The Space Shuttle
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The shuttle, a manned, multipurpose, orbital-launch space plane, was designed to
carry payloads of up to about 30,000 kg (65,000 lb) and up to seven crew members
and passengers. The upper part of the spacecraft, the orbiter stage, had a
theoretical lifetime of perhaps 100 missions, and the winged o ....
Middle of paper
.... operational mission; the astronauts in the Columbia
deployed two commercial communications satellites from November 11 to 16, 1982.
Later memorable flights included the seventh, whose crew included the first U.S.
woman astronaut, Sally K. Ride; the ninth mission, November 28-December 8, 1983,
which carried the first of the European Space Agency's Spacelabs; the 11th
mission, April 7-13, 1984, during which a satellite was retrieved, repaired, and
redeployed; and the 14th mission, November 8-14 ....
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