Can a space shuttle fly?

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Top best answers to the question «Can a space shuttle fly»

The Shuttle launches like a rocket, maneuvers in Earth orbit like a spacecraft and lands like an airplane. Each of the three Space Shuttle orbiters now in operation -- Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour -- is designed to fly at least 100 missions.

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As a result (and also because the shuttle's external tiles are susceptible to the elements) a second plane flies ahead of the SCA to act as a weather scout.

What is the difference between a space shuttle and an airplane? A: Airplane wings are made to fly at relatively low speeds (up to 80% the speed of sound) while the space shuttle lands at hypersonic speeds (more than 10 times the speed of sound). They don’t have any use for takeoff, and do nothing while in space… Is the space shuttle an aircraft?

Space shuttles are flying at the speed of 40 thousand miles per hour, so why not use the space shuttle speed technology in trains?

Q. Can the Space Shuttle fly to the Moon? A. No, the Space Shuttle is designed to travel in low-Earth orbit (within a few hundred miles of the Earth's surface). It does not carry enough propellant to leave Earth's orbit and travel to the Moon. The Space Shuttle also is not designed to land on the Moon since it lands like an airplane and the Moon has no atmosphere.

Game: F-sim Shuttle

Without the army of people with intimate knowledge of the subsystems they are responsible for, the supply chain for the manufacture of the many and varied specialty parts, and the huge flow of cash to maintain the existence of both even during periods of no activity, you're not going to get a space shuttle to orbit.

Adding to other answers, yes space shuttle is a brick that flying not just a brick. Body-lifting can not be disregarded in hypersonic flight during the reentry, it is not just the wing creating the lift, it is the whole bottom section hitting the atmosphere.