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| The Space Shuttle, Still Young at 100 |
| Safer, More Capable and More Reliable Than Ever Before 1. The shuttle has amassed an amazing array of accomplishments in the past 20 years: It has launched 3 million pounds of cargo and almost 600 (596 counting the STS-92 crew) passengers and pilots. The shuttle fleet has cumulatively spent almost three years in flight (2 years, 336 days, 14 hours, 47 minutes, 59 seconds to be exact, not including the planned duration of STS-92). The fleet has amassed more than 15 years of passenger-hours in space. Over 850 payloads have flown, including hundreds of individual experiments. The Shuttle has deployed more than 60 payloads and retrieved more than two dozen. The shuttle has traveled more than 345 million miles (not including STS-92) and completed more than 13,500 orbits of Earth (exactly 13,573, not including STS-92). 2. The shuttle has enabled us to make unprecedented discoveries about ourselves, our planet and our universe. The shuttle has supported two space stations, made three maintenance flights to the Hubble Space Telescope and launched planetary missions to study Jupiter, Venus and the Sun. All of NASA's |
