Current Programs

In the early 1980s, the Space Transportation System (STS), better known as the space shuttle, became the major U.S. space program. Problems with the STS later led to resumption of the use of expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) for launching satellites. The United States had planned to replace the space shuttle with a new spacecraft, the X-30, in the 1990s but, faced with budgetary constraints, decided to rely instead on a mixed fleet of ELVs and space shuttles to place payloads into orbit for the remainder of the decade.

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