HOME	Travelling on the shuttle

The idea that ordinary people would someday live and work in space has fascinated science fiction fans as well as serious scientists and engineers. The Space Shuttle is a reusable aerospace vehicle that takes off like a rocket, can be maneuvered in space, and lands like an airplane. The spacecraft, called the orbiter, is about the size of a DC-9 commercial jetliner. The orbiter carries people and cargo between the ground and Earth orbit. It can also be used as an observation post in space and as a space platform for a fully equipped laboratory for medical, scientific, engineering, and industrial experiments.

The shuttle Atlantis launches

Landing the shuttle

One of the important things about the Shuttle is the relatively low g-force exerted on crew and passengers during launch and reentry. Launch and reentry forces are less than 4 g's, which is well within the limits which can be tolerated by healthy people. Early rockets had greater g forces, which were hard on the astronaut's bodies.

Now that the ISS (International Space Station) is being built, the shuttle can be used to take people and equipment up the station.

The Italians load Rafaello, part of ISS.