space shuttle

noun

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Definition of space shuttle

: a reusable spacecraft designed to transport people and cargo between earth and space

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Recent Examples of space shuttle from the Web

Like his brothers, Sheng idolizes airplanes, space shuttles, and boats, never thinking this interest has less to do with streamlined engineering than the idea of escape, of lifting two clean, aerodynamic arms into the sky.

— chicago tribune, chicagotribune.com, "Algren Award runner-up: "Fluid Mechanics" by Mabel Yu," 2 June 2018
Fourteen years later, Peterson joined the crew of the sixth NASA space shuttle mission — and the Challenger’s first flight.

— matt campbell, kansascity, "In memoriam through June 1: ‘Pong’ game creator, political prankster who got Nixon," 1 June 2018
So that sound of that space shuttle, being high frequency, cuts like a knife through anything.

— todd vanderwerff, Vox, "A Quiet Place’s sound designers on building its very loud silence," 26 May 2018
The first manned mission to the moon blasted off from there in 1969, as did the last, in 1972; so did the first space shuttle mission, in 1981, and the last, in 2011.

— walter isaacson, New York Times, "In This Space Race, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk Are Competing to Take You There," 24 Apr. 2018
Ochoa earned a bachelors degree in physics at San Diego State University and went on to fly four missions aboard the space shuttle.

— gary robbins, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Billie Jean King to help introduce Sally Ride postage stamp at UC San Diego," 10 Apr. 2018
Cape Canaveral hasn’t seen this kind of rocket mania since the last space shuttle flight in 2011.

— marcia dunn, The Seattle Times, "SpaceX’s hot new monster rocket ready for first test flight," 4 Feb. 2018
The Racine native and Navy doctor was a mission specialist who helped conduct some of the 80 experiments aboard the space shuttle, including the effect of gravity on humans and gene transfer of plants.

— meg jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "To Racine's Laurel Clark, killed in 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster, life a 'magical thing'," 30 Jan. 2018
That toy space shuttle does make a noise at some point.

— todd vanderwerff, Vox, "A Quiet Place’s sound designers on building its very loud silence," 26 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'space shuttle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.