Soyuz How two cosmonauts almost died after landing back on Earth. Martian floods filled Jezero Crater, Perseverance finds. Is exploring space hazardous to our health? James Webb Space Telescope: How, when, and why it's launching. SpaceX Inspiration4 mission will send 4 people with minimal training into orbit. Perseverance samples its first two rocks. How astronauts go to the bathroom in outer space.
The perils of a trip to Mars: Low gravitation and high radiation. Cosmos: Origin and Fate of the Universe. Astronomy's Moon Globe. Galaxies by David Eicher. Astronomy Puzzles. Jon Lomberg Milky Way Posters. Astronomy for Kids.
Sign up. Table of Contents Subscribe Digital Editons. A chronicle of the first steps on the Moon , and what it took to get there. The Magazine News Observing. Photos Videos Blogs Community Shop. Sign up! Each of the shuttles was specially equipped for such functions, most notably with a large cargo bay and a robotic manipulator arm. On April 12, , John Young and Robert Crippen launched the space shuttle program by piloting Columbia to space and returning successfully two days later.
In space shuttle astronaut Sally Ride became the first U. The program was a tremendous success for NASA, but it also endured several tragedies. A string of successful missions was broken in when Challenger disintegrated seconds after liftoff, killing its seven-person crew. The space shuttle program was suspended in the wake of the accident, and no shuttles were launched for nearly three years.
The program rebounded in April with the successful mission of Discovery. Astronauts on this momentous flight placed the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. This incredible imaging device has subsequently added much to our understanding of the cosmos while returning otherworldly images that bring the universe to life. In the space shuttle Atlantis successfully docked at the Russian space station Mir, bringing the two great space programs closer together in an era of cooperation that stood in marked contrast to the early days of the space race.
Tragedy struck again in February when the program lost its second shuttle: Columbia disintegrated over Texas just 16 minutes before its scheduled landing, and all seven crew members were lost. Despite this heartbreaking setback, the space shuttle was flying regularly again by And in February Endeavour brought up the Cupola, a robotic control station with seven windows that provides the ISS crew with a degree view.
In , U. President George W. Bush announced that the space shuttles would be retired. The final flight came to a close when Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center on July 21, Series burn first stage arrays on the drawing board for the Space Shuttle called for various combinations of clustered solid rocket boosters, clustered modified Saturn V F-1 engines or new high-pressure liquid fueled engines. NASA again encountered development difficulties because all of the parallel and series burn concepts presented proved to be too expensive to be manufactured under tight budgetary constraints.
The company would recommend the most cost-effective design for the vehicle, as well as tally funding alternatives such as commercial launch revenue. Mathematica did provide some encouragement at a critical time for NASA. It was almost immediately determined that the U. Late in , there was a chance that the Space Shuttle program would be halted for more than one year.
NASA had no guarantee that President Nixon would recommend any expenditures for the Space Shuttle in his fiscal year budget, which ran from July 1, to June 30, President Nixon was ready to present his fiscal year budget to the U. Congress in early January, If he did not endorse funds for the Space Shuttle in this budget, the program could have faced a stall until July, at the earliest.
At a. Pacific Time on January 5, , President Nixon announced his commitment to fund the development of the Space Shuttle.
Just 19 days later, his budget was presented to Congress. Necessary funding for the Space Shuttle was ultimately approved. Mathematica reported that two options remained economically feasible for the Booster stage. Either a large solid rocket booster system or a high-pressure liquid fueled Booster system were considered feasible. While the Booster employing large solid rocket boosters would likely be more expensive to operate, NASA opted to take advantage of huge cost savings up front.
Since costs of ultimate operation could be absorbed throughout the life of the Space Shuttle program, the parallel burn Booster using large solid rocket boosters was selected. The solid rocket boosters were to be recovered and re-used following each launch. NASA claimed each solid rocket booster could be flown to times prior to retirement.
The International Space Division of Rockwell received the contract to develop and manufacture the Orbiter, as well as manage overall vehicle integration, on July 25, By this time, the accepted design of the Space Shuttle was quite similar to the vehicles that eventually entered service.
However, a few design changes would follow. During an in-flight emergency, these motors would have been fired to propel the Orbiter away from its main solid rocket boosters.
The turbofan engines would have enabled the Orbiter to maintain powered flight during landing operations and powered flight transfer between ground facilities.
Originally, this contract specified that a small solid rocket booster be attached atop the ET. The small solid rocket booster would be fired following ET jettison to propel the tank back toward the atmosphere. However, studies indicated that the ET could not achieve orbit on its own inertia and would fall back, then break up in the atmosphere by itself. The company had already demonstrated a successful track record of providing reliable solid rocket boosters for a plethora of rockets.
A dispute regarding the SRB contract was initiated by Lockheed following its issuance. While the contract remained with Thiokol after a resolution of the action, the grievance process effectively froze the contract until June, All of the subcontractors delivered their Enterprise components to Rockwell by the end of Enterprise was rolled out of the Rockwell hangar at Palmdale, California on September 17, However, a fifth operational Space Shuttle was not originally anticipated.
Plans called for up to 20 launches per year from each of three launch pads. Although NASA reviewed several detailed proposals for constructing virgin Space Shuttle processing, launch and landing sites in various parts of the country, the space agency wisely opted to conserve scarce resources by modifying existing facilities.
One of the first important tasks of the Space Shuttle fleet was to have been to boost the Skylab space station to a higher orbit. When Skylab was initially abandoned on February 8, it was purposely boosted to a slightly higher orbit which varied from to miles.
Calculations indicated that Skylab would remain in orbit for at least nine years, giving NASA ample time to get the Space Shuttle program rolling.
NASA had optimistically envisioned that a Space Shuttle would be able to attempt a docking with Skylab as early as the fifth Space Shuttle flight, which was originally expected to occur as early as the latter part of By late , National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration studies indicated that solar activity was forecast to become the second most intense in the century, with solar winds likely to be strong enough to increase atmospheric drag and cause Skylab to decay to much lower altitudes within a year.
The revelation prompted NASA to determine how, if necessary, Skylab could be guided back to Earth in a manner necessary to avoid damage to populated areas.
NASA was also prompted to step up its development of Space Shuttle hardware necessary to save the space station. Martin Marietta had already designed a teleoperator docking unit that could be remotely guided by an astronaut to dock with Skylab. Once docking was completed, engines in the docking mechanism could be fired to boost Skylab to a safe orbit.
The docking unit was scheduled to be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center by August, for a Space Shuttle flight scheduled for September, Due to development delays, the September, Space Shuttle flight would be the third, not the fifth as envisioned.
It was discovered that Skylab operational systems were working well, and NASA remained optimistic that the space station could be saved. But time was clearly running out. The effort to save Skylab ended abruptly in December, NASA had run into development problems with the Space Shuttle Main Engines, and it became clear that even the first Space Shuttle launch would not occur until well after the solar winds had increased atmospheric drag and forced the Skylab orbit to decay beyond hope of rescue.
Skylab, however, would refuse to die quietly. It did not, however, break apart as expected, and at p. Although the Skylab rescue mission was never completed, the Space Shuttle fleet was slated to support the launch of a plethora of scientific, commercial and military satellites. It would also facilitate on-orbit scientific investigations and aid NASA in a slower, more methodical approach to completing a space station. The Space Shuttle fleet was never, however, destined to perform up to 60 missions per year as intended.
And, the entire program was halted on January 28, when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch. This was just the 25th Space Shuttle mission, and it became stunningly clear that major modifications to the entire Space Shuttle program were called for. With the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on September 29, NASA entered a brand new era of Space Shuttle operations, adopting a more relaxed pace averaging about eight launches per year.
Learning from one of its greatest tragedies, NASA was able to rebuild and maintain a Space Shuttle program that has been remarkably safe and reliable, with the exception of the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia on February 1, The following information is more or less common to all Space Shuttles. Although the Space Shuttle program was retired in , this information is included here for historic and research purposes. The Forward Fuselage, which is made up of lower and upper sections that form a clamlike shell around a pressurized crew compartment.
The Crew Compartment, which is a pressurized three-level compartment intended to support all astronaut activities aboard the Orbiter. The Crew Compartment has a side hatch for normal crew ingress and egress which can be blown in an emergency.
The Crew Compartment also contains a hatch into an airlock from the middeck, and a hatch from the airlock through the aft bulkhead into the payload bay to support either spacewalks or access to pressurized modules in the payload bay area.
The Crew Compartment has 11 windows, including six forward windows, two overhead rendezvous observation windows, two aft payload bay viewing windows and a single side hatch window. Three panes make up each window. At a total width of nearly three inches, these are the thickest windows ever designed for see-through flight applications.
The Crew Compartment contains three levels, including a flight deck located at the top, a middeck in the center and a lower level equipment bay. The Crew Compartment is pressurized at This accommodates the crew with a shirt-sleeve working environment. The Airlock, which is typically housed in the crew compartment middeck.
The Airlock is 83 inches long and has a diameter of 63 inches. Two pressurized sealing hatches and a complement of support system hardware are contained in the Airlock. Each sealing hatch has a four-inch diameter observation window. Depending on the mission application, the Airlock can be positioned in either the crew compartment or the payload bay in support of spacewalk activities. The Airlock can also be modified to employ a tunnel adapter hatch, tunnel adapter and tunnel to allow the crew to enter pressurized modules in the payload bay.
The Wings, which provide an aerodynamic lifting surface to produce conventional lift and control for the Orbiter. The left and right Wings consist of the wing glove and an intermediate section that includes the main landing gear wells. Each Wing is 60 feet long and has a maximum thickness of 5 feet. The Midfuselage, which provides a structural interface for the forward fuselage, aft fuselage and wings. It supports the payload bay doors, hinges, tie-down fittings, forward wing glove as well as various Orbiter system components.
The Midfuselage provides the structural foundation for the payload bay. The Payload Bay Doors, which are opened shortly after orbit is achieved to allow heat to be released from the Orbiter and to allow the release of payloads as necessary. The two Payload Bay Doors are hinged at the port or starboard side of the midfuselage and are latched at the centerline atop the Orbiter.
Thermal seals on the Payload Bay Doors provide a relatively airtight environment within the payload bay when the doors are closed.
This seal is critical when ground operations require equipment and payloads to be maintained within the payload bay. Each Payload Bay Door is 60 feet long by 15 feet wide. The Aft Fuselage, which consists of an outer shell, thrust structure and internal secondary structure.
The Aft Fuselage outer shell allows access to systems installed within the structure. The Aft Fuselage internal secondary structure houses hardware and wiring for auxiliary power unit, hydraulics, ammonia boiler and flash evaporator systems. Many space shuttle missions brought modules and astronauts to the ISS, fostering a new sense of international cooperation. The Space Shuttle Program reached a close in , ending 30 years of spaceflight.
The last impacts of the program continue to this day. Less than ten years after the Space Shuttle Program ended, astronauts launched again from the same pad that STS-1 had launched.
Lessons learned from the Space Shuttle Program were passed on to the Commercial Crew Program, including reusable spacecraft.
The Space Shuttle Program continues to inspire the future of space exploration. In this immersive exhibit, stand nose to nose with space shuttle Atlantis, suspended in the air as it flew in space. My Trip. Cart 0.
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