Space Shuttle orbiter
The Space Shuttle orbiter family comprised six reusable winged vehicles built by Rockwell International for NASA. Enterprise performed atmospheric approach-and-landing and ground-interface testing; Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour then flew 135 orbital missions from 1981 through 2011. The orbiters carried crews and payloads, deployed and serviced spacecraft, supported Spacelab and Shuttle-Mir, and assembled the International Space Station.
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Identity
- Aliases
- NASA Space Shuttle orbiterSpace Transportation System orbiterSTS orbiterSpace Shuttle
- Family Name
- Space Shuttle orbiter
- Full Name
- Space Shuttle orbiter
- Status
- retired
- Type
- spaceplane
Details
- Description
- The Space Shuttle orbiter family comprised six reusable winged vehicles built by Rockwell International for NASA. Enterprise performed atmospheric approach-and-landing and ground-interface testing; Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour then flew 135 orbital missions from 1981 through 2011. The orbiters carried crews and payloads, deployed and serviced spacecraft, supported Spacelab and Shuttle-Mir, and assembled the International Space Station.
- Dimensions
- Height
- …
- Length
- …
- Wingspan
- …
- First Flight Year
- 1,977
- Last Flight Year
- 2,011
- Operator
- Propulsion Configurations
- Entries
- Count
- 3
- Placement
- orbiter
- Propulsion System
- Role
- main
- Stage
- ascent
- Variant Notes
- Three Space Shuttle Main Engines (canonical RS-25 model identity) are mounted in the orbiter aft structure.
- Count
- 2
- Placement
- orbiter
- Propulsion System
- Role
- maneuvering
- Stage
- orbital
- Variant Notes
- Two AJ10-190 Orbital Maneuvering System engines are mounted in the aft OMS pods; used for orbital insertion, major maneuvers, rendezvous, and deorbit.
- Name
- Space Shuttle Orbiter propulsion
- Notes
- Orbiter-only propulsion boundary: three RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engines for ascent and two AJ10-190 Orbital Maneuvering System engines for orbital maneuvering and deorbit. External Tank and two reusable solid rocket boosters are launch-system elements, not orbiter installations; RCS thrusters remain unmodeled because no exact canonical thruster identity is established here.
- Spacecraft Specs
- Reusability
- fully_reusable
Links
- Wikipedia Url
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- April 26, 2026 at 14:37:08 UTC
- Updated Time
- September 7, 2026 at 23:49:35 UTC
- Image
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