Sushil Shrestha
Early study of Space Shuttle began before Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 when President Nixon formed the space task group. The group evaluated the feasible study of reusable space vehicle. During the earlier period, there was a debate on optimal design of vehicle that balanced the capability, development and operational cost. Once the problem was solved, President Nixon formally announced the development of space shuttle in 1972. The inception of space shuttle is the idea of Von Braun in early 1950s. Space exploration, in the von Braun paradigm included the following sequential steps: Put a human in space; develop a reusable spacecraft, making access to space cheaper and easier; use this vehicle to build …show more content…
Shuttle was used in spacelab mission as well as construction of ISS. Shuttle was used to send crew to Mir and ISS and servicing and repairing them. Shuttle was also used to repair Hubble Space telescope and other orbiting satellites. It helped in performing manned experiment in Low earth orbits. Though the shuttle mission was hugely successfully, it did not reduce mission cost as previously thought. Moreover, there were many issues such as design, management, and safety.
The space station were envisioned since early 20th century when science fictional writer published the book about the rotating wheel for space travel. Earlier space station was planned by US air force named as MOL but it was cancelled later. Meanwhile Russian military launched Almaz as response to US MOL but later it was cancelled too. After the cancellation of military space station, civilian space station were launched. Among them, Skylab was launched by US in 1973 and operated till 1979.It consisted of a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. Mir station was launched by USSR I 1986 and operated till 2001. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy meteorology and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space. The station was launched as part of the Soviet Union 's manned spaceflight Programme effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space. Salyut was another space station launched by USSR in 1971 and operated till 1986. The program was composed of DOS (Durable Orbital Station) civilian stations and OPS (Orbital Piloted Station) military