Space Shuttle Facts
Space Shuttle Facts
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| Interesting Space Shuttle Facts: |
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| The length of the space shuttle is 184 feet and it weighs 4.5 million pounds. |
| The space shuttle was the first piece of space exploration technology that was reusable. |
| Although over 600 astronauts have flown to outer space on the space shuttle, only about seven can fly out at one time. |
| The longest orbit of the space shuttle lasted 17 ½ days. |
| The space shuttle takes off like a rocket yet lands like a plane. |
| The fuel for the space shuttle is mostly made of oxygen and hydrogen. |
| Most space shuttle launches occurred during the day time. |
| The first space shuttle test flight took place in 1981. |
| The space shuttle completed 135 missions. |
| The space shuttle retired in 2011 so that NASA could concentrate on cheaper methods for space exploration that includes exploring outside of our solar system. |
| There have been five space shuttles which were named Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. |
| All space shuttles launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. |
| The Challenger and Columbia were both destroyed in accidents where a total of 14 astronauts lost their lives. |
| Before a space shuttle could launch weather conditions such as precipitation, lightning, wind, and humidity were strongly considered. |
| Space shuttles were not equipped with software that could handle a year change while in orbit so missions never took place between December and January. |
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