Hon+3

-Enterprise was the first Space Shuttle Orbiter. The orbiter's been at a museum (McDonnell Space Hangar at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia) since it opened last December, but the space hangar has been closed off while workers refurbished the Enterprise. -Enterprise never flew in space, but it was crucial to the Space Shuttle program. It tested aproach and landingsin 1977. It proved that the shuttle could fly and land in the atmosphere like an airplaine. It does it without power though, like a glider. Astronaut Gordon Fullerton piloted the Enterprise to its first landing alongside Apollo 13 veteran, Fred Haise. -After that, Enterprise was flown to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. There it was joined with the external tank and solid rocket boosters. It was subjected to vertical ground vibration tests. Then it was sent to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There it was put on the launch pad to act as a stand in as NASA prepaired for the first shuttle launch. -Origianally it was to be named the Constitution, but people who watched "Star Trek" wanted it to be called Enterprise. It worked and the crew of the show got a first hand look at it in California. || Atlantis began construction on March 3, 1980. It was completed in half the time spent on Columbia. Scientists used large thermal protection blankets on the orbiter's upper body, so it required less attention. On STS-79, the fourth docking mission, Atlantis ferried astronaut Shannon Lucid back to Earth after her record-setting 188 days in orbit aboard Mir. //The new orbiter arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 9, 1985, and over the next seven months was prepared for her maiden voyage.// || -In the late 1970's, NASA wanted a lighter weight orbiter but a test was needed to see if it could hold the pressure of space flight. Computer software wasn't advanced enough to predict what would happen to teh material so they put it under a year of intensive vibration and intensive thermal testing. -The second orbiter to join the Space Shuttle program, OV-099, created in 1979 from STA-099, was called "Challenger." They didn't reconstruct their first shuttle, the Enterprise, because it would have been too much demolition and changes -It was finished in 1982 -Challenger was named after the British Naval research vessel, the HMS Challenger that sailed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870s. -It was launched her first time on April 4, 1983. It was the first spacewalk of the Space Shuttle program. It was also the deployment of the first satellite in the Tracking and Data Relay System constellation. -The orbiter launched the first American woman, Sally Ride, into space. Later it was the first to carry two U.S. female austronauts.
 * Category 3 – Shuttle Missions **
 * Enterprise || NASA Shuttle || [[image:http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/68094main1_nasm_ent_516.jpg width="516" height="336" caption="Space Shuttle Enterprise"]]
 * Atlantis || NASA Shuttle || Atlantis is NASA's fourth space-rated space shuttle. It was named after a boat that served as the primary research ship for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts from 1930 to 1966.
 * Challenger || NASA Shuttle || - It was first called STA-099. It was also origionally biult at a test vehical for the Space Shuttle program.

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 * Discovery || NASA Shuttle || OV-103, or Discovery was NASA's third shuttle orbiter. It arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in November 1983. It was launched on august 30, 1984 to deploy three communication satalites. Since it's first flight, discovery has completed more than 30 successfull missions. That is more than any other orbiter in NASA. Discovery carried the Hubble Space telescope into space three times, Hubble's first time in April 1990, and Hubble's scond and third times in February 1997 and December of 1999.
 * Columbia || NASA Shuttle || Columbia was the nation's first reusable Space shuttle. She was launched on April 12, 1981. She was named after the first vessel to circle the globe. She was the heaviest of NASA's orbiters. While she was too heavy and lacked the equipment for the construction of the International Space Station, she carried the Spacelab. Spacelab could be mounted with various instruments. It helpd in astronomy and biology and many other sciences. Columbia took Dr. Ulf Merbold, the first Europian Space Angency astronaut in 1983. Chiaki Mukai was teh first japanese woman to flyl in space in 1994. Teh crew of one of her flights even "threw" the ceremonial first pitch for the fifth game of the 1995 baseball world series. That was the first time the pitcher was outside the stadium and outside the world. Columbia also carried the Chanda X-ray Observatory in July 1999. The telescope was released on July 23 and is still in flight today collecting information from deep space answering fundemental space questions. Columbia and her crew were lost in 2003. She was sent up form the Kennedy Space Center on january 16. A piece of foam fell off the orange external fuel tank and hit the left wing. It created a hole in the wing's leading edge, causing it to fall apart during reentry on February 1st.

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 * Endeavor || NASA Shuttle ||  ||
 * STS 1 – Columbia || NASA Shuttle || She was launched on April 12, 1981. John Young had already flown in space 4 times. The pilot was a Navy test pilot. Before, nothing but the cap and crew would return but teh STS 1 mission was teh first reusable orbiter. the only thing that wouldn't be reused was teh external fuel tank. Even the boosters would be reused after being recovered from the ocean. About 7 a.m. the rocket set off and eight minutes later, was orbiting the earth at over 17,000 mph. After 36 orbits and 55 hrs, she came back down. She completed over 130 flight test objectives.

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 * STS-51L – Challenger || NASA Shuttle || -Sorry it's so late, but at least it's here!

Chalenger was launched on january 28, 1986. The first launch was schedualed for January 22 but there were delays. The take off was first unusual because of blackish smoke very early in the launch. The first flame was noticed at about 60 seconds into the launch. At about 72 seconds everything fell appart. Hydrogen and liquid oxygen began to burn. At an altitude of 46,000 ft. the Challenger was engulfed in flames. She exploeded because of an o-ring failure in the right solid rocket booster. Cold weather didn't help either.

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 * STS 107 – Columbia || NASA Shuttle || STS-107 successfully carried NASA Glenn Research Center's Combustion Module-2 and its three experiments in the SPACEHAB module. CM-2 provided the answers for many research questions ||

NASA Space Shuttles http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html