Recently added item(s)
The concept of the Space Shuttle was first tested during the 1970s with the spacecraft “Enterprise,” built to study unpowered glide approaches to the ground and to conduct landing tests. This vehicle had no orbital flight capability. Subsequently, the orbiters Columbia (the first Space Shuttle to fly), Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour were successively built.
Two tragic accidents marked the history of this extraordinary orbiter: the loss of Challenger in 1986 and that of Columbia in 2003, during which 14 astronauts perished.
From April 12, 1981, to July 21, 2011, the American Space Shuttle thus helped write 30 years of the history of human space exploration. The multiple facets of its capabilities made it a spacecraft that remains, to this day, unique in the history of human technology: a spectacular vertical launch identical to that of a traditional rocket, orbital spaceflight around Earth, and landing comparable to that of a simple glider, as well as the deployment of a wide variety of payloads — satellites, space laboratories, the Hubble Space Telescope, and modules for the International Space Station (ISS) — along with iconic moments such as the impressive use of its telescopic robotic arm, the extraordinary untethered spacewalk of astronaut Bruce McCandless II in February 1984, and the deployment of the famous Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990.
The American Space Shuttle remains, to this day, the spacecraft that has most inspired enthusiasm and fascination among people. The photographs associated with each of its missions will forever stand as some of the most powerful visual testimonies of these chapters of our contemporary space history.
