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Overview
The space shuttle system was made up of three main components: •The two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), which provided 80 percent of launch thrust.
•The huge rust-colored External Tank (ET), which fed fuel to three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) during launch
•The orbiter itself (which many people think of as "the shuttle"), which served as the crew's home in space and was equipped to dock with the International Space Station.
NASA made many safety improvements to the shuttle system over the years, including redesigning and refitting the External Tank before the 2005 return to flight to reduce the risk of foam and ice hitting the orbiter during liftoff
In-Depth Explanations and Schematics:
Orbiter | External Tank | Solid Rocket Boosters | Main Engines
The Orbiters:
Atlantis | Challenger | Columbia | Discovery | Endeavour
Return to Flight Improvements:
+ Part I | + Part II
Learn more about technical, communications and processing improvements, efforts to recognize and eliminate debris sources, and identifying and repairing damage in flight in this excerpt (4.8 Mb PDF) from the STS-114 Press Kit (8.9 Mb PDF).
Space Shuttle Features
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Shuttle Basics
The world's first reusable spacecraft launched like a rocket, maneuvered in Earth orbit like a spacecraft and landed like an airplane.
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The Orbiter
From crew module to flight deck, middeck to payload bay -- explore the crew's home in orbit.
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Space Shuttle Main Engines
The three Space Shuttle Main Engines, in conjunction with the Solid Rocket Boosters, provided the thrust to lift the Orbiter off the ground for the initial ascent.
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The External Tank
The 'gas tank' for the orbiter fed the Shuttle's main engines and was the only component of the system that was not reused.
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Solid Rocket Boosters
The solid rocket motor was the largest solid propellant motor ever developed for space flight and the first built to be used on a manned craft.