Rocket
Space Shuttle
United States1981 to 2011
The Space Shuttle is NASA's reusable spaceplane system: an orbiter that lands like a glider, a huge external tank and two solid rocket boosters recovered from the ocean. From 1981 to 2011 five orbiters deploy and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, launch probes such as Galileo and Magellan and build the International Space Station. Challenger is lost during launch in 1986 and Columbia during reentry in 2003.
- Launches
- 135
- Success rate
- 99%
- 1 failure
- Builder
- Rockwell / Martin Marietta / Thiokol
- Height
- 56.1 m
- Diameter
- 8 m
- Stages
- 2
- Boosters
- 2 × SRM
- Propellants
- Solid, LH2 / LOX, MMH / N2O4
- Payload to LEO
- 27,500 kg
- Reusable
- Boosters and second stage
Launches per year
Show as table
| Year | Launches |
|---|---|
| 1981 | 2 |
| 1982 | 3 |
| 1983 | 4 |
| 1984 | 5 |
| 1985 | 9 |
| 1986 | 2 |
| 1988 | 2 |
| 1989 | 5 |
| 1990 | 6 |
| 1991 | 6 |
| 1992 | 8 |
| 1993 | 7 |
| 1994 | 7 |
| 1995 | 7 |
| 1996 | 7 |
| 1997 | 8 |
| 1998 | 5 |
| 1999 | 3 |
| 2000 | 5 |
| 2001 | 6 |
| 2002 | 5 |
| 2003 | 1 |
| 2005 | 1 |
| 2006 | 3 |
| 2007 | 3 |
| 2008 | 4 |
| 2009 | 5 |
| 2010 | 3 |
| 2011 | 3 |