![]() ![]() Endeavour found a home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Its sister ship Discovery will be housed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. After its final flight, Atlantis was moved from Kennedy Space Center to the center’s visitor complex and is now on display as part of a $100 million, 90,000-square-foot exhibit, which opened June 29, 2013. The remaining shuttles were retired and distributed to museums throughout the country. A gouge in the shuttle’s left wing, caused by the impact of insulating foam that broke off from the craft’s external tank during its January 16 liftoff, absorbed too much heat, causing the shuttle to become unstable and break apart. A second shuttle, Columbia, broke apart upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2003, following a 16-day mission. School teacher Christa McAuliffe (the first participant in President Ronald Reagan’s Teacher in Space Project) and her six crewmates died in the accident, which was later determined to have been caused by a combination of cold weather and the failure of the primary and secondary O-ring seals on the Challenger’s right solid rocket booster. ![]() Space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff January 28, 1986. The space shuttle program was not without tragedy. Until another US manned spacecraft is developed, crews will travel to and from the ISS aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. “By the mid-2030s,” said Obama during an April 2010 visit to the Kennedy Space Center, “I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. Six years after Bush revealed his plan, and following an official review of the human spaceflight plans of the United States after the planned retirement of the space shuttle program, President Barack Obama remained committed to space exploration and increasing NASA funding, but signaled his belief that the United States should rely more on the private sector for developing improved methods of space travel. His plan also included the development of a new spacecraft that would ferry astronauts to the space station after the shuttle was retired, as well as a return to the moon by 2020. Bush announced a new US vision for space exploration - later to be called the Constellation program - anticipating completion of the ISS and the corresponding end of the space shuttle program in 2010. Over its lifetime, the shuttle program cost about $113.7 billion. The average cost to prepare and launch a shuttle mission in 2010 was approximately $775 million. ![]() The space program was popular during its time, but the technology became dated and incurred enormous expenses. Though it did not fly in space, and did not have engines or a functional heat shield, Enterprise was used to test critical phases of landing as well as other aspects of shuttle preparations. While Columbia was the first fully functional space shuttle, Enterprise was the first shuttle to be built. While aboard the ISS, STS-135 commander Ferguson presented the station’s crew a US flag flown on STS-1. STS-1, the first mission for both space shuttle Columbia and the program, launched April 12, 1981. The space shuttle, the world’s first reusable spacecraft to carry humans into orbit, was officially called the Space Transportation System (STS). ![]()
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