The Shuttle Era
The Space Shuttle: The Reusable Workhorse Spacecraft
NASA Administrator Fletcher (left) and President Nixon presenting the Space Shuttle. Image credit: NASA
Enterprise under construction in 1976. Image credit: NASA
A New Space Transportation System
The concept of developing a reusable spacecraft had been under consideration by NASA prior to the end of the Apollo missions.
It became official in January 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed a bill authorizing a new Space Transportation System, which became more commonly known as the space shuttle. North American Rockwell began construction of the first space shuttle orbiter, Orbital Vehicle 101 (OV 101) in June 1974.
“An entirely new type of space transportation system designed to help transform the space frontier of the 1970’s into familiar territory, easily accessible for human endeavor in the 1980’s and ’90’s.”