NASA refers to each shuttle flight using an STS number. The STS stands for Space Transportation System. Thus, STS-1 was the first shuttle flight into space. NASA assigns numbers to space shuttle flights in the order in which they are planned (or manifested). There is typically a period of several years between the time a mission is planned and the time of its scheduled launch. During this period priorities can change, and missions are often reshuffled or cancelled. This explains why the STS numbers in Table 4.5 do not always match the flight order number. For example, Columbia's flight in 2003 was called STS-107, yet it was actually the 113th flight of a space shuttle. The missions numbered STS-108 through STS-113 wound up launching before STS-107, because they moved up in priority as launch time approached.
Shuttle flights deployed more than fifty satellites for military, governmental, and commercial clients. In addition, three interplanetary craft were launched from shuttles: the Magellan spacecraft that traveled to Venus, the Galileo spacecraft that traveled to Jupiter, and the Ulysses spacecraft that traveled to the sun. Shuttles also deployed important observatories into space, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Gamma Ray Observatory, the Diffuse XRay Spectrometer, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
The shuttle has carried more than three million pounds of cargo and more than 600 crewmembers into space.
TABLE 4.5
Space shuttle missions
| Flight order | STS number | Orbiter name | Primary payload | Launch date | Landing date | |
| 1 | STS-1 | Columbia | Shuttle systems test | 4/12/1981 | 4/14/1981 | |
| 2 | STS-2 | Columbia | OSTA-1 | 11/12/1981 | 11/14/1981 | |
| 3 | STS-3 | Columbia | Office of Space Science-1 (OSS-1) | 3/22/1982 | 3/30/1982 | |
| 4 | STS-4 | Columbia | DOD and Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES) | 6/27/1982 | 7/4/1982 | |
| 5 | STS-5 | Columbia | Canadian Satellite ANIK C-3; SBS-C | 11/11/1982 | 11/16/1982 | |
| 6 | STS-6 | Challenger | TDRS-1 | 4/4/1983 | 4/9/1983 | |
| 7 | STS-7 | Challenger | Canadian Satellite ANIK C-2; PALAPA B1 | 6/18/1983 | 6/24/1983 | |
| 8 | STS-8 | Challenger | India Satellite INSAT-1B | 8/30/1983 | 9/5/1983 | |
| 9 | STS-9 | Columbia | Spacelab-1 | 11/28/1983 | 12/8/1983 | |
| 10 | STS-41-B | Challenger | WESTAR-VI; PALAPA-B2 | 2/3/1984 | 2/11/1984 | |
| 11 | STS-41-C | Challenger | LDEF deploy | 4/6/1984 | 4/13/1984 | |
| 12 | STS-41-D | Discovery | SBS-D; SYNCOM IV-2; TELSTAR | 8/30/1984 | 9/5/1984 | |
| 13 | STS-41-G | Challenger | Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS); OSTA-3 | 10/5/1984 | 10/13/1984 | |
| 14 | STS-51-A | Discovery | Canadian Communications Satellite TELESAT-H; SYNCOM IV-1 | 11/8/1984 | 11/16/1984 | |
| 15 | STS-51-C | Discovery | DOD | 1/24/1985 | 1/27/1985 | |
| 16 | STS-51-D | Discovery | Canadian Satellite TELESAT-I; SYNCOM IV-3 | 4/12/1985 | 4/19/1985 | |
| 17 | STS-51-B | Challenger | Spacelab-3 | 4/29/1985 | 5/6/1985 | |
| 18 | STS-51-G | Discovery | MORELOS-A; Arab Satellite ARABSAT-A; AT&T Satellite TELSTAR-3D | 6/17/1985 | 6/24/1985 | |
| 19 | STS-51-F | Challenger | Spacelab-2 | 7/29/1985 | 8/6/1985 | |
| 20 | STS-51-I | Discovery | American Satellite ASC-1; AUSSAT-1; SYNCOM IV-4 | 8/27/1985 | 9/3/1985 | |
| 21 | STS-51-J | Atlantis | DOD | 10/3/1985 | 10/7/1985 | |
| 22 | STS-61-A | Challenger | D-1 Spacelab mission (first German-dedicated Spacelab) | 10/30/1985 | 11/6/1985 | |
| 23 | STS-61-B | Atlantis | MORELOS-B; AUSSAT-2; RCA Americom Satellite SATCOM KU-2 | 11/26/1985 | 12/3/1985 | |
| 24 | STS-61-C | Columbia | RCA Americom Satellite SATCOM KU-1 | 1/12/1986 | 1/18/1986 | |
| 25 | STS-51-L | Challenger | TDRS-B; SPARTAN-203 apart 73 | 1/28/1986 | Vehicle broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff | |
| 26 | STS-26 | Discovery | TDRS-C | 9/29/1988 | 10/3/1988 | |
| 27 | STS-27 | Atlantis | DOD | 12/2/1988 | 12/6/1988 | |
| 28 | STS-29 | Discovery | TDRS-D | 3/13/1989 | 3/18/1989 | |
| 29 | STS-30 | Atlantis | Magellan | 5/4/1989 | 5/8/1989 | |
| 30 | STS-28 | Columbia | DOD | 8/8/1989 | 8/13/1989 | |
| 31 | STS-34 | Atlantis | Galileo; SSBUV | 10/18/1989 | 10/23/1989 | |
| 32 | STS-33 | Discovery | DOD | 11/22/1989 | 11/27/1989 | |
| 33 | STS-32 | Columbia | SYNCOM IV-F5; LDEF Retrieval | 1/9/1990 | 1/20/1990 | |
| 34 | STS-36 | Atlantis | DOD | 2/28/1990 | 3/4/1990 | |
| 35 | STS-31 | Discovery | HST deploy | 4/24/1990 | 4/29/1990 | |
| 36 | STS-41 | Discovery | Ulysses; SSBUV; INTELSAT Solar Array Coupon (ISAC) | 10/6/1990 | 10/10/1990 | |
| 37 | STS-38 | Atlantis | DOD | 11/15/1990 | 11/20/1990 | |
| 38 | STS-35 | Columbia | ASTRO-1 | 12/2/1990 | 12/10/1990 | |
| 39 | STS-37 | Atlantis | Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) | 4/5/1991 | 4/11/1991 | |
| 40 | STS-39 | Discovery | DOD; Air Force Program-675 (AFP675); Infrared Background Signature Survey (IBSS); Shuttle Pallet Satellite-II (SPAS-II) | 4/28/1991 | 5/6/1991 | |
| 41 | STS-40 | Columbia | Spacelab Life Sciences-1 (SLS-1) | 6/5/1991 | 6/14/1991 | |
| 42 | STS-43 | Atlantis | TDRS-E; SSBUV | 8/2/1991 | 8/11/1991 | |
| 43 | STS-48 | Discovery | Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) | 9/12/1991 | 9/18/1991 | |
| 44 | STS-44 | Atlantis | DOD; Defense Support Program (DSP) | 11/24/1991 | 12/1/1991 | |
| 45 | STS-42 | Discovery | IML-1 | 1/22/1992 | 1/30/1992 | |
| 46 | STS-45 | Atlantis | ATLAS-1 | 3/24/1992 | 4/2/1992 | |
| 47 | STS-49 | Endeavour | Intelsat VI repair | 5/7/1992 | 5/16/1992 | |
| 48 | STS-50 | Columbia | USML-1 | 6/25/1992 | 7/9/1992 | |
| 49 | STS-46 | Atlantis | TSS-1; EURECA deploy | 7/31/1992 | 8/8/1992 | |
| 50 | STS-47 | Endeavour | Spacelab-J | 9/12/1992 | 9/20/1992 | |
| 51 | STS-52 | Columbia | USMP-1; Laser Geodynamic Satellite-II (LAGEOS-II | 10/22/1992 | 11/1/1992 | |
| 52 | STS-53 | Discovery | DOD; Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS) | 12/2/1992 | 12/9/1992 | |
| 53 | STS-54 | Endeavour | TDRS-F; Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer (DXS) | 1/13/1993 | 1/19/1993 | |
| 54 | STS-56 | Discovery | ATLAS-2; SPARTAN-201 | 4/8/1993 | 4/17/1993 | |
| 55 | STS-55 | Columbia | D-2 Spacelab mission (second German-dedicated Spacelab) | 4/26/1993 | 5/6/1993 | |
| 56 | STS-57 | Endeavour | SPACEHAB-1; EURECA retrieval | 6/21/1993 | 7/1/1993 | |
| 57 | STS-51 | Discovery | Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS)/Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS) | 9/12/1993 | 9/22/1993 | |
| 58 | STS-58 | Columbia | Spacelab SLS-2 | 10/18/1993 | 11/1/1993 | |
| 59 | STS-61 | Endeavour | 1st HST servicing | 12/2/1993 | 12/13/1993 | |
| 60 | STS-60 | Discovery | WSF; SPACEHAB-2 | 2/3/1994 | 2/11/1994 | |
| 61 | STS-62 | Columbia | USMP-2; Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology-2 (OAST-2) | 3/4/1994 | 3/18/1994 | |
| 62 | STS-59 | Endeavour | SRL-1 | 4/9/1994 | 4/20/1994 | |
| 63 | STS-65 | Columbia | IML-2 | 7/8/1994 | 7/23/1994 | |
| 64 | STS-64 | Discovery | LIDAR In-Space Technology Experiment (LITE); SPARTAN-201 | 9/9/1994 | 9/20/1994 | |
| 65 | STS-68 | Endeavour | SRL-2 | 9/30/1994 | 10/11/1994 | |
| 66 | STS-66 | Atlantis | ATLAS-03 | 11/3/1994 | 11/14/1994 | |
| 67 | STS-63 | Discovery | SPACEHAB-3; Mir rendezvous | 2/3/1995 | 2/11/1995 | |
TABLE 4.5
Space shuttle missions
| Flight order | STS number | Orbiter name | Primary payload | Launch date | Landing date | |
| 68 | STS-67 | Endeavour | ASTRO-2 | 3/2/1995 | 3/18/1995 | |
| 69 | STS-71 | Atlantis | First Shuttle-Mir docking | 6/27/1995 | 7/7/1995 | |
| 70 | STS-70 | Discovery | TDRS-G | 7/13/1995 | 7/22/1995 | |
| 71 | STS-69 | Endeavour | SPARTAN 201-03; WSF-2 | 9/7/1995 | 9/18/1995 | |
| 72 | STS-73 | Columbia | USML-2 | 10/20/1995 | 11/5/1995 | |
| 73 | STS-74 | Atlantis | Second Shuttle-Mir docking | 11/12/1995 | 11/20/1995 | |
| 74 | STS-72 | Endeavour | Space Flyer Unit (SFU); Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology Flyer (OAST-Flyer) | 1/11/1996 | 1/20/1996 | |
| 75 | STS-75 | Columbia | TSS-1 Reflight; USMP-3 | 2/22/1996 | 3/9/1996 | |
| 76 | STS-76 | Atlantis | Third Shuttle-Mir docking; SPACEHAB | 3/22/1996 | 3/31/1996 | |
| 77 | STS-77 | Endeavour | SPACEHAB; SPARTAN (Inflatable Antenna Experiment) | 5/19/1996 | 5/29/1996 | |
| 78 | STS-78 | Columbia | Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) | 6/20/1996 | 7/7/1996 | |
| 79 | STS-79 | Atlantis | Fourth Shuttle-Mir docking | 9/16/1996 | 9/26/1996 | |
| 80 | STS-80 | Columbia | Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph-Shuttle Pallet Satellite II (ORFEUS-SPAS II) | 11/19/1996 | 12/7/1996 | |
| 81 | STS-81 | Atlantis | Fifth Shuttle-Mir docking | 1/12/1997 | 1/22/1997 | |
| 82 | STS-82 | Discovery | Second HST servicing | 2/11/1997 | 2/21/1997 | |
| 83 | STS-83 | Columbia | MSL-1 | 4/4/1997 | 4/8/1997 | |
| 84 | STS-84 | Atlantis | Sixth Shuttle-Mir docking | 5/15/1997 | 5/24/1997 | |
| 85 | STS-94 | Columbia | MSL-1 Reflight | 7/1/1997 | 7/17/1997 | |
| 86 | STS-85 | Discovery | Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite-2 (CRISTA-SPAS-2) | 8/7/1997 | 8/19/1997 | |
| 87 | STS-86 | Atlantis | Seventh Shuttle-Mir docking | 9/25/1997 | 10/6/1997 | |
| 88 | STS-87 | Columbia | USMP-4, Spartan-201 rescue | 11/19/1997 | 12/5/1997 | |
| 89 | STS-89 | Endeavour | Eighth Shuttle-Mir docking | 1/22/1998 | 1/31/1998 | |
| 90 | STS-90 | Columbia | Final Spacelab mission | 4/17/1998 | 5/3/1998 | |
| 91 | STS-91 | Discovery | Ninth and final Shuttle-Mir docking | 6/2/1998 | 6/12/1998 | |
| 92 | STS-95 | Discovery | John Glenn s Flight; SPACEHAB | 10/29/1998 | 11/7/1998 | |
| 93 | STS-88 | Endeavour | First ISS Flight | 12/4/1998 | 12/15/1998 | |
| 94 | STS-96 | Discovery | 1st ISS docking | 5/27/1999 | 6/6/1999 | |
| 95 | STS-93 | Columbia | Chandra X-Ray Observatory | 7/22/1999 | 7/27/1999 | |
| 96 | STS-103 | Discovery | HST repair - 3A | 12/19/1999 | 12/27/1999 | |
| 97 | STS-99 | Endeavour | Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) | 2/11/2000 | 2/22/2000 | |
| 98 | STS-101 | Atlantis | ISS Assembly Flight 2A.2a | 5/19/2000 | 5/29/2000 | |
| 99 | STS-106 | Atlantis | ISS Assembly Flight 2A.2b | 9/8/2000 | 9/20/2000 | |
| 100 | STS-92 | Discovery | ISS Assembly Flight 3A, Z1 Truss and PMA 3 | 10/11/2000 | 10/24/2000 | |
| 101 | STS-97 | Endeavour | ISS Assembly Flight 4A, P6 Truss | 11/30/2000 | 12/11/2000 | |
| 102 | STS-98 | Atlantis | ISS Assembly Flight 5A, U.S. Destiny Laboratory | 2/7/2001 | 2/20/2001 | |
| 103 | STS-102 | Discovery | ISS Assembly Flight 5A.1, Crew Exchange, Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module | 3/8/2001 | 3/21/2001 | |
| 104 | STS-100 | Endeavour | ISS Assembly Flight 6A, Canadarm2, Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module | 4/19/2001 | 5/1/2001 | |
| 105 | STS-104 | Atlantis | ISS Assembly Flight 7A, Quest Airlock, High Pressure Gas Assembly | 7/12/2001 | 7/24/2001 | |
| 106 | STS-105 | Discovery | ISS Assembly Flight 7A.1, Crew Exchange, Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module | 8/10/2001 | 8/22/2001 | |
| 107 | STS-108 | Endeavour | ISS Flight UF-1, Crew Exchange, Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, STARSHINE 2 | 12/5/2001 | 12/17/2001 | |
| 108 | STS-109 | Columbia | HST Servicing Mission 3B | 3/1/2002 | 3/12/2002 | |
| 109 | STS-110 | Atlantis | ISS Flight 8A, S0 (S-Zero) Truss, Mobile Transporter | 4/8/2002 | 4/19/2002 | |
| 110 | STS-111 | Endeavour | ISS Flight UF-2, Crew Exchange, Mobile Base System | 6/5/2002 | 6/19/2002 | |
| 111 | STS-112 | Atlantis | ISS Flight 9A, S1 (S-One) Truss | 10/7/2002 | 10/16/2002 | |
| 112 | STS-113 | Endeavour | ISS Flight 11A, P1 (P-One) Truss | 11/23/2002 | 12/7/2002 | |
| 113 | STS-107 | Columbia | SpaceHab-DM Research Mission, Freestar module, up during | 1/16/2003 | Vehicle broke reentry 2/1/03 | |
| Acronyms: | ||||||
| ATLAS | Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science | PALAPA | Indonesian Satellite | |||
| AUSSAT | Australian Satellite | SBS | Satellite Business Systems | |||
| DOD | Department of Defense | SRL | Space Radar Laboratory | |||
| EURECA | European Retrievable Carrier | SSBUV | Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet | |||
| HST | Hubble Space Telescope | SYNCOM | Synchronous Communication Satellite | |||
| IML | International Microgravity Laboratory | TDRS | Tracking and Data Relay Satellite | |||
| ISS | International Space Station | TSS | Tethered Satellite System | |||
| LDEF | Long Duration Exposure Facility | USML | United States Microgravity Laboratory | |||
| MORELOS | Mexican Satellite | USMP | U.S. Microgravity Payload | |||
| MSL | Microgravity Science Laboratory | WSF | Wake Shield Facility | |||
| OSTA | Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications | |||||
| SOURCE: Adapted from Mission Control Center Status Reports, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC, 2004 [Online] http://spaceflight.NASA.gov/shuttle/archives [accessed January 14, 2004] | ||||||
Hundreds of scientific experiments were conducted in orbit. Shuttle crews also serviced and repaired satellites as needed, particularly the Hubble Space Telescope. Between 1995 and 1998 shuttles docked nine times with the Russian space station Mir. Flights to construct the International Space Station (ISS) began in 1998. Shuttles carried major pieces of the ISS into space and traveled to the station sixteen times before the fleet was grounded in 2003.
Despite these accomplishments, the shuttle has not met many of the original goals that NASA set for the program.
FIGURE 4.9
Number of shuttle flights per year
NASA planners had promised that the shuttle would fly dozens of times per year. As shown in Figure 4.9 the most shuttle flights every accomplished in one year was nine flights in 1985. For the twenty-three-year period from 1981 to 2003 the shuttle has averaged less than five flights per year.
NASA also promised that each shuttle orbiter would be good for 100 flights. Figure 4.10 shows the number of flights achieved by each orbiter in the shuttle fleet as of February 2004. Discovery has made thirty flights, the most of any orbiter. Challenger made only ten flights before it was lost. Columbia made twenty-eight flights during its lifetime.
There are only three orbiters left in the fleet: Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. The Discovery shuttle is more than twenty years old and the other two are not much younger. Most of the original facilities and infrastructure built on the ground for the space shuttle program is more than three decades old. NASA spent nearly $3 billion upgrading the shuttle between 1994 and 2003. (See Table 4.6.) However, few of these funds went to replace aging infrastructure. As shown in Figure 4.11 more than 75 percent of this infrastructure will be at least thirty-five years old in the year 2005.
CAIB's 2003 report was extremely critical of the space shuttle program. The panel acknowledges that the shuttle is an "engineering marvel" with a wide range of abilities in Earth orbit. However the CAIB concludes that "the shuttle has few of the mission capabilities that NASA originally promised. It cannot be launched on demand; does not recoup its costs; no longer carries national security payloads; and is not cost-effective enough, nor allowed by law, to carry commercial satellites. Despite efforts to improve its safety, the shuttle remains a complex and risky system."
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