The word ‘spaceship’ has become very familiar. Once these vehicles were the creations of the fertile imagination of the writer Jules Verne. Today space-ships are a reality of high technical development.

There are thousands of components that go into the making of a space-ship and their cost runs into millions of dollars. Every component is rigorously tested for reliability as the failure of a single part can cause disaster. As there are stringent weight limitations, all the parts must be as light as possible.

The space shuttle is the kind of space-ship now in use in the United States. It has wings that are used only on landing. At launch, the space shuttle is attached to two booster rockets and a large fuel tank. The booster rockets fire to carry the shuttle up to a height of about 45 kilometers. Then they separate and fall back to Earth beneath parachute. Using fuel from the fuel engine to attain Earth orbit. The tank is then discarded. At the end of the mission, the shuttle fires its engine to slow its motion and reenter the atmosphere.