Who Invented the Space Shuttle?
The space program in the United States has been going for well over 50 years, but who invented the space shuttle? The importance of the space shuttle is immeasurable. The functionality of the shuttle is enough to allow astronauts to launch satellites into orbit, check their operation and repair them if needed. The shuttle can also remove objects from orbit when their missions or lifetime has reached an end.
The shuttle is a reusable launch and reentry vehicle that saves on the costs that were once required to carry out a space mission. The vision of the future is to establish a long term orbiting space station that will be greatly aided by the use of the shuttles or by a newly designed shuttle type vehicle.
Most of the space program grew out of the activities of the Nazi’s at the end of WWII. Their missile program helped to spawn ideas of putting a man in space and bringing him home again. The space program was also played a large role in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. It became a race for the control of space before the other side could do it.
Early Scientists
Many of the early scientists on the space program were from the Nazi missile program. They had the background and understanding to deal with the rockets that would be required to launch missions into outer space. Goddard, von Braun and Oberth were all contributors to the early space program. Bringing the technology and understanding of space flight to a level that would allow safe launching into space a manned vehicle was a daunting task, beginning with looking at missiles launched over short distances within the atmosphere of Earth. The V-2 project of the Nazi’s was a mere starting point.
Who Invented the Space Shuttle?
The initial launches of space crafts were carried out using unmanned vehicles and some animal passengers to test the technology and perfect the techniques before human lives were risked.
The development of the liquid fueled rocket, the Saturn V, was one of the critical elements in achieving manned space flight. The design of von Braun was a breakthrough in rocket technology. The NASA space program also received a boost when President Nixon signed the approval for the development of the space shuttle in 1972.
So, was it Richard Nixon who invented the space shuttle? Of course not, the space shuttle development was a group effort by all the individual groups at NASA. Each group played a role in the production of the space shuttle. Each group worked on the portion of the shuttle that their expertise was best suited for.
The first shuttle produced was the Enterprise and it carried out the initial trials of entering the upper atmosphere and returning to earth with a safe landing. The first fully functional space shuttle was the Colombia, which carried out its first mission in 1981.
Since that time, each successive shuttle has built on the model before it to incorporate newer information learned about the process of launching, as well as the process of carrying out missions in space and returning to the Earth. These endeavors have not been without tragedy. Disasters occurred in 1986 and 2003, each costing the lives of the crew and the shuttle; these were a dear price to pay for progress. In 1986, the Challenger exploded over the Atlantic shortly after takeoff due to a malfunction in the rockets fuel systems. Later in 2003, the Columbia suffered a breakup during reentry after a mission. The wreckage was left across multiple states.
A project of such enormous size as building the space shuttle could not be performed by one man. Granted, there have been many that thought of the idea of a shuttle that could launch and return to Earth. Since the 1950s, people strove towards a shuttle, although the actual production of such a functioning space vehicle was not completed until 1981. During that time, each and every person on the NASA teams and other contractors that worked on the shuttles were responsible for the invention of the space shuttle.
Now you know who invented the space shuttle.