An Airplane-like orbiter that
orbited earth in the 1980s through about 2011. The first
space shuttle was launched in 1983. The shuttle launched from a humungous fuel tank in the middle, followed by two boosters on the side. The space shuttle program, as many consider, was a massive waste of money. since the fuel tanks and boosters were not reusable, new boosters and fuel tanks had to be built for EVERY SINGLE LAUNCH. this, understandably, cost a ton of money out of Nasa's pockets. The last space shuttle that was ever launched was Atlantis in 2011. To add insult to injury, two
space shuttles in history have exploded, killing crew members. Challenger in 1986, and Columbia in 2003.
The shuttle was launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in
Cape Canaveral, Florida. The space shuttle went into space, the side boosters detached, the fuel tank detached, and the actual space shuttle released a satellite into space. the space shuttle came back down and landed in California, then was taken back to florida on a modified Boeing-747.