Once in space, the shuttle orbiter is your home for seven to 14 days.
The shuttle orbiter provides an environment where you can live and work in space.
If it is built,the space plane will be about the same size as the shuttle orbiter.
Other experiments are to be carried out in the shuttle orbiter itself.
Out of the five fully functional shuttle orbiters built, three remain.
A fourth shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, has been added to the fleet.
One element that would not be good for Rockwell is the committee's recommendation against building a sixth shuttle orbiter anytime soon.
With the end of the shuttle program, plans were made to place the three remaining shuttle orbiters on permanent display.
The dim interior of the building, which is used to mate the shuttle orbiter with its external fuel tanks, has a twilight feel.
The payload must have been self-powered, as experiments could not draw on the shuttle orbiter's electricity.