What is the difference between a space shuttle and a satellite?

Question

What is the difference between a space shuttle and a satellite?

Answer 1

A satellite can be many things!  The most basic definition is something that orbits a planet.  So that means that our moon, all the other planet's moons, a few rocks, chunks of what not are in fact satellites!  The man made satellites we have orbiting Earth are meant to be there, and they're usually not manned. (Exception for the ISS.)  They can deal with any kind of thing to suit our needs, television, cell phones, GPS, whatever!

A space shuttle is just an airplane like machine meant to take man into space for whatever reason, and it's made to bring them back and it's reusable.

Answer 2

Simply saying a satellite is goods for space Shuttle and so the shuttle is a vehicle-rather a transport vehicle for the satellite and other such things like space probes including humans.

All the space shuttle missions include human crew of 7 to 8 people.  Moreover a satellite is built for to stay in the orbit (in order of years) for some certain mission like communication, TV broadcasting etc, while the space shuttle is only for transporting or sometimes repairing purposes.

Answer 3

A space shuttle does become a satellite when it is in earth orbit.  Anything in orbit around another object is a satellite.  There may be different "kinds" of satellites, however.  There are natural ones and artificial ones.  There are also many kinds of artificial ones, including space stations, communications arrays, and space shuttles.  There are many kinds of natural satellites as well, which can include asteroids, moons, planets, stars, and galaxies.  Our own galaxy has two satellite galaxies, for example: the large and small Magellanic clouds.

Answer 4

a space shuttle is a thing built by life that is in space, a satellite is anything orbiting anything else under the influence of gravity.

Answer 5

A Space shuttle is a compromise between glider, launch vehicle and satellite, and also being reusable. This means, it is bad in all three aspects, but capable of performing all three roles.

In space, the Space shuttle has is just a very heavy satellite. It has all subsystems, a satellite also has (Attitude&orbit control system, electrical power, guidance-navigation-and-control, thermal control system), plus lot's of equipment for letting humans survive inside it and help them work in space.

A satellite can usually not reenter earth atmosphere and burns up, while the Shuttle can return and land. The shuttle can also thus launch again.

Most satellites are build for flying many years in space, as they are not reusable, while the shuttle can only stay up to 27 days in space.  Most satellites are powered by solar arrays, while this option got never realized for the Space Shuttle, although it was planned. The shuttle instead relies on fuel cells, which also supply oxygen for the life support and hot water for preparing food and personal hygiene.

Most satellites are unmanned, the Shuttle has a crew of seven, and can in emergency carry 10.

The shuttle is also part of it's own launch vehicle, as it carries the three main engines required for reaching orbit with it, while satellites only have engines for maneuvering in Orbit (which the shuttle has additionally).

Finally, the Shuttle has a large payload bay, which allows it to carry up to 25 tons of cargo into space and let astronauts work comfortably outside the space shuttle, as this bay is also a formidable work platform with robot arm, hand rails and flood lights.

Many things will be missing when the shuttle retires.

Answer 6

What does a shuttle BUS do? It goes from one place to another. The space shuttle goes from Earth to orbit, and back again. Satellites stay up there.

Answer 7

Actually, the Space Shuttle _is_ a satellite while it's in orbit.  Untethered, spacewalking astronauts/cosmonauts can also be considered satellites.

Answer 8

A space shuttle is a vehicle that people can use to go into space while a satellite is unmanned and used for taking measurements or things like communications and TV and such and such