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space shuttle
noun
: a reusable spacecraft designed to transport people and cargo between earth and space
Examples of space shuttle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Crews aboard the recovery ships Liberty Star and Freedom Star retrieve a reusable right solid rocket booster (below) after a space shuttle mission.
—Jackie Wattles, CNN, 5 Apr. 2024
Richard Truly, a naval aviator and astronaut who flew aboard two early space shuttle missions and, as NASA’s associate administrator, guided the agency’s return to space after the Challenger disaster, died on Feb. 27 at his home in Genesee, Colo.
—Richard Sandomir, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
In February 2010, Virts piloted the space shuttle Endeavor on the STS-130 mission to the International Space Station to deliver a connecting module.
—Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Mar. 2024
Consider that Wilson’s contract — heavier than a cargo plane that transports space shuttles — will impede Denver’s attempts to build up a bad roster for two more years.
—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Mar. 2024
In the 1970s, after the triumph of the moon landings, NASA and the Soviet Union turned away from the moon, focusing instead on building space shuttles and stations.
—Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 24 Feb. 2024
The space shuttle Columbia, flying at 18 times the speed of sound, disintegrated over East Texas, killing all seven of its astronauts and scattering chunks of metal and machinery across two states.
—Anthony De Leon, Los Angeles Times, 1 Feb. 2024
While the only way up to space is by rocket, there are two ways to come back down: via a winged vehicle, like the space shuttle or Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, or a capsule, like Apollo, Soyuz, and Blue Origin's New Shepard.
—Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 14 Mar. 2024
These features have been exploited in laboratory demonstrations to identify explosives, reveal hidden weapons, check for defects in tiles on the space shuttle, and screen for skin cancer and tooth decay.
—IEEE Spectrum, 7 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'space shuttle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1950, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near space shuttle
Cite this Entry
“Space shuttle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/space%20shuttle. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Kids Definition
space shuttle
noun
: a spacecraft designed to transport people and cargo between earth and space that can be used repeatedly
More from Merriam-Webster on space shuttle
Nglish: Translation of space shuttle for Spanish Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about space shuttle
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