Space Shuttle
Introduction
In April 1969, NASA put forward a plan to build a reusable space launch vehicle.In January 1972, the United States formally put the development of the Space Shuttle Space Transportation System into the plan to determine the Space Shuttle's Design program, that is, by the recoverable reusable solid rocket booster, not recycled two external fuel storage tanks and can be used many times the orbiter three parts. After five years, in February 1977 developed a space shuttle orbiter Venture, carried by the Boeing 747 aircraft on-board tests. June 18, 1977, the first manned test flight on the back of an aircraft in the sky, to participate in the test flight is the astronauts Haise (C-F-Haise) and Fullerton (G-Fullerton) two people. August 12, manned flights on the plane The test was successfully completed. After four more years, the first manned space shuttle finally appeared in the space arena, which is another milestone in the history of space technology development.
The space shuttle is a kind of vertical takeoff, horizontal landing manned spacecraft, it is launched into space with a rocket engine as the driving force, can run on the orbit, and can go back and forth between the Earth's surface and the near-Earth orbit, can be partially reused spacecraft. It consists of three main parts: the orbiter, the solid fuel booster rocket and the external storage tank. Solid fuel booster rockets *** two, when launched, they and the orbiter's three main engines ignited at the same time, when the space shuttle rises to 50 kilometers high, the two booster rockets to stop working and separated from the orbiter, after the recovery of repairs can be reused 20 times. The external storage tank is a huge shell, filled with propellant for the main engine of the orbiter, before the shuttle enters earth orbit the main engine is turned off, the external storage tank is separated from the orbiter and burned up in the atmosphere, the external storage tank is the only part of the shuttle components that cannot be recycled. The orbiter is the manned portion of the Shuttle, with a large cabin that is divided into several "rooms" according to the needs of the space mission. There is a large cargo bay that can accommodate large equipment. The orbiter can carry three professional astronauts (e.g. commander or captain, pilot, mission specialists, etc.) and four other crew members (non-professional astronauts). Its cabin atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. After the Space Shuttle completes its mission in space orbit, the Orbiter descends for return, landing horizontally on a predetermined runway like a glider. The orbiter can be reused up to 100 times.
The Space Shuttle is a rocket-powered aircraft designed to cross the boundary between the atmosphere and space (the 100-kilometer altitude Carmen Line). It is a winged, reusable spacecraft that is launched out of the atmosphere by an auxiliary launch vehicle as a means of transportation between Earth and outer space. The Space Shuttle combines the properties of an airplane and a spacecraft, resembling a winged spacecraft in the shape of an airplane. The Shuttle's wings provide air brakes when returning to Earth and lift when descending to a runway. The Shuttle ascends vertically into space with rocket power like any other single-use vehicle. Because of its wings, the Shuttle has a low payload ratio. The designers wanted to compensate for this with reusability.
Although many countries around the world have developed space shuttles, only the United States and the former Soviet Union have actually launched and recovered such vehicles. However, after the Soviet Union collapsed and the equipment was taken over by Kazakhstan, the entire space program was shut down due to a lack of funding to maintain operations, and thus only the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet is currently available for use in actual missions.
On April 12, 1981, millions of people gathered at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral to see the launch of the first space shuttle, Columbia. Astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen opened a new page in space history.
The shuttle has an overall length of about 56 meters, a wingspan of about 24 meters, a takeoff weight of about 2,040 tons, a total takeoff thrust of 2,800 tons, and a maximum payload of 29.5 tons. Its core part of the orbiter is 37.2 meters long, roughly the same size as a DC-9 airliner. It can carry up to eight astronauts per flight for 7 to 30 days, and the orbiter can be reused up to 100 times. The space shuttle set of rockets, satellites and aircraft technology features in one, like rockets can be launched vertically into space orbit, and like satellites in space orbit flight, but also like an airplane into the atmosphere again glide landing, is a new type of multi-functional space vehicle.
From 1981 to the end of 1993, the U.S. a **** five space shuttles for 59 flights, including the Columbia shuttle 15 times, Challenger 10 times, Discovery 17 times, Atlantis 12 times, Endeavor 5 times. Each flight carried between two and eight astronauts and lasted from two to 14 days. In 12 years, there have been 301 Shuttle flights, including 18 female astronauts. In the 59 flights of the Space Shuttle, more than 50 satellites were released in space, 2 space stations were carried into space orbit, 3 cosmic probes, 1 space telescope and 1 γ-ray detector were launched, satellite space recovery and space repair were conducted, a series of scientific experiments were carried out, and fruitful results of exploration experiments were achieved.
In addition to carrying people and cargo between heaven and earth, the Space Shuttle, by virtue of its own large volume, can be multiplayer passenger and payload characteristics, can also carry out a large number of scientific experiments and space research work in space. It can bring artificial satellites from the ground to space to release, or in space failure or destruction of unmanned spacecraft, such as low-orbit satellites and other man-made celestial bodies repaired, and then put into use, and even the ESA development of the "space laboratory" into the cabin, to carry out the scientific research work.
The U.S. Space Shuttle has created many new space records. Shuttle first flight commander John Young flew into space six times, is the world's largest number of astronauts to participate in spaceflight. 1983 June 18 female astronaut Sally Ryder (Sally K-Ride) on the Challenger flight to the sky, ranked first in the U.S. women's spaceflight. 1983 August 30, Challenger to the United States of America's first black astronauts Bruford (Guion S. Bluford) to send into space. Bluford, the first black U.S. astronaut to fly in space. b. McCandless, who took to the skies aboard Challenger on Feb. 3, 1984, became the world's first astronaut to walk in space without wearing a seatbelt. b. Kathryn Sullivan, who took to the skies aboard Challenger on April 6, 1984, made the first successful astronaut capture and repair of an orbiting satellite. c. Sullivan, who took to the skies on Oct. 5, 1984, was the first U.S. woman in space. d. Sullivan was the first U.S. woman in space. e. Sullivan was the first U.S. woman in space. Kathryn D-Sullivan became the first female astronaut to walk in space in the U.S. On January 24, 1985, Discovery lifted off on its first covert military mission. on April 29, 1985, the first Chinese astronaut, Tayler Wang, took to the skies on Challenger to participate in a scientific experiment. on November 26, 1985, the Atlantis carried astronauts to the sky for the first time to carry the space station test. 1992 May 7 Endeavour first flight, astronauts in space for the first time with manual operation salvage recovery satellite success. July 31 Atlantis went to the sky for the first time to carry out the tethered Guardian power generation test. September 12 Endeavour will be the first black female astronauts, the first Japanese journalists and the first couple of astronauts into the space flight.
Space Shuttle Tempest Successful First Flight
At 6:00 a.m. Moscow time on November 15, 1988, the Soviet Union's Space Shuttle Tempest was launched for the first time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and 47 minutes later it entered a circular orbit 250 kilometers above the ground. It circled the Earth twice, and after three hours in space, returned safely at 9:25 a.m. according to a predetermined plan, landing accurately on a concrete runway 12 kilometers away from the launch site, completing an unmanned test flight.
The size of the space shuttle Blizzard and ordinary large passenger aircraft, the shape of the U.S. Space Shuttle is extremely similar, the wings were triangular. The aircraft is 36 meters long, 16 meters high, 24 meters wingspan, fuselage diameter of 5.6 meters, takeoff weight of 105 tons, return to the landing weight of 82 tons. It has a large cargo bay 18.3 meters long and 4.7 meters in diameter, capable of delivering 30 tons of cargo to near-Earth orbit and 20 tons back to the ground. The head has a crew capsule with a volume of 70 cubic meters, which can take 10 people. Scientists believe that the ground control center to rely entirely on the remote control of the computer system on board, in the unmanned conditions of automatic return and accurately landed on the narrow runway, the difficulty of Lin than the 1981 U.S. Space Shuttle manned test flights much larger. First, the Storm's main engine was not mounted on the tail of the Shuttle, but on an Energy rocket, which greatly reduced the weight of the Shuttle into orbit while freeing up space for a small maneuvering flight engine and deceleration braking parachute. Secondly, when the Storm lands, the small engine in the tail can be used to do powered maneuvering flight, safe and accurate landing on the narrow runway, in case of landing failure, the shuttle can also be raised for the second landing, thus improving reliability. The U.S. Space Shuttle can only make one successful landing by unpowered gliding. Third, the Storm can be like an ordinary aircraft with the help of ailerons, rudders and air brakes to control the glide in the atmosphere, but also prepared to slow down the braking parachute, in the process of landing skidding when the speed slowed down to 50 km / h automatically popped up, so that the space shuttle in a shorter distance to stop. The success of the maiden flight of the Tempest marked a new stage in Soviet space activities and paved the way for the establishment of a more complete round-trip transportation system between heaven and earth. A manned flight was planned for a year later, but because the safety and reliability of the onboard systems had not yet been fully guaranteed, and for subsequent political and economic reasons, the loading of the flight was delayed.