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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Discover More

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

“This space shuttle is everything rolled into one that my husband loved: astronomy, innovation, exploration, science, math and especially children,” Oschin said.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026

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 made her first trip to space in December 2006, launching aboard space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-116.

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

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