A space shuttle was a type of reusable spacecraft that NASA used to carry astronauts and cargo into orbit around Earth from 1981 to 2011. Unlike earlier rockets that could only be used once, a space shuttle could launch into space, complete its mission, and then glide back to Earth to land on a runway like an airplane.

The shuttle looked like a combination of a plane and a rocket: it had wings and a cargo bay the size of a school bus, and it launched vertically strapped to a huge external fuel tank and two rocket boosters. Once in space, astronauts could open the cargo bay doors to deploy satellites, conduct experiments, or even capture broken satellites to repair them. The shuttle also carried crews and supplies to build the International Space Station, piece by piece, over many years.

NASA built five space shuttles: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Each one could be used multiple times, which was revolutionary at the time. The program ended in 2011 because the shuttles had become expensive to maintain and parts were aging after decades of use. While modern spacecraft are being developed, none have yet matched the shuttle's ability to both launch like a rocket and land like a plane.