High Energy Astronomy Observatory program

Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF).

Hubble Space Telescope – ESA partnership.

Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).

NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) – National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE).

Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) – five consecutive launches, 80 seconds apart on March 27, 2012, studied the high-altitude jet stream.

Unmanned missions Main article: Unmanned NASA missions Suborbital It will be succeeded by Exploration Mission 2, sending a crewed Orion spacecraft to an undetermined location in the early 2020s. This mission will send an uncrewed Orion capsule around the Moon. Orion's next flight, along with the first SLS flight, is slated to launch no later than November 2018, with the designation of Exploration Mission 1. Orion will be powered by NASA's new heavy lift vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), which is currently under development. NASA plans to use the Orion crew vehicle to send humans to deep space locations such as the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids, and Mars starting in the 2020s. After a near perfect flight traveling 3600 miles above Earth, the spacecraft was recovered for study. NASA brought the Orion MPCV back to life from the defunct Constellation Program and successfully test launched the first capsule on Decemaboard EFT-1. Constellation was officially cancelled by the NASA Budget Authorization Act on 11 October 2010. In February 2010, Obama announced his proposal to cancel the Constellation Program as part of the 2011 Economic Projects. It presented its results on October 22, 2009. The panel worked closely with NASA and sought input from the United States Congress, the White House, the public, industry, and international partners as it developed its options. The 'Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans' was to examine ongoing and planned National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA) development activities, as well as potential alternatives and present options for advancing a safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable human space flight program in the years following Space Shuttle retirement. The review was conducted by a panel of experts led by Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, who served on the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology under both Democrat and Republican presidents. human space flight activities with the goal of ensuring that the nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space. On the Obama Administration announced the launch of an independent review of planned U.S. Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)īalloon-borne 36-inch (91.4 cm) reflecting telescope

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (NASA/DLR) with open telescope doors, allowing engineers to understand how air flows in and around the telescope. Notes: Template:Listref/reflist Airborne observatories Joint with Russia, Canada, ESA, and JAXA along with co-operators ASI and AEB The crewed missions only took place in 19 first American space stationĬancelled program to bring humans to the Moon again, to Mars and beyondįirst missions in which a spacecraft was reused Program used to practice space rendezvous and EVAs ( Apollo 1 in 1967 lost three crew members but never launched. Two have ended in failure, causing the death of the entire crew: STS-51-L ( the Challenger disaster) in 1986, and STS-107 ( the Columbia disaster) in 2003. NASA has successfully launched over 100 manned flights. In addition, the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid was the recovery ship for the Mercury MA-7 and Gemini 3 missions.Human spaceflight Main article: Human spaceflight The Apollo 12 LM was named Intrepid, and three of the orbiters - Columbia, Challenger, and Endeavour - shared names with Apollo CMs or LMs. Note that Contact was written before the loss of Challenger.Īs far as I know, there was no list of names for unbuilt STS orbiters, but Intrepid is a quite plausible name for an orbiter in an alternate history. After the loss of Challenger, NASA resumed production of Endeavour in September 1987.

Construction of OV-105, later named Endeavour, began in February 1982, but NASA decided to limit the Space Shuttle fleet to four orbiters in 1983. On January 29, 1979, NASA ordered two additional orbiters, OV-103 and OV-104, which were named Discovery and Atlantis. Later that month, Rockwell began converting STA-099 to OV-099, later named Challenger. On January 5, 1979, NASA commissioned a second orbiter. The original plan was for a large fleet of shuttles to support a very high mission flight rate, but according to Wikipedia, by 1983, the plan was to hold the fleet at four orbiters (not counting Enterprise, which was not spaceworthy):

Nasa space shuttle names list