Upgrading the Space Shuttle

by U.S. Government

The space shuttle is a unique national resource. One of only two operating vehicles that carries humans into space, the space shuttle functions as a scientific laboratory and as a base for construction, repair, and salvage missions in low Earth orbit. It is also a heavy-lift launch vehicle (able to deliver more than 18,000 kg of payload to low Earth orbit) and the only current means of returning large payloads to Earth. Designed in the 1970s, the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0309063825
• ISBN13: 9780309063821
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Length: 82 Pages