Table of Contents

Shuttle Columbia

The Space Shuttle, officially known as the Space Transportation System, has three parts.

The "orbiter", which looks like an airplane, is where the astronauts live and work during the mission.

The "external fuel tank", which is the largest part of the system, is used only during liftoff and is released once the fuel is used up. This takes less than ten minutes! The tank then speeds back towards the earth and breaks apart as it passes through the earth's atmosphere.

The two "solid rocket boosters" also help during the liftoff of the shuttle. They are released at a height of about 50 kilometres and parachute safely back to Earth to be reused.

Inside the Orbiter:

There are five sections within the orbiter. The flight deck, where the astronauts sit during launch and landing, is where the main controls of the shuttle are located.

The middeck, below the flight deck, is where the astronauts eat, sleep, and wash. This is also where the storage lockers are found.

The cargo bay, the largest part of the orbiter, is in the middle. This is where satellites or other large objects can be stored. For STS-90 the laboratory where the experiments were conducted was located here.

The Canadarm, the Canadian Space Agency's most famous contribution to the Space Program, is located in the cargo bay. This 15-metre long robotic arm is used to lift large objects like satellites in or out of the cargo bay in space.

The fifth section of the orbiter is the engine area located at the rear of the orbiter.

The space shuttle used for the STS-90 Mission was the shuttle Columbia.

Space Shuttle Columbia