This article is about the NASA Space Shuttle. For information on the Soviet space shuttle, see the article Shuttle Buran.

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System (STS), is the United States government's current manned launch vehicle. The winged shuttle orbiter is launched vertically, usually carrying five to seven astronauts (although eight have been carried) and up to 22,700 kg (50,000 lb) of payload into low earth orbit. When its mission is complete, it fires its maneouvering thrusters to drop out of orbit and re-enters the earth's atmosphere. During the descent and landing, the shuttle orbiter acts as a glider and makes a completely unpowered landing.

The Shuttle is the first orbital spacecraft designed for partial reusability. It is also so far the only winged manned spacecraft to achieve orbit and land. It carries large payloads to various orbits, provides crew rotation for the International Space Station (ISS), and performs servicing missions. The orbiter can recover satellites and other payloads from orbit and return them to Earth, but this capacity has not been used often. However, it has been used to return large payloads from the ISS to earth, as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft has limited capacity for return payloads. Each Shuttle was designed for a projected lifespan of 100 launches or 10 years' operational life.

More on [ Space Shuttle program ]

USATODAY.com Nation - Top Stories

SoCal wildfire danger eases as winds fade
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:07:27 -0000
A respite in Santa Ana winds allowed firefighters to beat back flames that continued to whirl dangerously close to homes Wednesday ...
MLK Jr. aide sentenced to 15 years for incest
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:04:40 -0000
A one-time top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for having sex more than a ...
Suit against God tossed over lack of address
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:07:41 -0000
A judge has thrown out a Nebraska legislator's lawsuit against God, saying the Almighty wasn't properly served due to his unlisted ...
Former N.M. senator pleads guilty to corruption
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:58:15 -0000
A once powerful New Mexico politician, former Sen. Manny Aragon, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy and mail fraud in a corruption ...
14 accused of sending illegal profits to Mideast
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:01:43 -0000
Fourteen people have been indicted on charges of using convenience stores to trade in stolen goods and contraband cigarettes, ...
Atlantic City's casino smoking ban now in effect
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:44:53 -0000
Gamblers were barred from lighting up Wednesday when a blanket smoking ban went into effect over the objections of the casino ...

The Economist: United States

The bail-out bill: Someone to watch over me
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:48:13 -0000
The bail-out law brings more oversight of the Fed and the financial systemTHE 451-page bail-out bill passed by Congress on October 3rd contained reams of extraneous stuff, ranging from $150 billion in tax breaks to increased insurance cover for mental illness. No surprise there. It also includes two little-noticed provisions that portend closer oversight of the financial system and of its single biggest player, the Federal Reserve. The law orders up two reports on regulatory overhaul. The first, by a congressional panel created to monitor exactly how the Treasury is to spend up to $700 billion on mortgage assets and stakes in financial companies, is due by January 20th 2009, the date of the next president’s inauguration. The second, to be written by the next treasury secretary, is due on April 30th. ...
The candidates at home (1): A moderate among hotheads
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:48:13 -0000
Why Arizonans aren’t as keen as they might be on John McCainIN A Paradise Valley shopping mall, Martin Dunleavy takes a break from the scorching Arizona sun. He is wearing a cap emblazoned with an eagle and an American flag, and describes himself as somewhat conservative. He adores Sarah Palin, whom he describes as “every man’s woman”. How about John McCain, Arizona ’s senior senator and the state’s first plausible presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater in 1964? Mr Dunleavy shakes his head: “You just can’t trust McCain.”Nobody besides a few excitable Democrats believes John McCain will lose Arizona. Presidential candidates nearly always carry their home states. But Mr McCain is less popular at home than one might expect. On February 5th he won less than half of the vote in Arizona’s Republican primary. A state poll conducted two weeks ago put him seven points ahead of Barack Obama. It is hardly an overwhelming lead in a state that has voted for a Democratic president only once since 1948. ...
The economy and the election: It's an ill wind
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:48:13 -0000
As the economy sags, Barack Obama’s electoral prospects soarIN A small town in Pennsylvania, where the liquor store is called “Beer World”, the mini-golf course has a Statue of Liberty hole and a sign boasts that this is the “21st best town in the US”, Barack Obama is making a speech. The latest unemployment statistics have just been released, and they are grim. It is the day after the vice-presidential debate, during which Sarah Palin accused the Democrats of wanting to impose job-killing tax hikes on business. “Just since January, we’ve lost more than 750,000 jobs across America, 7,000 in Pennsylvania alone,” says Mr Obama. “So when Senator [John] McCain and his running-mate talk about job-killing, that’s something they know a thing or two about. Because the policies they’re supporting are killing jobs every single day.” ...
Lexington: Debating the debates
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:48:13 -0000
They are unpredictable and often unfair. But there is no better test of a candidateAT FIRST, Richard Nixon vowed he would not debate John Kennedy. He had little to gain from such an encounter, and much to lose. As vice-president, he was better known than the young senator and universally considered a heavyweight. But in the end his fear of appearing fearful overcame his caution. It was a mistake. The camera is unkind to men who look shifty. At the first debate in 1960, Nixon was not feeling well. After hearing Kennedy turn down the offer of make-up, he turned it down too, though it might have covered his five o’clock shadow. Kennedy got his aides to apply make-up when Nixon wasn’t looking, and presented a tanned and handsome face to the nation. Nixon looked like a sweaty corpse. Radio listeners thought he did well. But on television, Kennedy won by a mile. ...
California's budget: No money to pay the bills
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:48:13 -0000
The state’s finances are worsening by the dayTWO weeks ago Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s governor, signed a state budget that was a record 85 days late. Much cajoling and bullying was required to get it to his desk. At one point the governor threatened to pay state bureaucrats the minimum wage; at another he promised to veto every bill he saw. Few like the end result, which involves spending cuts and a good deal of what John Chiang, the state controller, described as “Enron-style accounting tricks”. And yet it became clear this week that the budget is hopelessly optimistic and will almost certainly have to be renegotiated. The world’s eighth biggest economy has two problems, both stemming from the economic downturn. First, it is finding it hard to raise enough money to pay the bills. Under normal circumstances the state would sell $7 billion in bonds to tide it through until April, when income taxes flood in. Thanks in part to the delayed budget, the state has been forced to go to the bond markets at a time when investors are wary of everything but Treasury notes. ...
The candidates at home (2): Mean streets
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:48:13 -0000
The Democrat’s most vulnerable point is also his strongest base“BARACK OBAMA, born of the corrupt Chicago political machine”, begins a sinister voice in a McCain advertisement. Among the Democrat’s “friends from Chicago”, Sarah Palin tells crowds, is a former violent radical, William Ayers. Mrs Palin also says that Republicans should highlight another Chicagoan, Mr Obama’s divisive former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Chicago, for better or worse, is a principal part of the McCain campaign’s effort to bring Mr Obama down. Chicago itself remains the centre of efforts to lift him up. This is not just because nomadic campaign staffers have claimed every sofa in the city. Most Chicagoans love Mr Obama. Linda Randle, one of his biggest fans, met him in 1986 when she was living in public housing and he was a young organiser. Today she owns more than 20 Obama T-shirts and has campaign signs taped to her windows. “I always thought he was going to be the greatest civil-rights lawyer,” she says, “but I don’t have a problem with him being president.” ...

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