On April 12, 1981 , exactly 20 years after the first manned space flight, Vostok 1, carrying Soviet Lieutenant Commander Gagarin, who praised the Earth's beauty by saying, "The Earth was blue," NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) launched the Space Shuttle Columbia from the Kennedy Space Center.
After the successful manned landing of Apollo 11, public interest in space development rapidly waned, and criticism was leveled at the massive expense of space development. NASA therefore came up with the Space Shuttle Plan, a space transportation system that could travel between Earth and space multiple times at low cost by reusing expensive launch vehicles instead of the conventional disposable type, and approved it in November 1972.
The Space Shuttle is composed of an orbiter, an external fuel tank, and two solid fuel rockets. The orbiter can carry up to seven crew members and up to 29,500 kg of cargo. After being launched by the rocket and completing its work in space, it re-enters the atmosphere and glides to land. It is then inspected and serviced before heading back into space.
In addition, the two solid fuel rockets that have fallen into the ocean are retrieved and used again. The missions of the Space Shuttle include the installation, repair, and recovery of artificial satellites, the development of solar thermal power plants, the manufacture of alloys and medicines that utilize the properties of space, the construction of the International Space Station and colonies, and military use.
*Information from the time the plastic model was released.
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Aircraft data: Orbiter
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Length: 37.24m
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Width: 23.79m
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Height: 17.27m
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Weight: 96,163kg (at landing)
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Main engine thrust: 170,000 x 3
- Maximum number of crew members: 7