Space Shuttle gliding and landing; it was originally intended to be outfitted for orbital operations after the test program, but it was found more economical to upgrade the structural test article STA-099 into orbiter "Challenger" (OV-099). An additional test article, dubbed "Pathfinder" (OV-098), was built for form and fit tests, and is on display at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. "Challenger" disintegrated 73 seconds after launch in 1986, and "Endeavour" was built as a replacement from structural spare components. Building "Endeavour" cost about US$1.7 billion. "Columbia" broke apart over Texas during re-entry in 2003. A Space Shuttle launch
Space Race Space Shuttle, which would facilitate development of permanent space stations in Earth and lunar orbit, perhaps a base on the lunar surface, and the first human flight to Mars as early as 1986 or as late as 2000. Nixon had a better sense of the declining political support in Congress for a new Apollo-style program, which had disappeared with the achievement of the landing, and he intended to pursue detente with the USSR and China, which he hoped might ease Cold War tensions. He cut the spending proposal he sent to Congress to include funding for only the Space Shuttle,