American Space shuttle

The American space shuttle ( space Shuttle in English) is a Space shuttle conceived and used by the the United States, whose first flight took place the April 12th 1981. It is the first machine of this type, able to take along large satellite S in low Orbite and, possibly, to bring them back on the Ground.

History

This program was launched after the end of the Programme Apollo at the beginning of the Années 1970 with one time when the budgetary restrictions for NASA were already felt, which resulted in seeking the most economic means to maintain a presence human in space.

Its first flight took place the April 12th 1981.

Each shuttle was designed to carry out a hundred launchings. One of the main objectives of the program was to build and serve a orbital Space station, which is being carried out with the assembly of the International space station (ISS).

The shuttle also allowed the repair of some satellites in orbit. It was the case of Solar max in 1985 and on several occasions of the Space telescope Hubble.

The program of the American space shuttle sullied with two accidents fatal for the crews:

  • destruction on the takeoff of the shuttle Challenger, the January 28th 1986, following the rupture of a joint of a Booster rocket.
  • disintegration the 2003 of Columbia, at the time of its return in the atmosphere following the deterioration of sound Heatshield during takeoff;
These two accidents overall blamed the bad management of the program by NASA, in particular the fact that it did not take enough into account safety whereas the space shuttle remains (still today) an experimental machine.

Advertisement in 2004 by the President of the United States George W. Bush to start again the inhabited exploration of the the Moon and to prepare the voyage towards Mars mark end of the program of the space shuttle, because the latter can have no main function there. In 2010, the three remaining orbiteurs will thus be put at the retirement before being probably exposed in a museum following the example Enterprise demonstrator. By then, they will be used to complete the construction of the International space station. Moreover, one mission will be devoted to an ultimate repair of the Space telescope Hubble.

Construction

The Entreprise North American was selected for the construction of the Orbiter to the beginning of the year 1970. This one amalgamated with Rockwell in 1973 which built them with Palmdale, California. The company was absorbed by the group Boeing in December 1996.

The unit price of a space shuttle (To orbit) of production totals 490 million dollars custom (price of 1971, is 1 billion dollar brought up to date by taking account of the modifications made on 5th Orbiting) at a total capital cost of 15,5 billion dollars in 1980 (30 billion dollars brought up to date in 2006).

Technical data

; Specifications of the Orbiteur (for Endeavor, OV-105)
  • Length: 37,24 m
  • Scale: 23,79 m
  • Height: 17,25 m
  • Empty weight: 68  586,6 kg
  • total Mass on takeoff: 109  000 kg
  • maximum Mass with the landing: 204  000 kg
  • principal Rocket engines: Three Rocketdyne Block 2 has EMS, exerting each one a push with the sea level of 1.75 MN
  • maximum Payload: 25  000 kg (~ 30 T for other shuttles)
  • pressurized Cockpit: 71 m3
  • Dimensions of the compartment: 4,6 m by 18,3 m, for a volume of 300 m3
  • Heatshield: some 24000 insulating silica or composite carbon tiles
  • operational Altitude: 185 with 1  000 km
  • typical Speed: 7  800 m/s, 28  000 km/h (speed of Orbiting)
  • Carried transverse (possible side offset on both sides of its trajectory of re-entry to go to be posed): 2.000 km
  • Crew: Seven (commander, pilot, two specialists in mission, and three specialists in the payload), two at least.

; Specifications of the external reservoir (SLWT)

  • Height: 46.9 m
  • Diameter: 8,4 m
  • Capacity of the tank: 2.000.000 of liters (~ 600 T of liquid oxygen, ~ 100 T of hydrogen liquid)
  • Empty weight: 26  559 kg
  • total Mass on takeoff: 757  000 kg

; Specifications of a booster rocket

  • Height: 45,6 m
  • Diameter: 3,71 m
  • Empty weight: 63  272,7 kg
  • total Mass on takeoff: 590  000 kg
  • unit Push on takeoff (sea level,): 12,46 MN

; Specifications of the whole on the step of shooting

  • Height: 56,14 m
  • Diameter: 23,79 m (scale of the shuttle) on 23 m (external reservoir with the empennage)
  • total Masse on takeoff: 2  040 ton S
  • Thrust on takeoff: 30,18 MN

Shuttles

NASA built in all seven shuttles:

The special machine used to transport the shuttle of the hangar of assembly to the tower of takeoff is the largest vehicle in the world. True crawler-mounted monster of 2700 tons, this vehicle moves very slowly: it puts nearly 6 a.m. to move the shuttle until the launching pad. Its 16 engines consume a few 600 liters of gas oil per hour.

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • the American space shuttle - audio, Sky & Space radio operator, Jean-François Clervoy

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