Space transportation system. La navetta spaziale americana

The fact that this extraordinary spacecraft is no longer in service can be in some ways a disadvantage for others an advantage. The disadvantage may be the fact that among the public of curious and passionate about astronautical themes a sort of disinterest in a subject that is now passing from current events to the history of astronautics begins to establish itself. On the other hand, there is the advantage that now, unlike a few years ago, a global, complete and definitive balance can be drawn on the activity of this reusable means of transport in the light of all the missions carried out by it, starting from the gliding flights of the \’Enterprise, in the seventies, up to the last flights in which the surviving shuttles, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor (with the addition of the now historic experimental shuttle Enterprise) aboard NASA\’s Boeing 747, suitably modified, were translated into museums they were intended for. However, the memory of the extraordinary missions carried out by this formidable spacecraft, which has been the undisputed protagonist of cosmic flights of the last thirty years, is still fresh in the minds of all of us.