Space Shuttle Naming Designation

NASA Space Shuttle Mission Naming

Space Shuttle missions carry the STS designation, which in English stands for Space Transportation System (Space Transportation System).

In this way, STS is followed by a figure that specifies what flight number it is. For example, the debut mission of the space shuttle Columbia was called STS-1.

However, this has not always been the case; since from the Challenger mission, launched on February 3, 1984, the designations would become more complex: a two-digit number would be added to STS, the first digit indicating the year release "originally" programmed. The second digit represented the launch site ("1" for Florida, "2" for California), plus a letter indicating the order of launch during the fiscal year, from this way the "B" indicated that it was the second release of the fiscal year.

An example of the numeric designation system

On Challenger mission STS 41-C (launched April 6, 1984) the "4" means it was released (or planned) in 1984, the "1" means it was launched from Florida and the "C" indicates that it was the third release of the US fiscal year. Keep in mind that the US fiscal year does not coincide with the calendar year because it begins on October 1 and ends on September 30.

Back to the original system

With the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986, NASA did not launch a shuttle again until October 3, 1988. Thereafter missions carry the STS designation and launch number.