space shuttle
space shuttle Re-usable rocket-powered US spacecraft. The main part of the shuttle, the orbiter (of which four have been built, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis), looks like a bulky jet aircraft with swept-back wings. It ferries people and equipment between the ground and Earth orbit. It takes off attached to a large fuel tank, using its own three rocket engines, assisted by two booster rockets. The boosters are jettisoned about two minutes after launch and are later recovered for re-use. Six minutes later, the orbiter's main engines cut off and the external fuel tank is dumped. Manoeuvring engines then put the craft into the required orbit. When returning to Earth, these engines provide reverse thrust to slow the craft down for descent into the atmosphere. It glides down and lands on a runway. The first space shuttle, Columbia, was launched into orbit on April 12, 1981. The orbiter has a large payload bay in which it carries satellites for release into orbit. On mission 25 in January 1986, the shuttle Challenger exploded soon after launch, killing all seven people on board. A leak enabled burning gases from a booster rocket to ignite the fuel in the main tank.
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
space shuttle