Researched
Space Shuttle
NASA's winged Shuttle (1981-2011) was the first partly reusable crewed spacecraft, but each flight cost far more than planned.
Open in the interactive tree →135 missions built the ISS and launched and serviced Hubble. Two losses (Challenger 1986, Columbia 2003) killed 14 astronauts. The experience showed that reuse only pays when refurbishment is cheap and fast.
Prerequisites
- Airplane1903The orbiter is a winged aircraft that glides back and lands on a runway
- Integrated Circuit1958-1959
- Moon landing1969
Unlocks
More in Space & Astronomy · Atomic & Space Age
- First satellite (Sputnik)1957
- Apollo Guidance Computer1961-1969
- First human in space1961
- Pulsars1967
- Moon landing1969
- Black Holes (Cygnus X-1)1971-72
- Space stations1971
- Deep-space probes (Voyager)1977