After twenty-five years of service and thirty-two missions, the Space Shuttle Atlantis was decommissioned. It is named after the first American oceanographic ship. In the shuttle fleet, the fourth was built and the second was the youngest. Its first flight into space took place on October 3, 1985, when it carried a satellite of the United States Department of Defense. In total, he flew into orbit with the Pentagon’s payload five times.
During his twenty-five years of service, he launched the Magellan probes to Venus and Galileo to Jupiter, carried the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, flew 7 times to the Mir station and 11 times to the ISS. A year ago, it set off on the fifth servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Atlantis launched into space only half a year after its rollout. It was the first space shuttle to launch an interplanetary probe. Its longest mission lasted almost 14 days. It delivered the European Columbus laboratory, the American Destiny laboratory, the Quest module, six trusses (S0, S1, P3, P4, S3, S4) and solar panels to the ISS. The total number of astronauts and cosmonauts who flew in Atlantis has reached 155. Of these, 146 completed their entire mission on Atlantis, the rest used the shuttle as a means of transport to the orbital station. The total distance traveled by Atlantis during its flights is 1010 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
By the time the space shuttles are coming to an end, we actually know how we should build them properly. Today, it would not have to have triple hydraulics, because engines with sufficient torque are available. A lighter heat shield can be made, and better alloys and composites are available. Space shuttles are expensive, but it’s not their fault. If there were no pressure to have research centers and factories scattered throughout the United States, expensive transportation, disassembly, packaging, and reassembly would be eliminated. In the case of their more frequent flights, the price of one would not be so enormous. Most of the costs are unnecessarily large infrastructure. There was a lack of will to improve. Almost all of the space shuttle innovation programs were cut by Congress with the justification of: “You're flying around, so leave it alone.”
The Space Shuttle is the only real spacecraft. During its journey to orbit, it will irretrievably lose only the fuel tank. Upon return, the necessary maintenance is carried out, a large fuel tank is supplied, renewed side boosters are added and it is able to launch again. On the other hand, ships such as Apollo or Soyuz return from space in the form of a small capsule with a crew. Transporting cargo from orbit to Earth is not possible in them. The Space Shuttle serves its purpose very well – to transport cargo into or out of orbit on a cheap basis. Each of its three main engines weighs more than the first spacecraft. However, it is necessary to realize that the robustness of the space shuttle in order to transport engines back to Earth has an economic function. This will reduce the cost of each launch by two-thirds.