In 1986 seven astronauts, including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, died when the space shuttle Challenger broke apart just after launch. In addition to its many triumphs, though, the space shuttle made an impact with its tragedies. The first American of Jewish descent and the oldest person to ever enter space flew on the shuttle, too." The first American female and African-American entered space on the shuttle. "Many nations saw their first citizen enter space aboard the shuttle, including Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Spain. "One of the greatest legacies of the space shuttle has been its ability to open space to more and different types of people," Pearlman said. Nations that were once adversaries, including the United States and Russia, now exchange crew to fly on each other's spacecraft. In addition to delivering space hardware for assembly, the shuttle has brought people together. It takes people and it takes parts up to space, and it comes back and gins up for another mission."
"The space shuttle's like an 18-wheeler in the sky. "The space shuttle has been the workhorse of space up to this point," said STS-134 pilot Greg H. The shuttle has the largest cargo-carrying capacity of any spaceship flying today and has delivered most of the biggest man-made objects to space. When the observatory initially produced blurry images because of a fault in its mirror, astronauts aboard the space shuttle made a nail-biting repair visit to fix the optics. The shuttle also launched the Hubble Space Telescope, which has offered humanity an unprecedented view of the cosmos and reshaped our understanding of cosmology. This is the hugest, biggest piece of space hardware that human beings have ever built, and we couldn’t have done it without the space shuttle – even the Russians admit that." "It has such a great historic, amazing record," NASA astronaut Michael Fincke, who is also slated to ride on Endeavour's final flight, told. The space shuttle has been integral to many of the most impressive space achievements over the last three decades. "The space shuttle was also the world's first reusable crewed orbital spacecraft."
"It was the first launch vehicle to lift off like a rocket, orbit the Earth as a spacecraft and then land as a glider," said space history and artifacts expert Robert Pearlman, editor of. MMOD impact damage to the following ISS modules/subsystems is described: (1) Solar Arrays, (2) US and Russian windows, (3) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) handrails, (4) Radiators, and (5) Russian Functional Cargo Block (FGB) module.When it first arrived on the scene in 1981, the space shuttle was revolutionary. In addition, a discussion of significant MMOD impact sites with operational or design aspects is presented. A description of the largest observed damage features is provided in the paper. All of this returned hardware was subjected to detailed post-flight inspections for MMOD damage, and a database with over 1,400 impact records has been collected. In addition, a reusable logistics module was deployed on ISS for a total 59.4 days on 11 shuttle missions between 20 and then brought back in the shuttle payload bay. A handful of orbital replacement units (ORUs) from the ISS active thermal control and electrical power subsystems were swapped out and returned during the Space Shuttle program. Subsequent ground inspection of this hardware has also contributed to the database of ISS MMOD impact damage. Numerous pieces of space-exposed ISS hardware were returned during space shuttle missions.
Characterization of these features as MMOD or non- MMOD is difficult, but can be partially accomplished by matching physical characteristics of the damage against typical MMOD impact damage observed on ground-based impact tests. Closer inspection of these surfaces by astronauts during spacewalks reveals many smaller features that are typically less distinct. MMOD damage sites visible from ISS windows are typically larger – approximately 5mm diameter and greater – due to the larger viewer-to-surface distance. Several hundred MMOD damage sites on ISS have been documented using imagery taken from ISS windows. Observations of MMOD Impact Damage to the ISS This paper describes meteoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) damage observations on the International Space Station (ISS).