• Key Information

  • Space Shuttle

  • Type
    Mission
  • Height
    184 ft
  • Weight
    Up to 4,480,000 lb
  • First Mission
    (12 April 1981)
  • Last Mission
    (21 July 2011)
  • Orbiters
    Enterprise (test vehicle) Columbia (lost in 2003), Challenger (lost in 1986), Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour
  • Learning Point
  • The Space Shuttle is one of the most iconic and famous of all the launch vehicles used in space exploration. The shuttles undertook many important missions, including launching and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, and constructing the International Space Station.
  • Project
  • Draw one of the Space Shuttles in one of its missions.
  • Location
  • Located in
    Merritt Island, Florida, USA
  • Fun Facts
  • The first designs for the Space Shuttle started in the mid-1960s, with the initial plan announced in 1968.
  • The Enterprise never flew into space, but was designed to test the systems.
  • The Endeavour was built to replace the Challenger after it was lost in 1986.
  • The Space Shuttles had 135 missions, of which 133 were completed successfully.
  • The Challenger and Columbia failures set back the Space Shuttle program as fixes and tests were introduced to remove the issues that caused the disasters.