space shuttle(1981-2011)
economic
political
1972, president Nixon announced that NASA would go through with the development of a reusable low cost space shuttle system.
1972, President Richard Nixon signs a bill approving $5.5 billion to develop a reusable winged space transportation system called the space shuttle.
After beating the Soviets to the moon, NASA needed some new goals. Apollo ends and the shuttle program begins
1984, President Reagan’s State of the Union address directs NASA to start working on a space station.
1983, sally ride becomes the first American woman astronaut on the STS-7 flight of Challenger.
1988, The first shuttle flight after the Challenger disaster. Discovery launches a satellite.
January 28, 1986, 7 people are killed including the first teacher going into space. the space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds into flight
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The president thought the plan was far too expensive for NASA's budget, which had been cut from a high of $5.9 billion in 1966 to $4.25 billion in 1969.
2003, Fifteen minutes before completing its 28th mission, Columbia breaks up with the loss of all seven crew members.
2011, When the space shuttle Atlantis rolled into the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, NASA officially retired its Space Shuttle program after 30 years of service.
while they were trying to get familiar of space NASA's funding kept drying up. By 1972, Nixon had cut it to $3.4 billion
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Nixon announcing the space program
sally ride
450 million per mission
NASA estimated the program would cost 7.43 billion USD
In total from the space shuttle program 6 shuttles came out of it Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour
In the space shuttle program there was 133 successes and only two failures
- the challenger (launch failure)
- Columbia ( reentry failure)
- 14 fatalities in total
the actual cost for the space shuttle program 1981- 2011 was 196 billion