The most mundane things that you use every day (think post it notes, rubber bands, concrete) often have fascinating stories behind them.
In fact, people often only notice how something's designed when it goes wrong. But the process of discovery, testing and prototyping anything, no matter how ordinary, is full of pitfalls and the occasional exhilarating breakthrough.
Space Shuttle
Sending a vehicle into space is a massively expensive project. In 1969, the same year that Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, the cost of delivering a payload into orbit was $1,000 per pound. That's just over $5,700 in today's money. NASA had to cut costs. A reusable spacecraft was thought to be the answer, with projected launch costs of just $20 to $50 per pound of payload.
Work began on the first space shuttle in a fleet of five in 1972. Columbia, the second shuttle built but the first to go into orbit, went into space in April 1981.
The Space Shuttle never delivered NASA the expected savings; today it costs roughly $20,000 per pound of payload. But the service it provides and the challenges its design answers are unique. The Shuttle has been hugely important in constructing and repairing both the Hubble telescope and the International Space Station, while bringing scientific experiments, broken equipment and rubbish home.
Thomas Edison