Unlike the space shuttle, which came as a central body with wings, the Russian idea was a lifting body design with no such things, that was deemed more appropriate for a light and strong reusable ...

NASA, in particular, was all over the lifting body, as the lack of wings made them virtually drag-free (an important consideration when managing the heat of a vehicle returning from space). Super ...

The X-24B Lifting Body Paved the Way for the Space Shuttle – In the collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Dayton, Ohio, is a ...

As it reached an altitude of 100 miles and a speed of 18,000 m.p.h. off the West Coast of the U.S. last week, an Atlas rocket opened its clamshell nose cone and ejected a 7-ft. object that ...

It was built to replace the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven people onboard in January 1986.. Endeavour has been making history since its second ...

Dream Chaser is a crewed/uncrewed spaceplane in the Space Shuttle mold. Dream Chaser is based on NASA’s HL-20 lifting body spaceplane concept, which in turn is based on the former Soviet Union ...

Space Shuttle Endeavour Lifted Into Launch Position at California Science Center. A 450-foot crane lifted the 170,000-pound orbiter into the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Barring weather delays, the space shuttle Endeavour will undergo its final, historic lift starting Monday night, a maneuver no other retired orbiter has undergone. Plans for the coming move ...

The idea of a “lifting body,” which eschews traditional wings in favor of generating lift with the fuselage of the vehicle itself, had been around since the 1950s, but it wasn’t until the ...