The Space Shuttle was launched into orbit piggybacking a large rocket-booster launch vehicle and would perform its duties in Earth orbit before entry and landing like a regular aircraft.

The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise flies free after being released from NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) over Rogers Dry Lakebed during the second of five free flights carried out ...

and blast off into space. Instead, SpaceShipOne would be carried to altitude by WhiteKnightOne, a twin-fuselage carrier aircraft. After separating from its mothership, SpaceShipOne would light its ...

The Russians have been just as imaginative as their American counterparts in designing spacecraft, yet less determined in realizing them.

After test glide and landings upon release from aircraft in 1977, the Space Shuttle began ... watched the shuttle fly above them. The jet carrier made a wide sweep toward the ocean, then swung ...

As Space.com reports ... it combines the characteristics of both spacecraft and aircraft, allowing it to be launched into orbit by a carrier rocket and land on an airport runway like a plane ...

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after it was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in just 73 seconds which claimed the lives of seven astronauts.