Space Shuttle the Renewed Promise

8/7/2019 Space Shuttle the Renewed Promise

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SpaceShuttleT h eR e n e w e d

P r o m i s e


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SpaceShuttle:%eRenewedPromise

BYNeil M c A l e e r

For sale by theSuperintendent ofDocuments,Government Printing

Office,Washington, DC 20402


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Table ofConteIntroduction 5

Return to Flight:The Recovery 6

Space Shuttle Chronology 7

Examples of OtherModifications on Shuttle'sMajor Systems

Space Shuttle RecoveryChronology

Poised for Launch:Space Shuttle and Crew

8

11

12

Versatile Achievements:The First Twenty-four Flights 16

selected Space Shuttle Mission

Achievements and Firs ts 18

The Space Shuttle into the21st Century 22


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Dr. Robert M.Goddard


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Flight

TtSe

Recovery

I early February 1986,as the nation mou rnedthe tragic loss of seven Americans and theChallenger spaceship, President Reaganannounced the creation of the PresidentialCommission on the Space Shuttle ChallengerAccident. Chaired by William P. Rogers, formersecretary of state, it became known as the RogersCommission. NASA's 51-L Data and DesignAnalysis Task Force was also established at thistime to support the work of the RogersCommission.

More than 6,000 people were involved in thecommission's four-month investigation of theaccident, and so me 15,000 pages of transcriptwere taken during public and closed hearings.

The Report of the PresidentialCommission on the Space ShuttleChallenger Accident

The commission's report was published anddelivered to the President on June 6, 1986.Hardware redesign of the faulty solid rocketmotor joints and a review of the Space Shuttlemanagement structure were two of the nine basicrecommendations set forth. The other sevenrecommendations covered: critical hardwarereview and hazard analysis; safety organization;

improved commu nications; landing safety; launchabort and crew escape; flight rate; andmaintenance safeguards. These recommendationsrepresented the guidelines for the e normou samount of work to be done by NASA and theaerospace community to return the Space Shuttleto flight status. The commission also requestedthat a progress report on implementing therecommendations be mad e to the President inone year, which was delivered in June 1987.


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Left:Space Shuttle Columbialeaves Earth for the firstorbital mission on April 12,1981. Veteran astronautJohn Young, Commander,and Pilot Robert Crippentested the Space Shuttle'ssystems in space for thefirst time.Right:Discovery takes off in April1985. While in orbit, itdeployed twocommunications satellites.Among the seven crewmembers were U.S.Senator "Jake" Garn andCharles Walker, a payloadspecialist from industry.

Feto

Ap

Jrr

Mardl s72

Several studies of an Integral Launch and Reentry Vehicleconducted

NASA's Space shuttle Task Group established

NASA creates Space Shuttfe

President Nixon announces

lects basic Sh iter, main, xternal tank, and solid rocket boosters) of today's

xbi i r, mainengines, external tank, and solid rocket boosters) of today'ssystem

NASAannounces selection of Rockwell International as primecontractor for Space Shuttle

Rockwell lntemationd starts assembly of crew module forSpace Shuttle fntepffse, the irst orbiter, which was used forapproach and landing ests

RO N ou t of first Space Shuttle orbiter, the Enterprise

First of 5 approach and anding tests; Enterprise releasedfrom Baeing 747 at 6705.6 meters (22,000 feet)

Space ShuWe Columbiatests; Commander Johnthe controls

Columbia flies thecommercial satellites (two) are deployed

Nineteen more smxssful flights of the our Space Shuttleorbiters, for a total of more than 2,400 rbits around theEarth and accumulated mileage of some 91,732.608kilometers (57 million miles) - a distance equal to more than118 round trips o the Moon

After 73 econds of fllgM. the CtMNenger is lost claiming 7mew members and spaceship

APa-toJanuarym-

withformation of

Space Shuttle Discmerys(STS26) since the challenger accident; the U S . mannedspace program is back n business

ies the first missionsegtsniba/October1988


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From a C - 1 4 1 aircraft, aNavy parachutist tests

the escape system thatShuttle crews can use

during controlled gliding

portions of the flight(between 1,5 24 and6,096 meters [5,000

and 20,000 feet] fromthe ground). Astronauts

will attach a lanyard andslide down the

telescoping pole to clearthe orbiter and open a

parachute.

aluminum and steel, is attached to the mid-deck ceiling. Both systems were tested andevaluated for a crew of up to eight.

A decision was made in April 1988 o outfit theorbiters with the telescoping pole systembecause it would be safer and simpler tooperate and easier to maintain than the tractorrocket system. If a Space Shuttle ever had toditch in the o cean , the crew could bail outusing the telescoping pole because structuralanalysis of an orbiter landing on water hasshown it to be extremely hazardous.

The Mixed Fleet

One of the most far-reaching recommendationsof the presidential commission concerns theSpace Shuttle's flight rate. Because the UnitedStates had relied heavily on the Space Shuttleas its principal launch vehicle, the cornmissionconcluded that this reliance created a"relentless pressure" to increase the launch ratewhich, in turn, contributed to the accident.

In August 1986, two months after PresidentReagan received the commission's report, heannoun ced that, excep t for satellitesexclusively requiring a Shuttle launch orrequiring it for national security or foreignpolicy reasons, NASA would no longer launchcommercial satellites.

This decision eventually led to the mixed-fleetconcept, which shifted some of the SpaceShuttle launch bur den to unmannedexpendable launch vehicles, which are usedonly once. Many Department of Defenselaunches originally scheduled o n the SpaceShuttle, for example, are now rescheduled onthe expendable Titan I y which has a payloadcapacity about eq ual to the Shuttle. Themilitary will also use their medium launchvehicles for some of the smaller satellitesoriginally schedu led to fly on the Shuttle.

Meeting the expanding launch needs of th eUnited States with a mixed fleet of launchsystems has several important benefits. First,the nation's access to space will be lessvulnerable to a single failure or logisticsproblem. In addition, each payload can bemission-matched to either the Space Shuttle oran e xpendab le. This will leave the Shuttle tofly those missions for which it is uniquelysuited such as dedicated life-science flightsand other scientific missions requiring thehands-on attention of researchers andspecialists.

The Replacement Orbiter

The decision to build a replacement orbiter to

expand the Shuttle fleet to four vehicles wasmade in August 1986. By the following July,negotiations were completed with RockwellInternational to build OV-105, and thecompany began construction in August 1987.Orbiter OV-105, basically iden tical toDiscovery an d Atlantis, is planned forcompletion in 1991. It is scheduled to fly itsmaiden mission in 1992.

In March 1988, NASA ann ounce d its Orbi ter-Naming Program for the replacement orbiter,an educational project planned so thatstudents in grades K through 12 could actively

participate in naming th e new Space Shuttle.Said NASA Administrator, Dr. James C.Fletcher during the announcement, "I t is fittingthat students and teachers, who shared in theloss of the Space Shuttle Challenger, share inthe creation of the replacement."

When th e n ew o rbiter finally blasts skywardin the early 1990s as the fourth ship in thefleet, the U.S. space program will receiveanother surge of momentum as it approachesthe year 2000 and the first full century of theSpace Age.


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ss of ship and crew

Fornation of Presidential Commission on the SpShuttle Challenger Accident; NASAestablishes 5and Design Analysis Task F o r e

*ch1986 Solid Rocket Motor Redesign Team formeda

Jane1986

-1987

October194131

Novemberls87

3ce

1 4 Data

Report of Presidentiai Commission on Space ShuWeChallenger Accident submitted o President. including 9

recommendationsNASAcreates new office of Safety, Reliability,Maintainability and Quality Assurance

The Committee on Wince an d Technology, U.S. H o u s e ofRepresentatives, released ts report, lnvesrigationof theChallenger Accident

First of fw full-scale. fulredesigned Space Shuttl

NASAissues first mixedfleet manifest f o r Space Shuttlemissions and expendable launch vehicles

Testing begins on escape system that could beduring controlled gliding flight only

Space Shuttle D i s m r y s ready for first U.S. maspaceflight (STS-26) since the Challengeraccident

Space Shuttle Columbialeaves Earth for the first

orbital mission on April12 , 1981.


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Poised for

Space Shuttleand Crew

The crew module for thenew Space Shuttle orbiterbeing built by RockwellInternational at theirDowney, CA , plant. Thiswill be the pressurizedliving quarters for missioncrews above the Earthwhen the vehicle beginsflying in the early 1990s

T e Spac e Shuttle system remains th e mosttechnologically advanced and complexmachine on planet Earth. NASA has neverestimated even a ballpark total for the millionsof parts that comprise its launch configuration.

The major com ponen ts are: the orbiterspacecraft; the three main engines, with acombined thrust of almost 544,311 kilograms(1.2 million pounds); the huge external tank(ET) that feeds the liquid hydrogen fuel andliquid oxygen oxidizer to the three mainengines; and the two solid rocket boosters(SRBs), with their combined thrust of some2,630,836 kilograms (5.8 million pounds),which provide most of the power for the firsttwo minutes of flight. The SRBs take the SpaceShuttle to a n altitude of 45.06 kilometers (28miles) and a sp eed of 4,973 kilometers perhour (3,094 miles per hour) before theysepara te and fall back into the ocean to beretrieved, refurbished, and prepared forano ther flight. After the solid rocket boostersare jettisoned, the orbiter's three main engines,fed by the external tank, continue to providethrust for anothe r six minutes before they areshut do wn, at which time the giant tank isjettisoned an d falls back to Earth,disintegrating in the atmosphere.

The Space Shuttle Orbiter

The orbiter is both th e brains a nd heart of th eSpace Transportation System. Advancedtechnology was created for the vehicle in suchareas as flight control, thermal protection, andliquid-rocket propulsion. About the same sizean d weight as a DC-9 aircraft, the orbitercontains the pressurized crew compartment(which can normally carry up to seven crewmembers), th e huge cargo bay, an d the threemain engines mounted on its aft end. The

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Launch and landingsequence for all

Shuttle missions-past,present, and future

thermal tile system. n-hich protects the orbiterduring its searing reentry through theatmosphere, was on e breakthroughtechnology that proved much morechallenging than expected.

There are three levels to the crew cabin.Uppermost is the flight deck where thecommander and pilot control the mission.surrounded by an array of switches andcontrols. During launch of a sevenmembercrew. two other astronauts are positioned o nthe flight deck behind the commander andpilot. The three other crew members are inlaunch positions in the mid-deck, nThich isbelow the flight deck.

The mid-deck is whe re t he gallel-. toilet ( n oshower in the Space Shuttle as there was inSkylab). sleep stations. and storage an dexperiment lockers are found-the basicnccds fo r n-eightless. daily living. .\Is0 locatedin the mid-deck are the side hatch for passageto and from the vehicle before and afterlanding, and the airlock hatch into the cargobay and space beyond. It is through this hatchand airlock that astronauts go to don theirspacesuits and manned maneuvering units(MMUs) and prepare for extravehicularactivities (EVAs). more popularly known as

"spacewalks." These excursions ha\-eproduced some of the most important spacefirsts in the Shuttle program as well as themost spectacular photographic Lristas of theSpace Age. Below the mid-deck's floor is autility area fo r the air and water tanks andtheir ducts.

The Space Shutt le's cargo bay is adaptable tohundreds of tasks. Large enou gh toaccommodate a tour bus 18.28 x 4.57 meters(60 s 15 feet) the cargo ba)- instead carriessatellites. spacecraft. and Spacelab scientific

laboratories to and from Earth orbit. It is also aw-ork station for astronauts to repair satellites.a foundation from which to erect spacestructures, and a hold for retrieved satellites tobe returned to Earth.

Mounted on the port side of the cargo baybehind the crew quarters is the remotemanipulator system (JWS]. developed andfunded by the Canadian government. The RM Sis a robot arm and hand n-ith three jointsanalogous to those of the human shoulder.elbow . and wrist. Two TV cameras mountednear its elbow and wrist provide visual cues t othe crew member wh o operates it from the aftstation of the orbiter's flight deck. The RZIS

The flight deck of SpaceShuttle Columbia,contains an array ofcontrols and switches.The commander'sposition is on the leftand the pilot sits on theright. The three CRTscreens in the centerdisplay computer dataand other essentialinformation.


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The Space Shuttle's cargobay is large enough tohold several satellites or apressurized Spacelabmodule for a scientificteam. On this maidenChallenger mission in1983, the first Trackingand Data Relay Satellite(TDRS-A),boosterattached, was deployed.Its hold-down ring andother support equipmentwas left behind and will beused again.

(about 15 meters [50 feet] in length) can moveanything from satellites to astronauts to andfrom the cargo bay or to different points in

nearby space. I t has served with distinction onmany missions, deployin g and retrievingvarious scientific and co mmunica tionssatellites.

Thermal tile insulation and blankets (alsoknown as the thermal protection system orTPS) covers the underbelly, bottom of thewings, and othe r heat-bearing surfaces of theorbiter and protects it during its fiery reentryinto the Earth's atmos phere . The tiles representanother new technology that will continue toserve future spacecraft of the 21st century.

In contrast to earlier manned spacecraft suchas the Apollo command module, which usedablative material that burn ed and melted off inlayers during reentry heating and could neverbe u sed again, the Shuttle's silicate fiber tileswere invented and designed to be used for 100missions before replacemen t is necessary.

Some 24,000 individual tiles-no twoalike-must be installed by han d on theorbiter's surfaces. The basic material of thetiles is pure-sand silicate fibers, mixed with aceramic binder. The tiles are incrediblylightweight, abou t the density of balsa wood,

and dissipate the heat so quickly that a white-hot tile with a temperature of 1,260 degreesCelsius (2,300 degre es Fahrenheit) can betaken from an oven and held in bare handswithout injury.

The Main Engines and SecondaryPropulsion Systems

The three main engines are clustered at the aftend of the orbiter and have a combined thrusto f almost 544,308 kilograms (1.2 millionpounds) at sea level. Another example of

breakthrough technology o n the orbiter, they

are high-performance, liquid-propellant rocketengines whose thrust can be varied over a rangeof 65 to 109 percent of their rated power level.

They are the world's first reusable rocket enginesand are designed for seven and one-half hours o foperation. Because they fire for eight minutes foreach flight to orbit, the current engi nes aredesigned to operate for 55 flights. A personwould be dwarfed if he stood next to a mainengine. They are 4.2 meters (14 feet) long and2.4 meters (8 feet) in diameter at the nozzle exit.

Another propulsion system takes over onc e theSpace Shuttle's main engines shut dow n as theship ap proaches orbital insertion. Two orbitalmaneuvering system (OMS) engines, mounted oneither side of the aft fuselage, provide thrust for

major orbital changes. For more exacting motionsin orbit, forty-four small rocket engi nes, clusteredon t he Shuttle's nose and on either side of thetail, are used. Together they are known as thereaction control system and have provenindispensable in doing the Shuttle's importantwork of retrieving, launching, and repairingsatellites in orbit.

The External Tank

This giant cylinder, higher than a 15-storybuilding, with a length of 47 meters (154 feet)and as wide as a feed silo with a diameter of 8.4meters (27.5 feet), is the largest single piece ofthe Space Shuttle. During launch the externaltank also acts as a backbone for the orbiter andsolid rocket boosters to which it is attached.

In separate pressurized tank sections inside, theexternal tank holds the liquid hydrogen fuel andliquid oxygen oxidizer for the Shuttle's threemain engines. During launch the external tankfeeds the fuel under pressure through 43.18-centimeter (17-inch) ducts which branch off intosmaller lines that feed directly into the mainengines. Some 242,260 liters (64,000 gallons) of

fuel are consumed by the main engines eachminute.


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Machine(

Basic dimensions of theSpace TransportationSystem for its launch andearly flight configuration.

from alumin um alloys, the SpaceShuttle's external tan k is the on ly part of thelaunch vehicle that currently is not reused . After

its 1,991.126 iters (526.000 gallons) of fuel areconsumed during the first eight and one-halfm i ~ n t e r ; f flight, it is jettisoned frnm the nrhiterand breaks u p in the upp er atmosphere, itspieces falling into remote ocean waters.

The Solid Rocket BoostersLike giant roman c andles on either side of theSpace Shuttle orbiter. these solid-fuel rocketsrepresent t he most traditional and time-testedtechnology of the major Shuttle components.But even though the basic solid-fuel technologyhad proven itself over m o decades ir , Air Forceprograms. the hardware failure of the joint andO-ring seal of one of the solid boosters m-as th eprimary cause of th e Challeizger loss. Withrigorous testing during the recoven program.including flaa-s deliberatell- built into the testboosters, the new joint design passed stringentexamination and review.

The Space Shuttle's mo solid-rocket boosters,the first designed for refurbishment and reuse,are also th e largest solids ever built and the firstto be flown on a manned spacecraft. Togetherthey provide the majority of thrust for the first 2minutes of flight-some 2,630.822 kilograms (5.8million pounds).

The solid propellant mix is composed of 16percent aluminum porn-der (fuel) and almost 70percent ammonium perchlorate (oxidizer), withthe remainder made up of a binder, a curingagent, and a small amount of catalyst. A smallrocket motor in each booster ignites thepropellant at launch.

During flight the solid booster nozzles swivel upto six degrees. redirecting the thrust and steeringthe Space Shuttle toward orbit.

The versatile robot arm,the remote manipulatorsystem, can movesatellites, astronauts, orother payloads. HereBruce McCandless testsits use as a "cherry-picker" while secured tothe foot restraintattachment on aChallenger mission inFebruary 1984.

L


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VersatileAchievements

meFirstTwentyfourNights

Below LeftBruce McCandless tookthe world's firstuntethered spacewalkwhile strapped into themanned maneuvering unitduring the Challengermission in February1984.Right:Crewmate Robert Stewart

became the second manin the world to fly free andsee the best view ofEarth.

T ere are en oug h Space Age firsts andstanding records established during the first 24Shuttle flights to fill an almanac. Dozens ofcommercial , scientific, an d military satellites weredelivered to orbit; two were retrieved andbrought back to Earth; and two were pluckedout of orbit, repaired in the Shuttle's cargo bay,and put back to work, on e studying the Sun andthe o ther providing communications services.

Each time a Sp ace Shuttle flew, it became atemporary station in space. Each time a crewblasted to orbit, the spacecraft became a valuablelife sciences laboratory from which new data was

collected on how the body responds toweightlessness. The Shuttles also becametemporary construction bases from which solarpanels were unfurled and tested andcomponents of future space structures erectedan d tested by astron auts in their flying MMUs.

When the first four Spacelabs flew inside Shuttlecargo bays durin g missions in 1983 and 1985,each with its own scientists and program ofexperiments, the amount of data generated wasastonishing. Spacelab 1, the first operationalmission of the European-built laboratory, flew o n

Columbia in late 1983. More than 70experiments were conducted, and 200investigators from 16 countries participated inactivities carried out during th e flight. The 1985flight of Spacelab 3 , nicknamed the "flying zoo"because it flew two monkeys and twenty-fourrats on board, collected some 250 billion bits ofcompute r da taenough to fill 50,000 book s of200 pages each if converted into words.

Some 125 crew positions were flown o n thefirst 24 missions. Most of the commanders flewmore than once, with Robert L. Crippen

holding the record of four Space Shuttle


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missions, one as pilot and three as

commander. A total of 19,970 crew hours w ereaccumulated. or more than two and one-fourthyears of totai shuttie crew expene nce. I heShuttle fleet also flew more than 338.833.kilograms (7t7,000 pounds) of cargo to orbit.of which almost 136,077.7 kilograms (300.000pounds) were deployed into space.

Cargoes of Satellites

Orbiting satellites are the gold ingots of aninformation age. and the Shuttles havedelivered over tn-o dozen of them to s e n eplanet Earth.

A single mission of Discoz)eqi 51-G) that flewin June 1985 carried four satellites (thr ee ofwhich we re for comm unications) in its cargobay and deployed them in orbit: Morelos-l forMexico: Arabsat I- B for the Arab SatelliteCommunications Organization: Telstar 3-D forAT&T; and Spartai? 1, an astronomical satellitewhich gathered data on mysterious X-raysources in our Milky Way galaxy and w hichwas retriex-ed later in the mission and broughtback to Earth.

Three oth er mission accomplishments

involving satellites. while important in theirown right. are more significant in n-h at theypromise for the future.

In April 1984. the Challeiiger rendezvoused inorbit n-ith the ailing Solar klaxiniuni scientificsatellite. which had been drifting uselessly inorbit for three years because of three blownfuses in its attitude control box. The missionplan nas to retrieve Solar Mas. anch or it in thecargo bay. repair it n-ith nem- modu lar com-ponents, and send it back to work in orbit.

A selected list o impor tant Space Shuttleaccomplishmeiits and records o t h e j n t 24

missions appear i i i the table on the ollouingPage.

The happy crew ofColumbia on STS-5, thefirst mission after fourorbital test flights. Thiswas the first time twocommercial satell ites Overmyer, and Josephwere deployed from the Allen.

Shuttle. CommanderVance Brand holds sign,surrounded by(clockwise) WilliamLenoir, Robert


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Tuture space iaciiiuesand stations. It wasdeployed by missionspecialist Judith Resnikfrom the control stationat the aft of the flightdeck.

Launch Date olbiter and Mission Mission AeMevements and R n t s

First deployment of commercial satellites (two) by ShuttleChallenger S T S )

Challenger (STS-7)

Challenger (414) First repair of satellite in orbit (Solar Maximum satellite)

6/17/85 Discovery (516)

Discovery (514)

First time four satellites were launched from Shuttle: first laser test: 100th American inspace

Record EVA time of over 7 ho

(61-6)building echniques for futureFirst verification light of Hitchhiker carrier, with 3 xperimentsolumbia (614)


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From the robot arm, vanHoften took this photoof his fellow

spacewalker, WilliamFisher, anchored to afoot restraint on the farside of the cargo bay.

is was eventually done. the entiremission plan had to be rewritten because thelatch de\-ice built for the astronauts did not

work with the mate hardware on the satellite.After several unsuccessful attemp ts. theChalleiiger and its ILMS robot arni snagged thesritellite and the $235 million Solar Max wasrepaired and returned to work. This missionsuccess is a prime example of the versatility ofthe Shuttle and its crew and demonstrates howtrained astronauts and expert g round supportcan succeed where hardware alone would fail.

A second satellite repair in orbit occurredduring a Discotri?? mission in August 1985.The 6.803.8 kilogram ( 7 . j on) Syncom IV.deplo yed o n an earlier mission in April, wasnot working because of a failed sequencer.Astronauts James van Hoften and WilliamFishcr hrought the huge satellite into the cargobay and began repairs to bypass the defectivescquwcer. This lxca me a recorci-hreakingEVA of 7 hours. 8 minutes. The next day theastronauts manually struggled to align theunwieldy satellite for its return to orbit.Standing on the n-ork' platform of the RMSrobot arm and holding the bulky Syncom,astronaut van Hoften rose up from the cargobay. w ith sei-era1 pushe s of a bar. he gave thesatellite its needed spin of three revolutions

per minute. and it n-ent spinning into space.This was the m-orld's first hand-laun chedsatellite. An S85 million satellite had beensaved.

In November of 1984, Shuttle Discoziey alsohecame the Lvorld's first spaceship to retrievesatellites and return them to Earth. WesternUnion's Westar VI and Indonesia's Palapa B-2were successfully launc hed from theCL?alleiiger n February 1984. Shortly afterdeplo ymen t. their built-in rocket motors,which would have taken them to higher

After capturing andrepairing the huge, 7.5ton Syncom IVcommunicationssatellite in Discovery'scargo bay(August/September1985), astronaut Jamesvan Hoften gave Syncoma spin and arm-launchedit from his perch on theRMS robot arm. Notethe Moon below the

Earth, next to theantenna.

orbits. failed. Had it not been for this spacesalvage operation. m o ophisticatedcommunications satellites, n-ith a combinedworth of about S70 million. would have beenwritten off.

Astronauts Joseph Allen and Dale Gardner didthe E\% retrieval work by using a speciallydesigned tool. nicknamed the "stinger." tomaneuver the satellites within reach of theRzlS robot arm. which then would move theminto the cargo bay. But a problem came upn-hen they were retrieving the Palapa. Anunanticipated protrusion made it impossible touse a securing bracket. The astronautsimprovised . A411en tood on the en d of theremote arni. his feet in foot restraints, an dheld t he satellite with his arms while Gardnerclamped it down in the cargo bay. Thisprocedure took a complete orbit, andastronaut Allen held the satellite above hishead for an entire trip around the world.Discovev and its cargo of two satelliteslanded o n runway 33 at the Kennedy SpaceCenter after a mission just minutes short ofeight days.

Above Left:Secured in the aft of thecargo bay, the SolarMaximum MissionSatellite became thefirst satellite to berepaired in Earth orbit. Itwas, however, a moredifficult task thanexpected to nab SolarMax and get it into thecargo bay. Good pilotingand the RMS robot armsaved the day.Above:Challenger's Solar Maxrepair crew of April1984 gathered on theflight deck for thi s good-humored portrait.Through the window isthe cargo bay. Left toright: Francis (Dick)Scobee, George Nelson,James van Hoften, TerryHart, and CommanderRobert Crippen.


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Flying free over theBahama Banks inNovember 1984,astronaut Dale Gardnerapproaches the WestarVI satellite with his" sti nge r too to beginretrieval and salvageoperations.

After attaching thestinger to Westar,Gardner maneuvers thesatellite over to theRMS robot arm.

Sally Ride, America'sfirs t woman in space,monitors thecontinuous flowelectrophoresis unit(CFES) on Challenger's

mid-deck in June 1983.Large quantities ofbiological substancesare purified in spacewith this process, whichpromises to producebreakthrough drugs andmedicines.

Commerce and Science in Orbit

The first commercial experiment took place

on the fourth Space Shuttle mission in lateJune and early July 1982. Called thecontinuous flow electrophoresis system, it wasbuilt to purify biological materials in amicrogravity environ ment a nd flew on a totalof seven missions. After several astronautsmonitored the equipment on three flights,Charles Walker became the first commercialpayload specialist to fly in space on aDiscovey mission in 1984. He ten ded th esystem again on two other missions, in Apriland November 1985.

The experiments demonstrated that so me

seven hundred times more material can beseparated in space than o n Earth during thesame period, and purity levels are better. Theprocess holds great promise for breakthroughdrugs and medicines that could eventuallysave tens of thousands of lives and offer newtreatments to millions of people suffering fromdiseases such as diabetes and hemophilia.

The first made-in-space product wasmanufactured on a Challenger mission in April1983 and went into the marketplace in 1985.Slightly larger than a red b lood cell andinvisible to the human eye, the productconsists of tiny microscopic spheres made ofpolystyrene sold in lots of 30 million by theNational Bureau of Standards. Themicrogravity of the Shuttle had allowed thesespheres to grow more uniformly in size andshape than is possible on Earth. Customersuse the spheres to help calibrate and focuselectron microscopes and to improvemicroscopic measurements in electronics,medicine, environmental pollution research,and other high-technology areas. Each lot of30 million comes in a small vial filled mostlywith water.

Crystal-growth experiments on Shuttle flightshave demonstrated that the manufacture ofcrystals in microgravity ha s trem endo usindustrial potential. Crystals grown in orbithave fewer imperfections and thereforeimproved electronic characteristics. Expertsbelieve that such crystals may lead to a newgeneration of higher-speed microelectroniccomponents fo r computers, radar, andcommunications systems.

During the Spacelah 1 mission in Novemberand December 1983, on e type of proteincrystal grew 1,000 times larger than the sametype did o n Earth. Such large protein crystalsallow bioengineers to study the atomicstructures of protein molecules-knowledgethey must have in designing new d rugs. Themolecular models derived from such space-grown crystals may well b e the foundation f o rthe new miracle drugs of the 21st century.

By the early 1990s, the long-awaited HubbleSpace Telescope will have brought never-before-seen cosmic vistas do wn to Earth forall to see, and astronomers will have a n ewuniverse to ponder. Launching this gianttelescope could be the most importantastronomical event since Galileo pointed hissmall telescope toward the Moon and planets

more than 375 years ago. Weighing some11,567 kilograms (25,000 pounds ) andmeasuring 13.1 by 4.3 meters (43.1 by 14.1feet), the Hubble will fill most of the cargobay. This made-for-space telescope is themost powerful, complicated, and preciseastronomical instrument ever built. I t may d onothing less than revolutionize astronomyduring its projected operational life of fifteento twenty years.

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The Spacelab 1 cientificmodule flew inColumbia's cargo bay inNovember/December1983 and was the firstoperational mission ofthe European-builtlaboratory. More than 70experiments wereconducted, including onewhere a protein crystalgrew 1,000 times largerthan it could on Earth.Astronauts Owen Garriottand Byron Lichtenbergare working in the lab.

The I-luhble Space Telescope will be able toohsen re objects far fainter than those visible tohe most pon-erful telescopes o n Earth.

During its first decade in orbit. the Hubblewill focus on t he cosmic puzzles of the black

olve or shed light on their mysteries. I t will,n effect. be peering farther into the unh-ers end hrther back in time than ever before,llo\ving scientists to construct a more

accurate history of our universe.

Student participation in space science projects-ill take on new meaning m-hen the Space

Shuttle retrieves from orbit the Long DurationExposure Facility and brings its experimentsb a c k to Earth. Placed i nto orbit by theCl?rrllcviger n April 1983. the large unmannedcientific 1:ibor:itor)- takes u p one-half the

c:irgo lxiy, Originally scheduled to lieetrieved in 1986. t wa s delayed fo r several-ears.

One experiment contains 12.5 million tomatoeeds packaged in Dacron bags and sealed inluminum canisters. On their return to Earth.hese seeds n-ill be p ut into thousands ofaboratory kits. along with control seed s thatemained on Earth, and sent to schools acrosshe nation. As many as 1 million elementar y,

econd aq-. and university stud ents willparticipate in designin g their ownxperiments and studying the seeds byoniparing gemination rates. seed embq-os.

and fruit products. With such wideparticipation of the n ation's youth. thisprogram will literally be planting someeedlings for future space science.

Unmanned interplanetary spacecraft willmake their distant encounters a few yearsater than originally planned. T he Magellanadar mapping mission to Venus and theGalileo mission to Jupiter, which will send a

-l'>'. o.r*ln,-?:*m n 0 l n v i c . r "- A " 1 1 0 C n r c - - A" I L L , , L AY L " U " ' & fi"'U""", U l l U y"LII)LIIL>, l lU

probe into the giant planet's thick atmosphereand orbit it for tn'o years. are preciousscientific cargoes for the Shuttles.

In the early 1990s. t h e Mars Oh se ne r willbegin its journey to the Red Planet and uponarrival conduct a detailed study o f its surfaceand atmosphere. Many other unmannedspacecraft missions are fighting f o r a place inthe Sun during a time of federal hidgetconstraints. including a project called Cassini.which may orbit Saturn's mysterious moonTitan and send a probe through its thickatmosphere before the year 2000. The Shuttlefleet n-ill guide some of them out of Earth'sharbor and into open space as the!- cast offfor their distant planetary destinations.

Placed in orbit by SpaceShuttle Challenger inApril 1984, the LongDuration ExposureFacility will be broughtback to Earth on a futureShuttle mission. Oneexperiment contains12.5 million tomatoseeds which, whenretrieved, will bedistributed to as manyas 1 million studentsacross the United Stateswho will conductexperiments.

21.


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ThespaceShuttleInto the2-Century

Bottom Left:Built up from a base inthe Atlantis cargo bay,this trusswork towerwas erected todemonstrate assemblytechniques in orbit thatwill be important tofuture space stationsand other facilities.Astronaut SherwoodSpring checks the oints

on the assembly duringthe November 1985mission.

T e Space Shuttle fleet will remain thefoundation of America's manned space

program into the n ew century. When t he n eworbiter joins Atlantis, Columbia, an d Discove yin the 1990s, the National SpaceTransporta tion System will b e able to fly 1 2 to14 missions a year if the ground supportsystem is adequate. One hundred or moreShuttle missions in the last dec ad e of the 20thcentury is likely, and some orbiters maycontinue to fly until 2005 and perhaps 2010.

More Time and Space for ShuttleFor future flights, plans are under review by

NASA to ex tend the mission times up to 16days by supplementing the systems on theorbiter. This would be done by using aportion of the cargo bay to hold additionalfuel cells and low-temperature storage tanksfor oxygen and hydrogen reactants. Otherdesign upgrades would be made on thecarbon dioxide removal and the wastemanagement systems.

The future benefits of keeping th e SpaceShuttles in orbit longer could be substantial.By extending some missions to 16 days, thescience return on dedicated research missions

could be more than two imes that of theusual se ven-day flights. Longer durationmissions for such discip lines as life scienceand microgravity research would significantlyreduce the backlog of scientific investigations.

An increase in the Shuttle's living and workingspace is also planned. A private U S . companyhas designed an add-on module calledSpacehab that can fi t in the forward cargo baybehind the crew quarters. The crew wouldenter Spacehab from the mid-deck through atunnel adapter similar to that used for thescientific Spacelab module. Spacehab would


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A spaceplane of the21st century, poweredbv an air-breathing

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The first Space Shuttlecrew since theChallenger breaksfrom training forDiscovery's STS-26mission to pose for thisinformal portrait. A llShuttle flight veterans,they are (left to right):David (Dave) Hilmers,Frederick (Rick) Hauck(Commander), Richard(Dick) Covey, John(Mike) Lounge, andGeorge (Pinky) Nelson.

Shuttle's OffspringWhat happens when the last Space Shuttlemission has flown early in the 2000s and thefleet is finally retired and Earthbound? Whatfuture spaceships will follow the Shuttles?

There may be a new fleet of spaceplanes inthe first few decades of the next century.Research already underway, much of which isconducted on the world's most advancedcomputers, will m ake possible second-generation spaceplanes that could travelfrequently to and from Earth orbit powered b yadvanced, air-breathing scramjet engines.These powerful engines would ingest oxygenas they ascend through the atmosphere, thussaving a tremendo us amoun t of launch weighton fuel.

Such spaceplanes could take off horizontallyfrom conventional runways and thenaccelerate directly to orbit as a single-stage-to-space craft. Without strapped-on solidboosters or external tanks, they could as cendto the upper reaches of the atmosphere

before rockets kick in for their final powerdrive to orbit. Unlike today's Shuttle, whichdrops like an unpowered glider to Earth,spaceplanes would be capable of controlleddescent and land at most conventionalairports. Space could b e more accessible thanever before to larger number s of people. Ifthese successors to the Shuttle become reality,the original Shuttle orbiters may be thought ofas the DC-3s of the early Space Age,

NASA celebrated its 30th anniversary in 1988,two d ays after the Space Shuttle soared intospace once more. When Congress approvedthe creation of the National Aeronautics andSpace Administration in 1958, the UnitedStates had successfully launched only foursmall satellites and no American astronaut hadyet flown in space. In the three decades since,four generations of ma nned spacecraft havebeen built and flown, twelve men havewalked on the Moon, more than 100Americans have flown and worked in space,and communications satellites and otherSpace-Age technologies have transformed lifeon planet Earth.

When NASA's Golden Anniversary iscelebrated in 2008, it is likely that men andwom en will b e permanently living andworking in space. There may b e a base on theMoon, and a manned mission to Mars mayonly be years away. If a brief history of thefirst half-century of the Space Age is writtenfor that event, it will show clearly how theexploration of space has altered the course of

human history and allowed us to take a betterhold of our destiny o n and off planet Earth.

The Space Shuttles, their crews, and thethousands of men and wo men dedicated tomaking their journeys to space successful aredoing nothing less than helping create a betterfuture. It is with such dedication that all willenter the 21st century and realize the fullpromise of space.


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26 retumt&Iight launchon september 29,1988.


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Space Shuttle the Renewed Promise

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