Space Shuttle Paper Model

The Space Shuttle was the world's first reuseable spacecraft. It launched like a rocket and returned to Earth like a glider. The low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by NASA had 135 launches from 1981 to 2011. Six shuttles were built, four of which still exist in various museums. The various shuttles have carried people into orbit repeatedly, launched, recovered and repaired satellites, conducted research and built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station. This toy is only the orbiter portion of the space shuttle although there are two huge rockets and a giant fuel tank in the complete stack. The rockets and fuel tank drop away after launching and only the orbiter makes it into space. Its boosters are jettisoned into the Atlantic Ocean, retrieved and reused. The external fuel tank is the only part of the stack not used again. The orbiter returns to Earth by gliding back on a pair of wings to a runway. The entire shuttle including orbiter, rockets and fuel tank is 184 feet high, and the orbiter is 122 feet high with a wingspan of 56 feet with two and a half million moving parts.