Comments by "Robert Steele" (@robertsteele474) on "Russian rocket remnants seen blazing across Australia" video.
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@Michiganian8 I guess there are willfully ignorant people in every state.
On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated during re-entry, killing all seven of the STS-107 crew, because of damage to the carbon-carbon leading edge of the wing caused during launch.
The Space Shuttle retirement was announced in January 2004.
President George W. Bush announced his Vision for Space Exploration, which called for the retirement of the Space Shuttle once it completed construction of the ISS. To ensure the ISS was properly assembled, the contributing partners determined the need for 16 remaining assembly missions in March 2006.
One additional Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission was approved in October 2006.
Originally, STS-134 was to be the final Space Shuttle mission. However, the Columbia disaster resulted in additional orbiters being prepared for launch on need in the event of a rescue mission.
As Atlantis was prepared for the final launch-on-need mission, the decision was made in September 2010 that it would fly as STS-135 with a four-person crew that could remain at the ISS in the event of an emergency.
STS-135 launched on July 8, 2011, and landed at the KSC on July 21, 2011, at 5:57 a.m. EDT (09:57 UTC).
After 2011, when NASA retired its Space Shuttle program, Russia’s Soyuz capsules were the only option for US astronauts. NASA has been paying up to $90 million for seats aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. From then until the launch of Crew Dragon Demo-2 on May 30, 2020, the US launched its astronauts aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
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