NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions. For your information, its Maiden flight was on April 12, 1981. All Space Shuttle missions are launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC). In 2003, Columbia broke apart during re-entry. The loss of Columbia was a result of damage sustained during launch when a piece of foam insulation the size of a small briefcase broke off the Space Shuttle external tank under the aerodynamic forces of launch. This is the worst Space Shuttle disaster. Six shuttles have been built the first is Enterprise, was not built for space flight because it used only for testing purposes. The other five are Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch in 1986, and Endeavour was built as a replacement. The shuttle will not be launched under conditions where it could be struck by lightning. Its is important to make sure this 1.7 billion transport and the people in it far from the risk and danger.