Smithsonian 11 (2005): 1. Electronic Library. Internet. December 11, 2013.Petty, John Ira. “Space Shuttle Components.” Spaceship: Space Shuttle Orbiter. NASA. Internet. December 12, 2013. Smithsonian Institution. After Sputnik: 50 years of the space age. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Print. “Space Shuttle Overview: Challenger (OV-099). » Kennedy Space Center. NASA, April 12, 2013. Web. December 13, 2013.Voice of America News/FIND. “The first space shuttle is on public display.” elibrary.bigchalk.com. VOA News, July 19, 2012. Web. December 11, 2013. Walter, William J. Space Age. New York: Random House, Inc, 1992. Print.