Final Touchdown

Image from the NASA HSF Space Shuttle Gallery

 

 

Final Touchdown

The Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System (STS), is an American spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. The system is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches and almost thirty years. Major missions have included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, and servicing and construction of space stations. The Shuttle has been used for orbital space missions by NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, and Germany.

Under the current plans, Atlantis will be the first of the three remaining operational Shuttles to be retired as the program winds down. To fill the void left by the Shuttle's retirement, a new spacecraft is being developed to ferry not only passengers and cargo to the International Space Station but also to travel beyond Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Originally called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the concept has evolved into the Orion spacecraft and the project named Project Constellation.

The Shuttle Discovery has already been promised to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, and Atlantis, Endeavour, and Enterprise are planned to be sold to other education institutions or museums for $28.8 million each.

What follows is a listing of some of the titles at the Patchogue-Medford Library for learning about the Shuttle program's past, as well as some fictious Shuttle missions and some sites on the World Wide Web for keeping up-to-date with the latest on the program's final days.

T-Minus 10, 9, 8...