In 1993, Endeavour launched on its STS-61 flight - the first Hubble servicing mission - to fix the problem. Shortly after NASA's Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, scientists noticed that the instrument's images were a bit blurry. It helped save the Hubble Space Telescope This recycling ethic helped keep Endeavour's construction costs down to $1.7 billion, according to NASA officials.Ĥ. These pieces were left over from the construction of the shuttles Discovery and Atlantis. While Endeavour debuted a fair amount of new gear - it was the first shuttle to use a drag parachute during landing, for example, and it featured advanced avionics systems - much of the orbiter was built from spare parts. Endeavour was built on the cheap - sort of Endeavour, was commanded by Britain's James Cook on his epic 18th-century voyage of discovery in the South Pacific (hence the orbiter's British spelling).ģ. Bush announced the winning name in May 1989. The kids were given some guidance - the name had to be based on a historic oceangoing research or exploration vessel. In 1988, NASA staged a national competition among elementary and secondary school students to hang a name on the new shuttle.
Friday's launch will initiate Endeavour's 25th space mission.Įndeavour is the only shuttle to have been named by children. As for the space shuttles, "the proverbial ship has sailed.Congress authorized the construction of Endeavour - NASA's fifth spacegoing shuttle - in 1987, and the orbiter first blasted off in 1992. The privatization of spacecraft building is the beginning of a brand new industry, Beutel said. Eventually, SpaceX also plans to use a version of the capsule to carry astronauts and other paying customers to the space station, and is one of the contenders in the agency's Commercial Crew Development program. "We're on the verge of being able to do that," he said.
These private space companies, such as Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), are developing robotic vessels to carry cargo and supplies to the space station under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Program. Rather than undo all the changes, "our direction for getting to and from the ISS is to turn to commercial companies," Beutel said. Beutel estimates it would take several years to get a retired shuttle space-worthy. There's also the matter of getting qualified people to put the shuttles back together: shuttle technicians and staff have been laid off or shuffled to other departments since their retirement.Ĭonsidering all this, if there were some desperate need to get a space shuttle into space, how long would it take? Probably too long.
(These parts are not compatible with the shuttle.) Workers there are now assembling a test model of the Orion spacecraft, NASA's next-generation craft which will eventually carry astronauts into deep space. Getting fresh ones won't be easy: the assembly line where they used to be manufactured, the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans has been totally repurposed since the shuttles' retirement. Though there are some rocket boosters left in existence, new external tanks were required for every shuttle launch. And it isn't enough just getting the shuttle itself back up to snuff to launch it, NASA would also have to rehabilitate the rest of the launch system, including the solid rocket boosters and external tanks.
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