Space Shuttle Emphasis for the 1970's

8/8/2019 Space Shuttle Emphasis for the 1970's

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' SWCESHUTTLE(NASA-EP-96) SPACE SHUTTLE: EMPHASISFOB THE 1970'S (NASA) 10 p MF $1.45;SOD HC $O.UO CSCL 22B N73-338Unclas

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S H U T T L EEmphasis forthe 1970s

A f t e r a decade highlighted by driving effortand dram at ic ach ievement , A me r ica 's spaceprogram is shif t ing emphasis. Now the goal ispract ical benef i ts fo r people on Earth.The f i rst 15 years of the Space Age havewi tnessed a vast outpouring of new knowl-edge, and deve lopment of new technology,ski l ls and whole areas of scien ce and engineer-ing. These point to answers fo r problems thatcould not be solved without space flight.Even at this early date, the practicalbenef i ts from the spac e program far exceedth e costs. Evacua t ions saved thousands of l ivesin 1969 when we ather sate l l i tes forewa rnedthat Hurr icane Camil le would slam into theGul f Coast . Com mu nicat ions sate l l ites nowcarry half the world 's internat ional te lephone,te legraph and te levision t raf f ic at substant ial lylower pr ices than those of a decade ago.Thousands of new employment oppor tun i t ieshave been created in areas such as the $8 bil-l ion-a-year computer industry.Soon, sate l l i tes will sense air and waterpollution, send warnings of crop disease, scanthe oce ans for the best f ishing areas andsearch th e Earth fo r geolog ic format ions asso-ciated with untapped oil and mine ral reserves.The accuracy of weathe r forecasts will extendfrom th e present one or two days to one ortwo weeks by the late 1970s. Space naviga-tion aids will enhance flight safety in the air-lanes between Amer ica and Europe. Fur thertechnological progress will lead to more jobsfor Ame r i cans and increased sales of U. S.products overseas.

But, b arr iers stand in the way. Before thesebenef i ts can be achieved there must be break-throughs in cost , time and simpl ic i ty. Spaceflight is st i l l expen sive. Man ufactur ing, test ingand launching of satel l i tes is extremely cost ly.Five or six years m ay elapse before th e ideain a scient ist 's mind becomes th e reality of af l ight exper iment; more t ime is needed to de-velop a satel l i te into a pract ical tool. Scient is tsand engineers must use remote controls. Theycann ot retr ieve a sate l l i te for trouble shoot ingi f it does n ot ope rate as expected. The expe n-sive booster fo r each flight to space can onlybe used once.These barriers will be broken by theSpace Shu tt le, a revolution ary new vehiclethat will combine th e advantages of airplanesand spacec raf t, and will fl y repeatedly to spaceand back to Earth. It will not be expended aspresen t space vehic les are af ter a single flight.Many mi l l ions of dollars will be saved by usingsatel l i te equipment over and over again, andby using low-cost s tandard components thatca n be replaced when they wear out . Theyears of preparat ion fo r space flight will bedramat ica l ly shortened.Techn ic ians and special ists will accom-pany satel l i tes into orbit, make ad jus tmen ts asnecessary, and bring them back to Earth fo rmodern izat ion and maintenan ce. Thus, the in-troduction of practical benefits will becomeeconomica l , speedy and s imple .


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The Space Shut t le will take off ver t ical lywith a pilot and a co-pilot at the helm and twoother crew members. In ear ly operat ions, th eShut t le port will be a t Kennedy Space Center ,Flor ida, fo r east-west orbi ts. Later a port willbe added at Vandenberg Ai r Force Base, Cali-fornia, for north-south orbi ts. Two sol id-pro-pel lant booster rockets will supply most of thetakeof f power (1). About 40 k i lometers (2 5miles) high, the boosters will separate (2) anddescend by parachute to the ocean sur face(3). There they will be recovered and returnedto the launch si te for re-use.The main sect ion of the Shutt le, cal ledth e Orbiter, will cont inue flying (4) on thepower of its liquid-propellant engines, sup-plied by a large external tank. Af ter these twosect ions reach orbit, th e tank will separate (5 )and a sm al l rocke t will cause it to re-enter andland in a remote ocean area. The Orbiter willbe able to carry out space miss ions last ing atleast seven days (6). Spe cial m ater ia ls cover ingit s ent i re sur face will protect the inter ior fromth e sear ing hea t of re-entry. T he Orbiter willfl y hor izontal ly l ike an ai rp lane during thelat ter phase of descent (7) and i t will land ona r unway (8 ) near th e launch site (9). Asground crews ga in exper ience in readying itfo r subsequent f l ights, the turnaround t imewill be reduced to two we e k s .


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I \ < M < isini; finder-lip control, the payloads p e c i a l i s t c h e c k s the operation ol a complexs a t e l l i t e a f t e r the arms have removed it fromthe 4 S h u t t l e ' s rargo com|)artment. Soon thes . i l e l l i t c ^ will he released in orbit.

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Whe n operat ional, the Space Shut-tle will replace all but the sm alles t U.S.space launch ve h ic les . I t will launch andreturn weather sa te l l i tes , communica-t ions satel l i tes, pollution control satel-l i tes, Earth resource satel l i tes, naviga-tion sate l l i tes , sc ie n t i f ic satel l i tes andspace probes. It will provide launchservices for the Depar tment o f Defenseand other agencies of the U. S. Govern-ment, foreign cou ntr ies, pr ivate industryand research organ iza t ions . It willoperate as a comm on car r ier , serv ingessent ia l ly anyone who can buy a t icketor pay the f reight cost.Passengers need not necessar i lymeet the present s t ringent phys ica lstandards fo r space f l ight. They may besc ient is ts , engineers, technic ians, jour-nal ists, te levis ion crews or others whosebusiness takes them into space. As ex-per ience increases th e assurance ofsafety, men and women of many organi-zat ions and many countr ies will beamong the passengers.


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As costs decrease, preparat ion t imesshorten and operat ions are s impl i f ied, newuses of space flight will develop. Among thosenow env is ioned are the manu fac tu re of high-cost , high-p ur i ty produ cts l ike vaccine s, exot icmetal a l loys and specia l cast ings. Industrialresearchers ex p ec t th e weight lessness of spacewill lead to econom ic advantages tha t willwarran t the cost o f space activity.Scient is ts are also cons ider ing how tocol lect the Sun's energy in space and conver t

it to elec t r ica l power fo r t ransmiss ion to Earthwithout pollution.But scient i f ic leaders bel ieve the mostsigni f icant benef i ts to people on Earth willcome f rom invent ions not yet conceived,wh ich will be s t imu la ted when the Shutt lemakes space flight simple, less time consum-ing and less expens ive.


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Space Shuttle Emphasis for the 1970's

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