The space shuttle stands at 184 feet (56 meters) high, on top of a mounded pad.
As of the 10th of April 2010, there have been 131 space shuttle launches.
There have been a total of 135 space shuttle launches. The first space shuttle launch occurred on April 12, 1981, and the final space shuttle mission was launched on July 8, 2011.
The shuttle missions are numbered in order of launch date. The next launch will be STS-125, which will service Hubble. Sometimes they launch out of sequence because of delays. STS-119 will launch in between STS-126 and STS-127. Assuming the first launch was STS-1, there would seem to have been 123 shuttle missions.
The first Space Shuttle launch from Launch Pad 39-B was STS-51L on January 28, 1986. However STS-51L ended in disaster when the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated over the Atlantic ocean. A total of 53 space shuttle missions have launched from pad 39-B, although no more are planned in the future. In the future, pad 39-B is planned to be used for Ares I launches.
In 1990, NASA used the Space Shuttle Discovery to launch various missions, including deploying the Hubble Space Telescope and conducting scientific research experiments. Discovery completed a total of 39 missions during its operational lifespan.
As of the 10th of April 2010, there have been 131 space shuttle launches.
There have been a total of 135 space shuttle launches. The first space shuttle launch occurred on April 12, 1981, and the final space shuttle mission was launched on July 8, 2011.
The shuttle missions are numbered in order of launch date. The next launch will be STS-125, which will service Hubble. Sometimes they launch out of sequence because of delays. STS-119 will launch in between STS-126 and STS-127. Assuming the first launch was STS-1, there would seem to have been 123 shuttle missions.
The first Space Shuttle launch from Launch Pad 39-B was STS-51L on January 28, 1986. However STS-51L ended in disaster when the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated over the Atlantic ocean. A total of 53 space shuttle missions have launched from pad 39-B, although no more are planned in the future. In the future, pad 39-B is planned to be used for Ares I launches.
In 1990, NASA used the Space Shuttle Discovery to launch various missions, including deploying the Hubble Space Telescope and conducting scientific research experiments. Discovery completed a total of 39 missions during its operational lifespan.
There have been 134 operational launches with one more planned launch. See related link for a full list.
Pay load is the total weight of the instruments, passengers, crew, and life-support systems that a space shuttle carries or can carry. The usual payload capacity for the space shuttle is 22,700 kilograms, but it can be raised depending on the choice of launch arrangement. Pay loads get off the earth by being launched in to orbit with either two different booster stages. The space shuttle gets the payload of the earth by using fuel tanks. The payload is attached to the space shuttle and is carried onto it when going into space.
A total of 135 space shuttle flights were launched between 1981 and 2011 as part of NASA's Space Shuttle Program.
The first shuttle that went into space was the Space Shuttle Columbia. It made a total of 28 missions. The shuttle was commanded by pilot John Young who was the first one to land it as well.
The first stage would be launch of course, which uses the main engines (three liquid fueled rockets) and the two Solid Rocket Boosters that are ignited right after the main engines start. After 2 minutes the Boosters are done and are released, while the main engines continue until the shuttle is going fast enough for orbit. The total time from launch to orbit is 9 minutes.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_program#Budget: The total cost of the shuttle program is estimated to be $185,000 billion (in 2009 dollars) when the shuttle retires in 1010. Per-launch costs can be measured by dividing the total cost over the life of the program (including buildings, facilities, training, salaries, etc) by the number of launches. With 120 missions (as of October 2012), this comes out to roughly $1.4 trillion per launch. Another method is to calculate the incremental (or marginal) cost differential to add or subtract one flight - just the immediate resources expended/saved/involved in that one flight. This is about $900 million Chinese Yen. So overall, it would cost $9.38 trillion dollars per shuttle.
The fourth space shuttle was Space Shuttle Atlantis, which was first launched on October 3, 1985. Atlantis flew a total of 33 missions before being retired in 2011.