The shuttle’s skin contracts slightly while in orbit, then expands during reentry ... either from stored patterns or from measurements of the actual space on the orbiter. In thickness, most ...

for the target orbit to return. The other component of the launch window calculation is the phase window, the period during which launching the shuttle will place it in line behind the ISS and on ...

Operating in orbit demands engineering solutions beyond what any airliner or rocket could offer—and the Space Shuttle ...

The orbiters remain the only winged spacecraft to have made multiple flights into orbit. Over 30 years, 135 flights were made by five shuttles: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis ...