Editing Space Shuttle (section)

===Historical background===
In the late 1930s, the German government launched the "[[Amerikabomber]]" (English: America bomber) project, and [[Eugen Sänger|Eugen Sanger]]'s idea, together with mathematician [[Irene Sänger-Bredt|Irene Bredt]], was a winged rocket called the [[Silbervogel]] (German for "silver bird").<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wall|first=Mike|date=June 28, 2011|title=How the Space Shuttle Was Born|url=https://www.space.com/12085-nasa-space-shuttle-history-born.html|access-date=March 30, 2023|website=Space.com|archive-date=March 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330205213/https://www.space.com/12085-nasa-space-shuttle-history-born.html|url-status=live}}</ref> During the 1950s, the [[United States Air Force]] proposed using a reusable piloted glider to perform military operations such as reconnaissance, satellite attack, and air-to-ground weapons employment. In the late 1950s, the Air Force began developing the partially reusable [[Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar|X-20 Dyna-Soar]]. The Air Force collaborated with [[NASA]] on the Dyna-Soar and began training six pilots in June 1961. The rising costs of development and the prioritization of [[Project Gemini]] led to the cancellation of the Dyna-Soar program in December 1963. In addition to the Dyna-Soar, the Air Force had conducted a study in 1957 to test the feasibility of reusable boosters. This became the basis for the [[aerospaceplane]], a fully reusable spacecraft that was never developed beyond the initial design phase in 1962–1963.<ref name="dev_space_shuttle">{{cite book |last=Williamson |first=Ray |title=Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, Volume IV: Accessing Space |chapter=Developing the Space Shuttle |publisher=NASA |date=1999 |location=Washington, D.C. |chapter-url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4407/vol4/cover.pdf |access-date=April 23, 2019 |archive-date=May 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531171908/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4407/vol4/cover.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|162–163}}

Beginning in the early 1950s, NASA and the Air Force collaborated on developing [[lifting bodies]] to test aircraft that primarily generated lift from their fuselages instead of wings, and tested the [[NASA M2-F1]], [[Northrop M2-F2]], [[Northrop M2-F3]], [[Northrop HL-10]], [[Martin Marietta X-24|Martin Marietta X-24A]], and the [[Martin Marietta X-24#X-24B 2|Martin Marietta X-24B]]. The program tested aerodynamic characteristics that would later be incorporated in design of the Space Shuttle, including unpowered landing from a high altitude and speed.<ref name="lifting_body_report">{{cite book |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19980169231.pdf |title=Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story |date=January 1, 1997 |access-date=April 25, 2019 |publisher=NASA |first=R. Dale |last=Reed |isbn=9780160493904 |author-link=R. Dale Reed |archive-date=December 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218030338/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19980169231.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|142}}<ref name="shuttle_manual">{{cite book |last=Baker |first=David |author-link=David Baker (author) |title=NASA Space Shuttle: Owners' Workshop Manual |publisher=[[Haynes Manual]] |date=April 2011 |location=Somerset, UK |isbn=978-1-84425-866-6}}</ref>{{rp|16–18}}