Space Shuttle
Reusable NASA craft
Space Shuttle refers specifically to NASA's fleet of reusable spacecraft—Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour—that flew 135 missions between 1981 and 2011.
The program defined an era of American spaceflight: The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred in 1986. (Lowercase space shuttle describes the vehicle type generally.)
Federal space exploration bureau
- ColumbiaAmerica personified, or its namesakes
- ChallengerSpecific vessel or vehicle name
- DiscoveryVessel or network name
- AtlantisMythical sunken island
Endeavour · Enterprise · fleet · manifest · spaceflight · orbital · crewed · turnaround
Curved celestial path
- payloadCarried freight or charge
- satelliteOrbiting celestial body
- crewWorking team aboard
- astronautSpacecraft crew member
EVA · spacewalk · docking · ISS · Spacelab · rendezvous · deployment · retrieval
No longer in workforce
- SmithsonianFederally funded museum network
- museumPublic exhibit space
- exhibitItem publicly displayed
- artifactHuman-made historical object
decommissioned · historical · preservation · memorial · heritage · commemoration · nostalgia · inspiration
Moment of ascent
- countdownBackward enumeration to zero
- ignitionStarting combustion process
- thrustForceful forward motion
- ascentUpward movement
booster · launchpad · Cape Canaveral · launch window · staging · separation · throttle · rollout
NASA
Federal space exploration bureau
- ColumbiaAmerica personified, or its namesakes
- ChallengerSpecific vessel or vehicle name
- DiscoveryVessel or network name
Atlantis · Endeavour · Enterprise · fleet · manifest · spaceflight · orbital · crewed · turnaround · processing
orbit
Curved celestial path
astronaut · EVA · spacewalk · docking · ISS · Spacelab · rendezvous · deployment · retrieval · experiment
retired
No longer in workforce
- SmithsonianFederally funded museum network
- museumPublic exhibit space
- exhibitItem publicly displayed
artifact · decommissioned · historical · preservation · memorial · heritage · commemoration · nostalgia · inspiration · iconic
liftoff
Moment of ascent
- countdownBackward enumeration to zero
- ignitionStarting combustion process
- thrustForceful forward motion
ascent · booster · launchpad · Cape Canaveral · launch window · staging · separation · throttle · rollout · crawler
- Space MissionsVoyager, Cassini, Galileo, Pioneer, Juno
- SpaceplanesSpaceShipOne, X-15, Hermes
- spacecraftstarships, Voyager 1, rocket ships, Voyager 2, starship
- Reusable RocketsFalcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship, reusable rocket, SpaceX
- MegaprojectsPanama Canal, Hoover Dam, Three Gorges Dam, Channel Tunnel, Manhattan Project
- 1986 EventsChernobyl, Challenger disaster, Halley's Comet, Top Gun, Ferris Bueller
Space Shuttlespace capsule
Crewed reentry vessel
Soyuz · capsule · Mercury capsule · Vostok · Apollo capsule
Space Shuttlesubmarine
Underwater naval craft
automobile · car · ocean liner · subway · horse and buggy
space, shuttle, spaceship, spacecraft, Hubble Space Telescope, cyberspace, spaceman, aerospace, shuttling