How many parts of the U.S. space shuttle?

April 1969, NASA proposed the construction of a reusable space launch vehicle plan. 1972 January, the United States formally put the development of the space shuttle space transportation system included in the plan to determine the design of the space shuttle, that is, by the recovery of reusable solid rocket boosters, not recycled two external fuel tanks and can be used many times the orbiter is composed of three parts. After five years, in February 1977 developed a Venture Space Shuttle orbiter, carried by the Boeing 747 aircraft for on-board testing. June 18, 1977, the first manned test flight on the back of an aircraft in the sky, to participate in the test flight of astronauts Haise (C-F-Haise) and Fullerton (G-Fullerton) two people. August 12, manned flight on the aircraft The test was successfully completed. After another four years, the first manned space shuttle finally appeared on the space stage, which is another milestone in the history of space technology development.

The space shuttle is a kind of vertical takeoff, horizontal landing manned spacecraft, it is rocket engine powered launch into space, can run on the orbit, and can go back and forth between the earth's surface and near-Earth orbit, can be partially reused spacecraft. It consists of three main parts: the orbiter, the solid fuel booster rocket and the external storage tank. Solid fuel booster rockets *** two, when launched, they and the orbiter's three main engines ignited at the same time, when the space shuttle rises to 50 kilometers high, the two booster rockets to stop working and separated from the orbiter, after the recovery of repairs can be reused 20 times. The external storage tank is a huge shell, filled with propellant for the main engine of the orbiter, before the shuttle enters earth orbit the main engine is turned off, the external storage tank is separated from the orbiter and burned up in the atmosphere, the external storage tank is the only part of the shuttle components that cannot be recycled. The orbiter is the manned portion of the Shuttle, with a large cabin that is divided into several "rooms" according to the needs of the space mission. There is a large cargo bay that can accommodate large equipment. The orbiter can carry three professional astronauts (e.g. commander or captain, pilot, mission specialists, etc.) and four other crew members (non-professional astronauts). Its cabin atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. After the Space Shuttle completes its mission in space orbit, the Orbiter descends for return, landing horizontally on a predetermined runway like a glider. The orbiter can be reused up to 100 times.

The Space Shuttle is a rocket-powered aircraft designed to cross the boundary between the atmosphere and space (the Carmen Line at an altitude of 100 kilometers). It is a winged, reusable spacecraft that is launched out of the atmosphere by an auxiliary launch vehicle as a means of transportation between Earth and outer space.The Space Shuttle combines the properties of an airplane and a spacecraft, resembling a winged spacecraft in the shape of an airplane. The Shuttle's wings provide air brakes when returning to Earth and lift when descending to a runway. The Shuttle ascends vertically into space with rocket power like any other single-use vehicle. Because of its wings, the Shuttle has a low payload ratio. The designers hoped to compensate for this with reusability.

While many countries around the world have pursued shuttle development, only the United States and the former Soviet Union have actually launched and recovered such vehicles. However, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the takeover of related equipment by Kazakhstan, the entire space program was halted due to a lack of funding to maintain operations, and as a result, only the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet is currently available for use in actual missions.

On April 12, 1981, millions of people gathered at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral to watch the launch of the first space shuttle, Columbia. Astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen opened a new page in space history.

The shuttle has an overall length of about 56 meters, a wingspan of about 24 meters, a takeoff weight of about 2,040 tons, a total takeoff thrust of 2,800 tons and a maximum payload of 29.5 tons. Its core part, the orbiter, is 37.2 meters long, roughly the size of a DC-9 airliner. It can carry up to eight astronauts per flight for 7 to 30 days, and the orbiter can be reused up to 100 times. The space shuttle set of rockets, satellites and airplanes in one of the technical characteristics, like rockets can be launched vertically into space orbit, but also like satellites in space orbit flight, but also like an airplane re-entry into the atmosphere glide landing, is a new type of multi-functional space vehicle.

From 1981 to the end of 1993, the U.S. a **** five space shuttles made 59 flights, including 15 times the Columbia shuttle, Challenger 10 times, Discovery 17 times, Atlantis 12 times, Endeavour 5 times. Each flight carried between two and eight astronauts and lasted from two to 14 days. In 12 years, there have been 301 Shuttle flights, including 18 female astronauts. In the 59 flights of the Space Shuttle, more than 50 satellites were released in space, 2 space stations were carried to the space orbit, 3 cosmic probes, 1 space telescope and 1 γ-ray detector were launched, satellite space recovery and space repair were carried out, a series of scientific experiments were carried out, and fruitful results of exploration experiments were achieved.