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

Time Traveler
The first known use of space shuttle was in 1950

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

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