space shuttle

American  

noun

(often initial capital letters)

1. any of several U.S. space vehicles consisting of a reusable manned orbiter that touches down on a landing strip after an orbital mission, two reusable solid rocket boosters that drop off after initial ascent, and an expendable external tank containing liquid propellants.

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space shuttle British  

noun

1. any of a series of reusable US space vehicles ( Columbia (exploded 2003), Challenger (exploded 1986), Discovery , Atlantis , Endeavour ) that can be launched into earth orbit transporting astronauts and equipment for a period of observation, research, etc, before re-entry and an unpowered landing on a runway; the first operational flight occurred in 1981 and it was taken out of service in 2011

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space shuttle Cultural  

1. A vehicle built by NASA that is capable of taking off from Earth, carrying a crew and a cargo into space, and returning to Earth to be used again. It is used primarily to transport a crew to an orbiting space station and to deploy and retrieve satellites.

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The space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986. All seven crew members died in the accident.

Etymology

Origin of space shuttle

An Americanism dating back to 1965–70

Example Sentences

It had already been quite a year: the doomed Challenger space shuttle had exploded months earlier, and the disaster at Chernobyl was on everyone’s minds.

From Slate • Feb. 2, 2026

Williams launched for the first time aboard space shuttle Discovery with STS-116 in December 2006 and returned aboard space shuttle Atlantis with the STS-117 crew.

From Science Daily • Jan. 22, 2026

Almost 40 years after the space shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, there are still competing theories to account for how such a catastrophe could happen.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

"But I'm going to tell you it is harder to be a parent than to be a space shuttle commander," she laughs.

From BBC • Oct. 20, 2025

We’d toured historic launch sites and working spaceflight facilities, strapped in for an eight-and-a-half-minute simulated space shuttle ascent into orbit, and met astronaut Fred Gregory.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas