00:06NASA's space shuttle program was a cornerstone of human space exploration so why did the shuttle
00:13program come to an end the answer comes down to three things cost safety and changing technology
00:19the shuttle could launch like a rocket and land like an airplane but every mission required
00:24months of inspections repairs and refurbishment each flight ultimately cost hundreds of millions
00:29of dollars safety was another major concern the Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Columbia
00:36disaster in 2003 killed 14 astronauts and exposed design risks that could never be fully eliminated
00:42NASA retired the shuttle fleet in 2011 shifting toward using commercial spacecraft to fly astronauts
00:49to the ISS and in the coming years return humans to the moon but the shuttle's legacy is enormous
00:55across 135 missions it deployed the Hubble Space Telescope help build the International Space Station
01:01and transformed what humans could accomplish in orbit the shuttle era has ended but it helped launch the
01:07next chapter of space exploration
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