Odyssey aided NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars in March 2006, by monitoring atmospheric conditions during months when the newly arrived orbiter used aerobraking to alter its orbit into the desired shape.

Also, Columbia was the female symbol of the U. S. After construction, the orbiter arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979, to prepare for its first launch.

By December 15, 2010 the orbiter broke the record for longest serving spacecraft at Mars, with 3, 340 days of operation, claiming the title from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which had arrived sooner than Odyssey but failed in 2006.

The Venus Express orbiter has been continuously sending back Venus science data since April 11, 2006.

Either can fly an orbiter from alternative landing sites back to the Kennedy Space Center.

A Jupiter aerobot might also drop sondes deep into the atmosphere and relay their data back to an orbiter until the sondes are destroyed by temperature and pressure.

The lander had two means of returning data to Earth: a relay link up to the orbiter and back, and by using a direct link to Earth.

The Mars 2 orbiter sent back a large volume of data covering the period from December 1971 to March 1972, although transmissions continued through August.

The Mars 3 orbiter sent back a large volume of data covering the period from December 1971 to March 1972, although transmissions continued through August.

For the first time in the history of the shuttle program, the shuttle stack was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building ( VAB ), where it was destacked and the orbiter returned to the orbiter processing facility, while the suspect booster underwent repairs.

It is also the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ( SCA ), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to Kennedy Space Center if one lands at Edwards.

The orbiter was transported back to KSC on 10 September.

Once the suit is turned on and checked out, the astronaut dons a " Snoopy cap ," a brown and white fabric communications cap dating back to the Apollo days, which incorporates a pair of earphones and microphones, allowing the EVA astronaut to communicate with both the crew members in the orbiter and ground controllers in Houston.

The Odyssey team brought the orbiter back on-line, the Spirit team received all imaging needed for continuing to drive, and team members are planning to drive on sol 449 with a new appreciation for their orbiting partner!

The Odyssey team brought the orbiter back on-line, and the Opportunity team received 50 megabits of data.

On September 21, 2003, after 14 years in space and 8 years in the Jovian system, Galileos mission was terminated by sending the orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of over per second, to avoid any chance of it contaminating local moons with terrestrial bacteria.

After releasing its atmospheric probe on 13 July 1995, the Galileo orbiter became the first man-made satellite of Jupiter at 00: 27 UT on 8 December 1995 when it fired its main engine to enter a 198-day parking orbit.

The orbiter contains enough propellant to operate at least until 2015.

Given the initial energy of 20 TJ, the Space Shuttle is about 16 % energy efficient at launching the orbiter.

The orbiter was lifted up on a sling very similar to the one used at Kennedy Space Center and placed inside the Dynamic Test Stand building, and there mated to the Vertical Mate Ground Vibration Test tank ( VMGVT-ET ), which in turn was attached to a set of inert Solid Rocket Boosters ( SRB ) to form a complete shuttle launch stack, and marked the first time in the program's history that all Space Shuttle elements, an Orbiter, an External Tank ( ET ), and two SRBs, were mated together.

In 2003 after the breakup of Columbia during re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board conducted tests at Southwest Research Institute, which used an air gun to shoot foam blocks of similar size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing leading edge.

In 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter following Columbia and Challenger, and made its final touchdown at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, 2011 at 10: 57: 17 CST, having spent a cumulative total of one full year ( 365 days ) in space.

After more than twenty organizations submitted proposals to NASA for the display of an orbiter, NASA announced that Enterprise will go to New York's Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, Discovery will go the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, Atlantis will remain in the Visitor Complex at Kennedy Space Center, and Endeavour will go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles ,.

Uplink was via S band A two-axis steerable high-gain parabolic dish antenna with a diameter of approximately 1. 5 m was attached at one edge of the orbiter base, and a fixed low-gain antenna extended from the top of the bus.

* A 36-wheeled transport trailer, the Orbiter Transfer System, originally built for the U. S. Air Force's launch facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California ( since then converted for Delta IV rockets ) would transport the orbiter from the landing facility to the launch pad, which allowed both " stacking " and launch without utilizing a separate VAB-style building and crawler-transporter roadway.

In April 2010, the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation ( APOLLO ) team from the University of California at San Diego used the LRO images to locate the orbiter closely enough for laser range ( distance ) measurements.

There were four close targeted fly-bys by the Cassini orbiter: at a distance of 500 km on November 26, 2005, at a distance of 5, 750 km on August 30, 2007, at a distance of 100 km on March 2, 2010 and at 69 km flyby on January 11, 2011.

The lander separated from the orbiter on July 20 08: 51 UTC and landed at 11: 53: 06 UTC.

The orbiter primary mission ended at the beginning of solar conjunction on November 5, 1976.

The lander separated from the orbiter on September 3, 1976 at 22: 37: 50 UT and landed at Utopia Planitia.

The orbiter primary mission ended at the beginning of solar conjunction on October 5, 1976.

Had the space shuttle program been successful at SLC-6, the West Coast operation would have contrasted with that at the Kennedy Space Center by creating the orbiter stack directly on the launch pad, rather than assembling it and then moving it.

* 1979 – The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.

* March 25 – The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.

The landing was originally scheduled for Kennedy Space Center on 4 December, but the ten-days mission was shortened and the landing rescheduled following the 30 November on-orbit failure of one of three orbiter inertial measurement units.

Launched from the Kennedy Space Center, FL., the mission exposed the orbiter Columbia to extremes in thermal stress and tested the Remote Manipulator System used to grapple and maneuver payloads to orbit.

ACS was assembled and tested extensively at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and the Goddard Space Flight Center and underwent a final flight-ready verification at the Kennedy Space Center before integration in the cargo bay of the Columbia orbiter.

A similar vehicle was used at the Kennedy Space Center to take astronauts directly from the orbiter to the Operations and Checkout building where the vehicle was again lifted up for the astronauts to exit directly onto the 2nd floor of the facility.

Subsequently, the name 2001 Mars Odyssey was selected for the orbiter as a specific tribute to the vision of space exploration shown in works by Arthur C. Clarke, including 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Space Shuttle Challenger ( NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099 ) was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise ( NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101 ) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter.

On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, would be added to the collection once the Shuttle fleet was retired.

Columbia was the only orbiter launched with its Space Shuttle external tank | external tank painted white, which was later discontinued to save weight.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis ( Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-104 ) is a Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ), the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States.

Atlantis was the only orbiter which lacked the ability to draw power from the International Space Station while docked there ; it had to continue to provide its own power through fuel cells.

While Space Shuttle Atlantis was refurbished and relaunched in 53 days between missions STS-51-J and STS-61-B, generally months were required to repair an orbiter for a new mission.

The winged Space Shuttle orbiter was launched vertically, usually carrying four to seven astronauts ( although eight have been carried ) and up to 50, 000 lb ( 22, 700 kg ) of payload into low Earth orbit ( LEO ).

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, in its report, noted the reduced risk to the crew when a shuttle flies to the International Space Station ( ISS ), as the station can be used as a safe haven for the crew awaiting rescue in the event that damage to the shuttle orbiter on ascent makes it unsafe for re-entry.