Icons of the Sky: Space Shuttle Missions Quiz

Mission STS-31, using the Space Shuttle Discovery, deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. This was a landmark mission because Hubble allowed scientists to see further into the universe than ever before, helping us determine the scale and age of our solar system and beyond.

True. Mission STS-1 was the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle program. Launched on April 12, 1981, it proved that a reusable winged spacecraft could launch like a rocket and land like a glider, changing the way humans accessed space.

In 1983, Sally Ride flew on Challenger during mission STS-7. This was a historic moment for NASA, breaking gender barriers in space exploration and inspiring a new generation of scientists and astronauts.

Unlike previous capsules like Apollo, the shuttle was designed to be reusable. The orbiter and solid rocket boosters were refurbished after each flight, which was intended to make travel to low-Earth orbit more frequent and less expensive.

The operational fleet included Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Enterprise was a test vehicle that never flew in space, and Apollo was an earlier program using different technology.

After Hubble was launched, scientists realized its primary mirror had a flaw. In 1993, the crew of STS-61 performed a series of complex spacewalks to install corrective optics, essentially giving the telescope "glasses" so it could see clearly.

False. The Space Shuttle was an LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) vehicle. It operated about 200–400 miles above Earth. It did not have enough fuel or shielding to travel the 238,000 miles to the Moon.

On August 30, 1983, mission STS-8 was launched, marking a significant milestone in NASA's history of diversity and inclusion. Bluford served as a mission specialist on the shuttle Challenger.

The shuttle was the "workhorse" of space. It carried massive components to build the ISS, acted as a floating laboratory, and could even grab broken satellites from orbit to fix them in the cargo bay.

After the final mission (STS-135), the remaining shuttles were retired to museums. Discovery is at the Smithsonian, Atlantis is at Kennedy Space Center, and Endeavour is at the California Science Center.

True. The SRBs provided the majority of the thrust during the first two minutes of flight. Once empty, they detached and fell into the ocean via parachute to be recovered and reused.

During STS-41-B in 1984, Bruce McCandless II floated freely in space without a safety tether, using a jet-powered backpack. This allowed astronauts much more freedom to move around the shuttle's cargo bay.

Following the tragic loss of Columbia in 2003, NASA spent two years improving safety. Discovery led the return to space in 2005, testing new techniques for inspecting the shuttle's heat shield while in orbit.

The shuttle was the first spacecraft of its kind. It didn't splash down in the ocean; it glided to a runway landing. Its massive cargo bay allowed it to carry school-bus-sized payloads into orbit.

Spacelab was a modular laboratory developed by Europe that fit inside the shuttle's cargo bay. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in biology, chemistry, and physics in microgravity before returning the results to Earth.

True. The shuttle Atlantis flew the 135th and final mission of the program in July 2011. This ended 30 years of shuttle history, transitioning NASA toward commercial partnerships like SpaceX and the new Artemis program.

The massive orange External Tank carried the liquid hydrogen and oxygen for the main engines. Once it was empty, it was jettisoned and burned up in the atmosphere. It was the only major part of the shuttle system that was not recovered.

Between 1998 and 2011, dozens of shuttle missions carried modules, solar arrays, and trusses to assemble the ISS piece by piece. The shuttle's robotic arm and large cargo bay were essential for this massive engineering project.

NASA made over 100 changes to the shuttle system to make it safer, including redesigning the joints on the boosters and giving the crew a way to bail out of the orbiter if it was in a stable glide.

John Young, a veteran of the Gemini and Apollo programs, commanded the first flight alongside pilot Robert Crippen. They took a huge risk by flying a brand-new vehicle that had never been tested in space before.