July 21, 2011 marks the end of flights of space shuttles in U.S. The space shuttle, Atlantis, completed the last mission, the 135th one and landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida early in the morning.The space shuttles were, for 30 years, reusable orbital spacecraft operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for human spaceflight missions from 1981 to 2011.
The major missions of space shuttles included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, and servicing and construction of space stations.
From history, six airworthy orbiters were built; the first, Enterprise, was not built for orbital space flight, and was used only for testing gliding and landing, followed by Columbia , Challenger , Discovery, Atlantis , and Endeavour. Enterprise was originally intended to be made fully space-worthy after use for the approach and landing test (ALT) program, but it was found more economical to upgrade the structural test article STA-099 into orbiter Challenger. Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch in 1986, and Endeavour was built as a replacement for Challenger from structural spare components. Columbia broke apart during re-entry in 2003. Two space shuttles were lost. Only three remain and now they retire.
The 4 photos in the right-hand column show the landing of Atlantis at Florida in its last flight.
1 comment:
The flights of space shuttles had been a big achievement for mankind, many people must be very disappointed to see this is going to stop by USA. Yet compares to the handiwork of God who created the whole universe, this achievement is humbly next to nothing.
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