Asni’s Art Blog: Space Shuttle

asni_spaceshuttle01
Soyuz in Flight, by Chris Thompson – Chrisofedf on DeviantArt

Having a permanent space station in orbit is all well and fine, but the bigger challenge is how to get people and materials on and off it. Both the US and the Soviet Union, later Russia, have developed shuttles that could not only get there, but survive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, and make another flight.

I remember well the excitement around the launch of the first US Space Shuttle, Columbia, when I was a teenager living in Brazil, and devouring every popular science book on astronomy and physics in the school library – as well as a goodly amount of Science Fiction, of course, and the odd TV show featuring people zipping around space in the Far Future. Here it was, not a movie, but really real!

The US Shuttle program has been overshadowed by not one, but two catastrophic malfunctions costing the lives of two entire crews. Who does not remember the ill-fated launch of Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986 – an ill-fated year technologically all around: only a few months later a radioactive reactor would blow up in Chernobyl.

Then in February 2003, the first shuttle, Columbia, broke up on re-entry into the atmosphere (an event I must have missed as I was at the time busy preparing my own liftoff to New Zealand).

The US Space Shuttle program was eventually terminated, leaving it up to the Russian Soyuz shuttles to supply transport to and from the International Space station. Soyuz also killed two of its crews – the very first one, a crew of one, in April 1967 due to a parachute failure. The only other fatal accident happened back in 1971, when a cabin depressurized. The craft got down in one piece, but all three astronauts were dead from asphyxiation.

Since then, Soyuz has been accident free (or at least, fatal accident free), which would seem to make it a better choice than the US space shuttle, to continue the supply service for the International Space Station.

asni_spaceshuttle02
Space Shuttle Night Launch 3, by VistaDude on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle03
Shuttle with Manned Booster, by Alan Gutierrez – AlanGutierrezArt on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle04
Clear for docking, Comrades, by David Metlesits – davemetlesits on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle05
Discovery’s Final Fly-over, by Jim Baker – OpticaLLightspeed on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle06
Soyuz, by Yuri Shwedoff – YURISHWEDOFF on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle07
To The Cosmos, by Mark Karvon – markkarvon on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle08
Space Shuttle, by Jonnathon on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle09
FUSE Space Station Docking Port, by Colin Geller – MeckanicalMind on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle10
Star Wars Lambda Shuttle, Star Wars Galaxies screenshot by John Pedruco – Augos on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle11
Space Shuttle, by ivangraphics on DeviantArt
asni_spaceshuttle12
space, by koray karagözler – koraykaragozler on DeviantArt

All images are copyright the respective artists, and may not be reproduced without permission.

Please take a moment to support Amazing Stories with a one-time or recurring donation via Patreon. We rely on donations to keep the site going, and we need your financial support to continue quality coverage of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres as well as supply free stories weekly for your reading pleasure. https://www.patreon.com/amazingstoriesmag

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Previous Article

An Interview with Jim C. Hines, Recent Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop Graduate

Next Article

Noticias Literatura 29-6

You might be interested in …