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On this page, you will be amazed by all the
information you will learn! On this site you will learn all the awesome history
of space shuttles from the past. With a click of the links below, you will be
blasted into the history of the space shuttles history and purpose!
The Discovery was the third orbiter to become operational at the Kennedy Space Center and was named after one of the two ships of British explorer James Cook, but we don't need to be talking about a ship right now.
When the people at the Kennedy Space Center began making the Discovery, they had to make sure that they upgraded the features the right way. For example, after it was constructed, it weighed 6,870 pounds less than the Columbia.
Columbia, the oldest orbiter in the Shuttle fleet was named after Robert Gray's ship in 1792. Since we really don't need to know that , so lets just get down to business!
Columbia was the orbiter to undergo the first inspection and retrofit program. It was transported in August 10, 1991, after its complete mission of #STS - 40, to the Shuttle contractor at Rockwell International's Palmdale, California assembly plant. The Columbia underwent almost 50 modifications including: carbon brakes, drag chute, a better steering wheel, upgrades on its thermal projection system, upgrades on the main landing gear thermal barrier, tire pressure monitoring system, and radiator drive system. The Columbia was an excellent vehicle until the shuttle and the crew unfortunately were lost on February 1, 2003.
The Atlantis was the fourth orbiter to become operational at the KSC, was named after a research vessel . Once again, we don't really need to know that, so on with the chase!
The Atlantis was changed from lessons learned from all the shuttles from the earlier ones. Here are some of its upgrades:~ it weighed 6,947 lbs. less than the Columbia ~completed with a 49.5 % reduction in man hours (compared to the Columbia) ~ greater use in thermal protection blankets on the upper orbiter body instead of tiles ~during construction, NASA decided to have various contractors to manufacture a set of "structural spares" ~ the contract was valued at $389 million because of all the spares!
