Editing Space Shuttle program (section)

==Program history==
{{see also|Space Shuttle|List of Space Shuttle missions|Timeline of Space Shuttle missions}}
[[File:President Nixon and James Fletcher Discuss the Space Shuttle - GPN-2002-000109.jpg|thumb|right|President [[Richard Nixon]] (right) with [[NASA Administrator]] [[James&nbsp;C. Fletcher|James Fletcher]] in January 1972, three months before Congress approved funding for the Shuttle program]]
[[File:Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests crews.jpg|thumb|Shuttle approach and landing test crews, 1976]]
All Space Shuttle missions were launched from the [[Kennedy Space Center]] (KSC) in Florida. Some civilian and military circumpolar space shuttle missions were planned for [[Vandenberg Air Force Base#Space Shuttle|Vandenberg AFB]] in California. However, the use of Vandenberg AFB for space shuttle missions was canceled after the [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|''Challenger'' disaster]] in 1986. The [[Space shuttle launch commit criteria|weather criteria used for launch]] included, but were not limited to: precipitation, temperatures, cloud cover, lightning forecast, wind, and humidity.<ref name="weather launch criteria">{{cite web|url=http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/release/1999/39-99.htm|title=Space Shuttle Weather Launch Commit Criteria and KSC End of Mission Weather Landing Criteria|work=KSC Release No. 39-99|publisher=NASA Kennedy Space Center|access-date=July 6, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626180630/http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/release/1999/39-99.htm|archive-date=June 26, 2009}}</ref> The Shuttle was not launched under conditions where it could have been struck by [[lightning]].

The first fully functional orbiter was ''[[Space Shuttle Columbia|Columbia]]'' (designated OV-102), built in [[Palmdale, California]]. It was delivered to [[Kennedy Space Center]] (KSC) on March 25, 1979, and was first launched on April 12, 1981—the 20th anniversary of [[Yuri Gagarin]]'s [[Vostok 1|space flight]]—with a crew of two.

''[[Space Shuttle Challenger|Challenger]]'' (OV-099) was delivered to KSC in July 1982, ''[[Space Shuttle Discovery|Discovery]]'' (OV-103) in November 1983, ''[[Space Shuttle Atlantis|Atlantis]]'' (OV-104) in April 1985 and ''[[Space Shuttle Endeavour|Endeavour]]'' (OV-105) in May 1991. ''Challenger'' was originally built and used as a Structural Test Article (STA-099), but was converted to a complete orbiter when this was found to be less expensive than converting ''Enterprise'' from its Approach and Landing Test configuration into a spaceworthy vehicle.

On April 24, 1990, ''Discovery'' carried the [[Hubble Space Telescope]] into space during [[STS-31]].

In the course of 135 missions flown, two orbiters (''Columbia'' and ''Challenger'') suffered catastrophic accidents, with the loss of all crew members, totaling 14 astronauts.

The accidents led to national level inquiries, detailed analysis of why the accidents occurred, and significant pauses where changes were made before the Shuttles returned to flight.<ref name="space.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.space.com/2282-columbias-white-external-fuel-tanks.html|title=Columbia's White External Fuel Tanks|website=[[Space.com]]|date=April 12, 2006}}</ref> After the ''Challenger'' disaster in January 1986, there was a delay of 32 months before the next Shuttle launch.<ref name="history.nasa.gov">{{cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4219/Chapter15.html|title=Return to Flight...Challenger Accident|first=John A.|last=Logsdon}}</ref> A similar delay of 29 months occurred after the [[Space Shuttle Columbia disaster|''Columbia'' disaster]] in February 2003.<ref name="space.com"/>

The longest Shuttle mission was [[STS-80]] lasting 17 days, 15 hours. The final flight of the Space Shuttle program was [[STS-135]] on July 8, 2011.

Since the Shuttle's retirement in 2011, many of its original duties are performed by an assortment of government and private vessels. The European ATV [[Automated Transfer Vehicle]] supplied the ISS between 2008 and 2015. Classified military missions are being flown by the US Air Force's uncrewed [[spaceplane]], the [[X-37B]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Secretive US space plane X-37B lands after record 908 days in orbit|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2346762-secretive-us-space-plane-x-37b-lands-after-record-908-days-in-orbit/|date=November 14, 2022|publisher=New Scientist|access-date=November 27, 2022}}</ref> By 2012, cargo to the International Space Station was already being delivered commercially under NASA's [[Commercial Resupply Services]] by SpaceX's partially reusable [[Dragon spacecraft]], followed by Orbital Sciences' [[Cygnus spacecraft]] in late 2013. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the Russian [[Soyuz (spacecraft)|Soyuz]] and, since 2020, the [[SpaceX Dragon 2]] crew capsule, launched on the company's reusable [[Falcon 9]] rocket as part of NASA's [[Commercial Crew Development|Commercial Crew Development program]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2019/02/06/ | title=NASA, Partners Update Commercial Crew Launch Dates | work=NASA Commercial Crew Program Blog | date=February 6, 2019 }}</ref> [[Boeing Defense, Space & Security|Boeing]]'s [[Boeing Starliner|Starliner]] capsule is scheduled to start ISS crew service from 2025. For missions beyond [[low Earth orbit]], NASA is building the [[Space Launch System]] and the [[Orion spacecraft]], part of the [[Artemis program]].

{|
|[[File:Spacelab Arrival Ceremony at Kennedy Space Center - GPN-2002-000088.jpg|thumb|NASA Administrator address the crowd at the Spacelab arrival ceremony in February 1982. On the podium with him is then-Vice President George Bush, the director general of European Space Agency (ESA), Eric Quistgaard, and director of Kennedy Space Center Richard G. Smith]]
|[[File:Ronald and Nancy Reagan NASA 1982.jpg|thumb|"President Ronald Reagan chats with NASA astronauts [[Henry Hartsfield]] and [[Ken Mattingly]] on the runway as first lady Nancy Reagan inspects the nose of Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' following its Independence Day landing at Edwards Air Force Base on July 4, 1982."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/Features/STS-4_30th_anniversary.html|title=Independence Day at NASA Dryden – 30 Years Ago|first=NASA|last=Administrator|date=March 6, 2016}}</ref>]]
|[[File:STS-3 landing.jpg|thumb|STS-3 lands in March 1982]]
|}