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The shuttle, a manned, multipurpose, orbital-launch space plane, was designed to carry payloads of up to about 30,000 kg (65,000 lb) and up to seven crew members and passengers. The upper part of the spacecraft, the orbiter stage, had a theoretical lifetime of perhaps 100 missions, and the winged orbiter could make unpowered landings on returning to earth. Because of the shuttle's designed flexibility and its planned use for satellite deployment and the rescue and repair of previously …

…total of 39 were scheduled through 1992. The long-delayed $1.5-billion Hubble Space Telescope was deployed by space shuttle in 1990 but, because of an optical defect, failed to provide the degree of resolution it was designed to have until it was repaired in December 1993. On February 2, 1995, Lieutenant Colonel Eileen M. Collins became the first woman to pilot the space shuttle. On March 18 the space shuttle Endeavor, piloted by Stephen Oswald, landed after a record 16 days, 15 hours in space.