"First stage shutdown". "Loss of mission". "Flight". I'm not sure what the term for it is, but these seem to refer to generalized phases/states of flight that the mission can be in. The use of "the" would refer to specific instances of the noun that the speaker has reason to believe the listener would know about. [1]
They almost feel like "uncountable" nouns, but I'm not sure. "Flight" can be countable, but as a generalized state/phase, I think it wouldn't be. It doesn't sound strange to me (a native speaker).
It would not be wrong to use "the" for many/all of these cases, but it would have changed the meaning, somewhat.
They almost feel like "uncountable" nouns, but I'm not sure. "Flight" can be countable, but as a generalized state/phase, I think it wouldn't be. It doesn't sound strange to me (a native speaker).
It would not be wrong to use "the" for many/all of these cases, but it would have changed the meaning, somewhat.
[1] http://www.edufind.com/english-grammar/definite-article/