The temperature of the Shuttle belly is over 1,200 degrees Celsius. The Space Shuttle takes off like a rocket, orbits Earth like a spaceship, and lands like an airplane. Unlike earlier vehicles used for space travel, the Shuttle can be reused.
The Shuttle stack launched vertically like a conventional rocket. It lifted off under the power of its two SRBs and three main engines, which were fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen from the ET. The Space Shuttle had a two-stage ascent. The SRBs provided additional thrust during liftoff and first-stage flight.
Shuttles can climb high altitudes with new technology that engineers have developed. As of now, typical shuttle flights range at around altitudes above 300 km. Andres Mok -- 2000
The Space Shuttle fleet's total mission time was 1,322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds. Space Shuttle components include the Orbiter Vehicle (OV) with three clustered Rocketdyne RS-25 main engines, a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and the expendable external tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
190 miles to 330 milesThe exact speed depends on the Space Shuttle's orbital altitude, which normally ranges from 190 miles to 330 miles (304 kilometers to 528 kilometers) above sea level, depending on its mission.
The deorbit burn that will bring the orbiter back to Earth occurs about an hour before landing. Approximately 30 minutes before touchdown, the orbiter begins entering the atmosphere at an altitude of about 400,000 feet (121,920 meters).
The second stage of ascent lasts about six and a half minutes. The space shuttle gains more altitude above Earth and the speed increases to the nearly 7,850 m/s (17,500 mph) required to achieve orbit.
The Shuttle had an operational altitude of only 120 to 600 miles.
214 to 226 miles per hourThe orbiter's main landing gear touches down on the runway at 214 to 226 miles per hour, followed by the nose gear.
This process takes about 20 minutes. During this time, the orbiter is cooling and noxious gases, which were made during the heat of re-entry, blow away. Once the orbiter is powered down, the crew exits the vehicle.
five miles per second"The space shuttles on-orbit speed of five miles per second." The space shuttle was developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, more commonly known as NASA. The vehicle consists of a winged orbiter, two solid-rocket boosters, and an external fuel tank.
Rocket launch Due to their high exhaust velocity—2,500 to 4,500 m/s (9,000 to 16,200 km/h; 5,600 to 10,100 mph)—rockets are particularly useful when very high speeds are required, such as orbital speed at approximately 7,800 m/s (28,000 km/h; 17,000 mph).
In fact, the shuttle wasn't designed to physically dock with anything; it was intended to reach out and grapple objects with its robotic arm. A rendezvous period lasted up to 4 days and could be divided into three phases: ground targeted; on-board targeted; and human-piloted proximity operations.
"The space shuttle is designed to travel in low-Earth orbit (within a few hundred miles of the Earth's surface). It does not carry enough propellant to leave Earth's orbit and travel to the moon," the space agency stated.
254 miInternational Space Station / Orbit heightHow to see the International Space Station. The Space Station flies at an average altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. It circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h). In one day, the station travels about the distance it would take to go from Earth to the moon and back ...
340 milesIt was launched into orbit by space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Hubble orbits about 547 kilometers (340 miles) above Earth.
Before this critical level is reached, the engines of the space shuttle are throttled down to about 67% of full power to avoid damage. About 50 seconds after liftoff, the dynamic pressure reaches its maximum aerodynamic load (Max Q). The air density then drops rapidly due to the thinning atmosphere , and the space shuttle can be throttled up to full power without fear of structural damage. The command is given, “Go at throttle up!”
There are three components of the space shuttle that enable the launch into orbit (Figure 1). The main component is the orbiter. It not only serves as the crew’s home in space and is equipped to dock with the ISS, but it also contains maneuvering engines for finalizing the orbital trajectory, or flight path. The External Tank (ET), the largest component of the space shuttle, supplies the propellant (liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen) to the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) which are liquid propellant rocket engines. The third component is a pair of Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) that are reusable. They are attached to the sides of the ET and provide the main thrust at launch (Figure 2).
Through the basic power and thrust performance curves considered in the last chapter we have been able to investigate the straight and level flight performance of an aircraft. We must now add another dimension to our study of performance, that of changes in altitude.
The first case we will consider will be the simple case of non-powered descent, or glide. This is a very important performance situation for an aircraft since all aircraft are susceptible to engine failure.
As discussed earlier, the addition of power above that required for straight and level flight at a given speed will make possible either an increase in altitude or a change in speed or both. If speed is held constant while power (or thrust) is added the result will be a climb.
To find the time to climb from one altitude to another we must integrate over the time differential
We dealt earlier with the variation of power required (to overcome drag) with altitude and how the power required curves could be merged into one by plotting power multiplied by the square root of the density ratio. The power available must also be multiplied by the square root of the density ratio to be included on the same performance plot.
In earlier discussion we spoke of the ceiling altitude as that at which climb was no longer possible. This would be the altitude where the power available curve just touches the power required curve, indicating that the aircraft can fly straight and level at only one speed at that altitude. Here the maximum rate of climb is zero.
1. An aircraft weighs 3000 lb and has a 175 ft 2 wing area, an aspect ratio of 7, and an Oswald Efficiency Factor, e, of 0.95. If C D0 is 0.028, plot drag versus velocity for sea level and 10,000 feet altitudes, plotting drag in 20 fps intervals.
Svetlana Savitskaya, a Soviet cosmonaut, was the first woman to spacewalk in 1984, nearly 20 years after Leonov floated in the vacuum of space. She and crewmate Vladimir Dzhanibekov spent more than 3 hours spacewalking.
On March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk in history during a 10-minute excursion on the Voskhod 2 mission, beating the Americans by almost three months.
Compared to how often an astronaut performs other tasks, spacewalks are relatively rare. They're expensive, time-consuming and most of all dangerous. Astronauts usually operate robotic arms like the Canadian-built robotic arm — known as Canadarm2 — ...
Spacewalks typically last around 6.5 hours but can be extended to 7 or 8 hours, if necessary. During a spacewalk, astronauts have a laundry list of jobs they're out there to perform. Cameras mounted on their helmets document nearly every step of an EVA, and headsets help the spacewalking astronauts maintain constant contact with their spacecraft and Mission Control on the ground.
Spacewalks were indispensable for the space station's assembly, and over two decades later, spacewalks remain a crucial component for the enormous spacecraft's continued maintenance in low Earth orbit. Although "spacewalk" is a slightly jazzier name, the official term for the event is "extravehicular activity," or EVA.
Astronauts usually operate robotic arms like the Canadian-built robotic arm — known as Canadarm2 — to remotely work in the harsh thermal vacuum of space. Occasionally, though, when robotics just won't do the trick, specially trained astronauts must venture outside of the spaceship to complete the task with human finesse.
Inside the space station, air is pressurized to the same degree as it is on Earth at sea level: 14.7 pounds per square inch, or 1 atmosphere.
As the Space Shuttle returns to Earth from space, its belly glows red hot for about 10 minutes. The temperature of the Shuttle belly is over 1,200 degrees Celsius. The Space Shuttle takes off like a rocket, orbits Earth like a spaceship, and lands like an airplane. Unlike earlier vehicles used for space travel, the Shuttle can be reused.
The first Shuttle to orbit Earth was called Columbia. One of the Shuttles, Challenger, blew up on its way into orbit in 1986. The Shuttle Columbia broke into pieces trying to return to Earth from orbit in 2003. The Space Shuttle is a vehicle which takes off like a rocket, orbits like a spacecraft, and lands like a _______.
Unlike earlier vehicles used for space travel, the Shuttle can be reused. The Shuttle has a huge payload bay in which cargo, such as a space probe, is carried into space. The Space Shuttle has allowed astronauts to carry out many important missions, such as the launch and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. Six Space Shuttles have been built.