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space shuttle
noun
: a reusable spacecraft designed to transport people and cargo between earth and space
Examples of space shuttle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The proceedings commemorated the lives lost in NASA's three space tragedies — the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967, the space shuttle Challenger explosion in January 1986 and the shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003.
—Mike Wall, Space.com, 23 Jan. 2025
The event remembers the crews of Apollo 1 and the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.
—Andrew Torgan, CNN, 19 Jan. 2025
At over 320 feet tall (98 meters), New Glenn is shorter than an Apollo-era Saturn V (363 ft., or 111 m) but taller than both the space shuttle when it was fully stacked (184 ft., or 64 m) and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 (229 ft., or 70 m).
—Wendy Whitman Cobb, The Conversation, 16 Jan. 2025
Nelson flew aboard space shuttle Columbia in 1986 — on the flight before the Challenger disaster — while a congressman.
—Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2024
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Word History
First Known Use
1950, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near space shuttle
Cite this Entry
“Space shuttle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/space%20shuttle. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.
Kids Definition
space shuttle
noun
: a spacecraft designed to transport people and cargo between earth and space that can be used repeatedly
More from Merriam-Webster on space shuttle
Nglish: Translation of space shuttle for Spanish Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about space shuttle
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