自去年初美国“挑战者”号航天飞机在空中爆炸后,美国、苏联、西欧等国的航天发射计划接二连三地遭到失败,使一度十分活跃的人类航天活动暂时处于低潮。但是,由于这些航天活动不仅与科学研究和军事目的紧密相连,同时有着巨大的商业价值,因此在挫折面前各国非但没有裹足不前,反而加快了研制计划。目前,一些主要西方国家又在探索研究一种新的航天运输系统——空天飞机。顾名思义,“空天”两字是航空与航天的简称,空天飞机是将普通飞机与航天飞机有机地结合在一起的 After the aerial bombardment of the U.S. Challenger space shuttle at the beginning of last year, the successive launch of the space launch plan of the United States, the Soviet Union and Western European countries failed to make the once-very-volatile human space activity at a temporary ebb. However, since these space activities are not only closely linked to scientific research and military purposes but also have great commercial value, all the countries in the world have not faltered in the face of setbacks. Instead, they have accelerated their plans for development. At present, some major western countries are again exploring the study of a new space transportation system, the space shuttle. As its name implies, the word “sky” is short for aerospace and aerospace, the space plane is the normal combination of the aircraft and the space shuttle