Space the Final Frontier

Space The Final Frontier

The Shuttle Era Begins

The Challenger Disaster

Back into Space

The International Space Station

Seti League

During the 1950's and the 1960's, aviation researchers worked to develop winged rocket planes. Advocates of winged spaceplanes pointed out that such vehicles could land on ordinary airfields. Adding wings to a spacecraft increases the vehicle's weight, but wings make landing the vehicle much easier and cheaper than splashdowns at sea. Ocean landings require many ships and aircraft, and the salt water usually damages the spacecraft beyond repair.

NASA began to develop a reusable space shuttle while the Apollo program was still underway. In 1972, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed an executive order that officially started the space shuttle project. The shuttles were designed to blast off like a rocket and land like an airplane, making up to 100 missions.

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