The orbiter Enterprise was the very first Shuttle built for the program, but the ship wasn’t even fitted with engines; it was exclusively used for gliding tests and it never left Earth’s atmosphere. It was the second ship, Columbia, that had the honor of being the first orbiter to reach space. In so many waysContinue reading “Space Shuttle – Chapter 5 – The Columbia Disaster.”
Tag Archives: Space Shuttle Program
Space Shuttle – Chapter 4 – The Atlantis Close Call
On the 2nd of December, 1988, the Orbiter Atlantis successfully took off from Kennedy Space Center at 09:30 EST, carrying a crew of five. The STS-27 mission was top-secret, one of those rare occasions when the Space Shuttle program was used for military purposes. Tucked inside the cargo bay was a surveillance satellite, commissioned byContinue reading “Space Shuttle – Chapter 4 – The Atlantis Close Call”
Space Shuttle – Chapter 3 – The Challenger Disaster
It was unusually cold on the morning of January 28, 1986, and orbiter Challenger had spent the overnight on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The first thing the engineers noticed that morning was ice crystals around the ship and the equipment. That was not a good sign. The ship was (supposedly)Continue reading “Space Shuttle – Chapter 3 – The Challenger Disaster”
The Classic Machines 