The Space Shuttle at Work

8/8/2019 The Space Shuttle at Work

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The SpaceShuttle a t Work


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NASA SP-432

NASA EP-156

TheSpace Shuttie

Howard Allaway


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W i t h h e f i r s orbital flightof th e Space Shuttle, the curtain rises on an era that

remaindei of th e century. Colrinzhilrand her sister ships willbe far more thanodd-looking heavy-lift launch vehicles, tho ugh they willbe that. Each SpaceShuttle willbe an element in a total transportation system linki ng Earth withspace: vehicles, ground facilities, a communications net. trained crews, establishedfreigh t rates and flight schedules-and th e prospectof numerous important andexciting tasks to be done.

Colruizhia will be as different from previous one-use space vehicles as an oceanfreighter differs from th eClerrizoizt. Although the Space Shuttle has beena longtime in development an d wont be workadav for several years. it will tr ansfor mspace travel. W ewill go into space not just to meet t he challengeof explorationbu t to do many useful and productivejobs, at reduced cost, returning again a ndagain. We are initiatin g an eracf routine utilizationof space, and it signifies anew epoch in the historyof the planet.

As the Space Shutt le first ascends above the atmosphere,it is fitting to describethe new space transportation system: how it came tobe, why i t is designed th eway it is, whatwe expect of i t, ho w it may grow. Thi s book is such a description.All new technologies can be expected to underg o change and adaptation.It isnatural f or an endeavor as revolutionary as th e Space Sha ttleto develop indifferent and unforeseen ways.For this reason, an accountof the initial expecta-

tions for this remarkable venture shou ld have value.I commend the followingnarrative that describes how t he Uni ted States plansto make space an extensionof life on the Ear ths surface.

will shapeU.S. space exploration for the next decade, and pe rhapsfor the

June 1079ADLAI. STEVENSONCbairt i im,Srihcoriimrzittee ot iScieiice, Techtiology aiid SplrceUiiited Stdtr.r Senate


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1. A Week's Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. The Uses of Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 13. More. Better. Cheaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14. What Shaped the Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295. From Earth to Orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356. The Amazing Orbiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 At Work Aloft 518. Airline to Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579. Plans, Possibilities. and D reams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3Index . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .4

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2.

TheUsesof Space

N CONTRAST TO THE ROUTINE TWO-WAY TRAFFIC made 11I passible by the Shuttle, every pa yl ad sent into orbitfor th etint ma ecades of the space era-cvery bug, plant, and ani-mal; every m n , woman (one, a Russian). and automatedlaboratory-de on the nowof i\ one-trip rocket that wasdiscarded aftera working lifetime m a s u r d in minutes.HOW-ever coatly, those pioneering venturn into space sentbackstartling news of the universe and brought countless chan.ges

for the bettcr in theways \vc live: changes in the economy, inhealth and safety, in science and technology, in education, inthe promtion anduse of nutuml resources, in national defensean d international coopccrtion.

The irst was a revolution in communicaiion.In the middleof the night of July 10 . 1962, alevision relay

scationsa t Goonhilly Downs. Cornwall. and Plcumeur-Bodou,Brittany. picked up .Ibl:ick-and-\vIrite pictureof an AmcricanHag flapping in the breeze to the ;iccompanimentof t he Sn rSpnglcd Rinnet. The progrim was a demonstration beingtransniittd skyward from a huge horn-shaped antenna inhkiinc to r glistening new Lirth s,itrllite, Tclsmr1. and downto a receiving dish in New Jcmy for distribution to U.S. iew-ers. Though not intended, the signalalso WAS bcing bouncrdfrom Telstrr .icrosJ thc Atlantic to England and Frrnce.

Nes t day the cxpcrimcnt;il s.itellitc rc la yd the firstTV pic-turcs \vcst\s;ird from Europe. black-d-whites from bothFr.incc and Engl.ind. iind within;i wcrk the tint in color. Bc-fore the month WJS out. mass .iudicnceson both sides of theAtl.intic witchcd vith I W C the tirst intcrn;ition;il cschiingeoflive TV. iewers in Eiiropcsaw rhc. S r m r of I.it#.rty. a biisc-h;dl p m c h*t \vcun t l i c Pliillics and tlic Cubs in Chicap),. ;Iprcw confcrcncc b) PrcsiJcnr Kennedy. butt.ilo roaminp thcSouth 1likot.i phins, tlic Mormon T.ibcrn.iclc Choir singingfrom Mount Hushniorc. Americms. in turn. got glimpsesof

Big Ik n from o ne of 1.ondonsllwiies hridkvs. the Coliseumin Rome. the Louvrc in Y.iris. the SisrincCh.ipcl i n V;itic;itiCity, Sicili.in tislicrmcn rru.ting their nets. rcindwr roamingnclr tlrc Arctic Circle in Nonviiy.

Tlrc troublc \vir11 Tclst,ir (;ind its c,irly successors)was rhiitit could be us d only \vhen its rchtivcly lo\v-dtitude orbitof9-45 by 5600 kilornctcrs O H 0 by 3 5 0 0 miles) brouRht itwithin rm ge of boh US. ind Europc,in ground su tio ns forPfcw minutcs du ringclcli 158-minute circuitof the globc. Thisproblcm wiis so lvd thc nest yeiir by the Synconis, whose


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9.

Possibilities,andDreums


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70 ground-based plants As a nonpollut ing l i t l e s s soucce of

could lead to a system capable of producing much of th eUnited States power requirementsearly in the 21~r entury,and in the very long term could conceivably devAop into theworlds primary source of electric power.

Th e G overnments positionis more cautious. It is too earlyto make a commitment to the development of a satellite

solar-power stationor space manufacnu ing facility, dueto theuncertainty of the technology and economic cat-benefits andenvironmental concerns, a White House statementsaid in1978, then continued: There are, however, very useful inter-mediate step that wilt allow the development and testing ofkey technologies and experience in space industria! opera tionsto be gained. The United States will pursue an evolutionaryprogram hat is directed toward assessing new options.. *

Aerospace company officials, understandably,see grandervisions. One said his firm has identitied 150 opportunities forprofit-making space industrialization, including thirty-five forspace manufacturing of new or improved products rangingfrom pharmaceuticals to high-strength permanent magnets.He envimges extremely large multibeam antennas in spacemaking possible pocket telephones and also electronictele-commuting: Rather than driving rn work each day, theworkers would operate from their homes or from a smallsatellite office where they could interact elecmnically withpeople and machinery ina central office building in a nearbycity or in one located many hundredsof miles away. This . . .would help solve our energy problems and improve efficiency.It would also allow a life-style whereby people could live,work, and play in small communities, but still performjobsthat are essentially urbin.

He cited a study which estimated that industrial usesof

space could create 100 000 new direct jobs by the mid-1980sand nearly two million by the year 2010. Through the m ulti-plier effects, the study forecast, this could leadto two or threetimes as many total jobs and an increase of hundreds of bil-lions of dollars in the gross national product.

Othe rs dream of space tourism: a NASA consu ltantsees n100-room h otelby the year 2000 with rates-presumably notfor the average family vacation-starting at$5000 for theround trip and R few days in orbit. And of p erman ent settle -ments in space. In an exercise in realistic imagining,i~ roup

energy, the repon sai& SpaCe-bQsedsolar power stations


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72 y c m the most significant accomplishmentyet: true Earth-independent, self-support systems which will leadto the estab-lishment of a multitude of new, different, and enterprisingcivilizations.

And John Disher, in his article onNASAs own advancedstudies: N o one can foretell when we may have permanentsettlements of people in space or large-scaleuse of resourcesfrom the Moon or asteroids for space construction. The bene-fits, coscs, and risks of such undertakings remain to be estab-lished. Fortunately, however, the nearer-term developmentsdixvssed here will proceed on their own merits and constitutenecessary developmental steps toward the longer-termpossi-bilities. . .

Possibilities . .?Dreams. . ?Or goals?Time will tell. Decades from now someof these ideas m ~ y

seem innocently unrealistic, based on ignoranceof hard real-ity. But its also possible that some will seem astonishinglytimid, cautious foraysby limited imaginations. (O ne remem-bers those 19th Century visions of future air tr;iveI in shipstaterooms aboard sail-driven balloons.) There maybe asmuch chance that we will undershoot as overshoot in predict-ing the topopphyof the future.

What we are concerned with are not solely engineeringmeasurements like mass and specific thrust. Fullyas importantis another kind of thrtist: the questing human spirit.


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Material for this publication was supplied by John L.Hammersmith, Fred R. Steven, Mary Fitzpatrick, David W.Garrett, Shirley Keehn, RichardMcCormack,Nicholas Panagakos,and MargaretWare, f NASA Headquarters; RobertV. Gordonand Anthony A. Verrengia, Johnson Space Center;Amos Crisp,MarshallSpace Flight Center; andDarleen Hunt, KennedySpaceCenter. The reproductions on pages20 and 28 are taken frompaintings by Arthur Shilstone.

Howard Allaway is a journalist living in Canton,Mass He hasworked for the Associated Prss, PM, the New YorR Times,Pop& Sciettce Monthly, Cozsurner Reports, and NASA, wherehe served for more than a dozen years before his retirement In1976,receiving an Excepti0.d ServiceMedal for his part in theApollo Program. A previow NASA publicationof his waseHowton, We've Got a Probletn," an account of the Apollo 13

incident.

The painting on pages 42 and 43, which in full size measures4344 in. by 80% in., was made by Barton Storey. It presmtlyhangs in the Administrator's office in NASA Headquartem Anmodified form it also appears in a 29411.by 40-in. wall chartprepared by the NASA Public Affairs Division,and is d e d orsale by the Superintendentof Documents,US. overnment Print-ing OffiLe, Washington, D.C. 20402.Price is $1.60 and stock

numberis

033.n00-00743-4.

73


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?4

IndexAdvanced Lendsat 61airbck 5.53American Instituteof Aeronautics & Astronautics

American Rocket Society 29Ames Research Center 7 1

angle of attack 6.7.32Atlas-Centaur 21

attitude-controldvusters 6automated beam builder 66,67

(AIAA) 69

costs 22

Cabin module 51environmental-conuol equipment 53flight deck 43.5 1.52

duty stations 5 1.5 3mission 52payload 52payload handling 5 1rendezvous and do cking 5 1

living area 53, 55galley 53lower deck 53vertical sleep station 53washroom 53

cargobay 4.48commander 4,6,5 1communication blacko ut 7,62communications satellites 4, 1 I-12, 18

Intelsat system 12Syncoms 11 12Telstar

I 11

Day, LeRoy E. 22Delta 21

Dishet, John H. 68.72Donlan, CharlesJ. 32Dynasoar 29

m!m 22

Earth resources monitoring 13-15, 26

Eanh resourcessurvey satellices 13.59

Earth-to-orbit cargo carriers 29economics 22,25EdwardsAirFoxeBase 47ejection springs 4electronic mail 65,66emergency landings 8.55engines 45Enterprise 12,30,47European Space Agency 8.18.57F ~ p e a npace Research Organization(ESRO)External Tank 1,33,35,36,38-39,45,46,47,55

dimensions/specifications 38extravehicular activity (E VA ) 54

Landsat 12, 15, 18

30

flight,aborted 54

freight rates 2 1,23Frosch,AobertA. 24fuelcells 47

fly.by-wite c~ nt to l 52

geosynchronous orb it 4, 13,61,62,63,67,68geosynchimous satellites 12,63

Syncoms 12weather satellites 13

global information system 25Goddard Space Fli8hr Center 48,63

Head-End Steering 29

igloo 59Inertial Upper Stage 62Intelsat system 12

Jet Propulsion Laboratory 48.63Johnson Space Center 1,48,62

Kenned y Space Center I , 8.35, 39, 63

Landsat 12,15,18


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f5

lauachvehicles 21Aclas-centaur 21b7ta 21SnNmv 1

Tiain 21lee,ChesterM. 24Long Duration Exposure Facility 5,8,48~uaarlandscape 17!uaarmining 69

Matkin,MyronS. 6maneuwring engines 3,6,46manipulauu 8 ~ 1 ,5,48-49,57manned maneuvering unit 54Marshall Space Flight Center 45mechanical arm 48-49

"end &ectoc" 49meteorological satellites 13, 15MissionControl Center 62Ilaisshn specialist 4,5,51,52monomethyi hydrazine 4 5 4 7Mueller, George E. 31m u i t i i om rm nic atio ns sa te llite 66MultimissionModular Spacecraft ( MMSMultimission Satellite 49

60-6i

NASADeep Space Network 63National Resedrch Cottncilof Canada 49Nimbus 13nitrogen tetroxide 46nozzles 3S

Office of Space Transportation Systems 57orbital velocity 3,6Orbiter 1,2,3, S,6,7,27, 54 , 59. 7

airframe 41antennes 5,67body Hap 43cargobay 4.48controls 52crew niodule 41

design 32dimensidspecifications 4 1-42electricalsystem 43elevon 43engines 45

dimensiodspecificatim 45orbital maneuvering 3,6,38, 43.46

reaction control thrusters 43,46vernier 47

insulation 42internalpower 47

eiectcicity 47fuelcells 47,48

hydraulic power 47

primarv 46

landing gear 0,43l i f d 3main sections 41nosegear 43propellants 8, 35.45.46diam 43solarpanels 5speedbrakes 8,43sunshields 5tanks 43tiles 42,46windows 39

fueltanks 32heat shielding 32

Orbiter configurations 32

Orbiter main engines i5-36,43,45

Orbicer Proceskng Facility 63Orbiting Astronomical Observations ?2

Payloads 21-24standby 23

payload manipulating arm 4,5,43,48-49,57Payload Ope rations Control Center 63payload specialist 4,5 1,60piggyback flight 23pilot 4,5,6,51


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Fresidents Science Advisory Co mmittee 3 Ipropellant composition -1 5

remote sensing 26runway 7,9

Saturn V 1

Skylab 13, 17, 18solar cells 65,66,69solar electric propulsion 66solar power stationsSolid Rocket Booster 1, 3,33-37,45

liquid vs. solid fuel 3.3space colonies 70-71space corn,ir:mications I2space industrialization 69Spacelab 8,48, 3 , 57-60,65

laboratory module 58segments 58

core 58experiment 58

pallet 59, 60space mapping 17cpace power 69space rescue 23space structures 26spice telescope 4,spiice tourism 70Spiice Transportati on SystemSpinning Solid Up per StageStan ford University 7 ISyncoms 1 1-12

66.69, ? 1

18, 2 I , 23, 24 , 626 1

U.S. Air Force 62utilities modulc. 65

Viindcnbcrg Air 1:orc.c BaseVehic-le Assembly h i d i n g S, 6-5von Brilun. Wernher 23

! 5 , .W. 6.;

weather 1 .ervation !weather s;itellites 11- .iwrist telephone 65, 66

X-15 30

Yardley, John F. 57

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