Before the invention of the space shuttle, the world's first reusable spacecraft, rockets were used to put a tiny capsule carrying human space travelers into orbit. Stage by stage, booster segments would fall away during the launch as their fuel ran out. The spacecraft would go into orbit around Earth, and then the multi-stage rocket would plunge into the ocean. At that point the rocket would become space rubbish.

In the late 1960s the federal government ordered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to cut costs because of the lagging economy. On January 5, 1972, after suspending several other space programs, President Richard M. Nixon gave NASA the authority to proceed with the development of the shuttle in hopes that the cost of future space travel would be reduced.

The first space shuttle orbiter, known as OV-101, rolled out of a Rockwell assembly facility in Palmdale, California...