https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19810022734 2019-05-18T13:22:52+00:00Z Space Shuttle News Reference N/ A National Aeronautics and Space Administration Foreword CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ....................... 1-1 2 SPACE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM PROPULSION .......................... 2-1 Space Shuttle Main Engines ............ 2-3 Solid Rocket Boosters ................. 2-17 External Tank ......................... 2-33 3 ORBITER STRUCTURE ................. 3-1 4 ORBITER SYSTEMS ................... 4-1 Propulsion ............................ 4-3 Power Generation ..................... 4-9 Environmental Control and Life Support System ............................... 4-17 Thermal Protection .................... 4-25 Purge, Vent, and Drain System .......... 4-33 Avionics .............................. 4-37 5 ORBITER CREW ACCOMMODATIONS AND EQUIPMENT ...................... 5-1 6 MISSION OPERATIONS AND SUPPORT ............................. 6-1 Launch and Landing Facilities and Operations ............................ 6-3 Tracking and Communications Network.. 6-43 Flight Operations and Mission Control ............................... 6-49 FLIGHTCREW COMPLEMENT AND CREW TRAINING ...................... 7-1 8 TESTING ............................. 8-1 9 MANAGEMENT ........................ 9-1 10 CONTRACTORS ....................... 10-1 APPENDIXES A Acronyms and Abbreviations ............ A-1 B Glossary ............................. B-1 C Unit Conversion Table ................. C-1 PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT RLMED V 1. INTRODUCTION 1. INTRODUCTION Development History ...................... 1-5 A Versatile Vehicle ........................ 1-6 Space Shuttle Components ................. 1-7 Typical Shuttle Mission ..................... 1-9 Crew .................................... 1-10 I PRECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED 1-3 Briefly... The primary function of the Space Shuttle is to deliver payloads to Earth orbit. On a standard mission, the Orbiter will remain in orbit for 7 days, return to the Earth with the flightcrew and the payloads, land like an airplane, and be readied for another flight in 14 days. I 1-4 ORIGINAL PAGE IS OF POOR QUALITY 1 • INTRODUCTION reuse. The Shuttle can be used to carry out missions in which scientists and technicians conduct experiments in Earth orbit or service automated satellites already orbiting. Development History In September 1969, a few months after the first manned lunar landing, a Space Task Group appointed by the President of the United States to study the future course of U.S. space research and exploration made the recommendation that The Space Shuttle is the prime element of the U.S. "... the United States accept the basic goal of a Space Transportation System (STS) (fig. 1-1 ) for balanced manned and unmanned space program. space research and applications in future To achieve this goal, the United States should ... decades. develop new systems of technology for space operation.., through a program directed initially Satellites of all types will be deployed and toward development of a new space recovered by the Shuttle. Carrying payloads transportation capability .... " weighing up to 29 500 kilograms (65 000 pounds), the Space Shuttle will replace most of In early 1970, NASA initiated extensive the expendable launch vehicles currently used engineering, design, and cost studies of a Space and will be capable of launching deep-space Shuttle. These studies covered a wide variety of missions into their initial low Earth orbit. It will concepts ranging from a fully reusable manned also provide the first system capable of returning booster and orbiter to dual strap-on solid payloads from orbit on a routine basis. propellant rocket motors and an expendable liquid propellant tank. In-depth studies of each Shuttle crews will be able to retrieve satellites concept evaluated development risks and costs from Earth orbit and repair and redeploy them or in relation to the operational suitability and the bring them back to Earth for refurbishment and overall economics of the entire system. Figure 1-1 .BThe Space Transportation System. SSUS-A SPINNING SOLID UPPER IUS INERTIAL UPPER STAGE MMS MULTIMISSION MODULAR SPACECRAFT LDEF LONG-DURATION EXPOSURE FACILITY TDRS TRACKING DATA RELAY SATELLITE 1-5 OnJanuary5, 1972,PresidentRichardM.Ntxon announcedthatNASAwouldproceedwiththe developmentofareusablelow-costSpace Shuttlesystem.NASAandits aerospaceindustry contractorscontinuedengineeringstudies throughJanuaryand February of 1972; finally, on March 15, 1972, NASA announced that the Shuttle would use two solid-propellant rocket motors. The decision was based on information developed by studies which showed that the solid rocket system offered lower development cost and lower technical risk. A Vorsatllo Vohiole Figure 1-2.--The Space Shuttle vehicle. The Space Shuttle (fig. 1-2) is a true aerospace vehicle: it takes off like a rocket, maneuvers in Earth orbit like a spacecraft, and lands like an airplane. The Space Shuttle is designed to carry crews also can perform such services as heavy loads into Earth orbit. Other launch replacing the film packs and lenses on the Space vehicles have done this; however, unlike those Telescope. vehicles which could be used just once, each Space Shuttle Orbiter may be reused more than The Shuttle Orbiter is a manned spacecraft, but, 1O0 times. unlike manned spacecraft of the past, it touches down on a landing strip. The Shuttle thus The Shuttle permits the checkout and repair of eliminates the expensive recovery at sea that unmanned satellites in orbit or their return to was necessary for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Earth for repairs that cannot be done in space. and Skylab spacecraft. Thus, the Shuttle makes possible considerable savings inspacecraft cost. The types of satellites The reusable Shuttle also has a short turnaround that the Shuttle can orbit and maintain include time. It can be refurbished and ready for another those involved in environmental protection, journey into space within weeks after landing. energy, weather forecasting, navigation, fishlng, farming, mapping, oceanography, and many other The Shuttle can quickly provide a vantage point in fields useful to man. space for observation of interesting but transient astronomical events or of sudden weather, Interplanetary spacecraft can be placed in Earth agricultural, or environmental crises on Earth. orbit by the Shuttle together with a rocket stage Information from Shuttle observations would called the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), which is contribute to sound decisions for dealing with being developed by the Department of Defense. such urgent matters. After the IUS and the spacecraft are checked out, the IUS is ignited to accelerate the spacecraft The Shuttle will also be used to transport a into deep space. The IUS also will be used to complete scientific laboratory called Spacelab boost satellites to higher Earth orbits than the into space. Developed by the European Space Shuttle's maximum altitude, which is Agency, Spacelab is adapted to operate in zero approximately 1000 kilometers (600 miles). gravity (weightlessness). Spacelab provides facilities for as many as four laboratory Unmanned satellites such as the Space specialists to conduct experiments in such fields Telescope, which can multiply man's view of the as medicine, manufacturing, astronomy, and universe, and the Long-Duration Exposure pharmaceuticals. Spacelab remains attached to Facility, which can demonstrate the effects on the Shuttle Orbiter throughout its mission. Upon materials of long exposure to the space return to Earth, it is removed from the Orbiter and environment, can be placed in orbit, erected, and outfitted for its next assignment. The Spacelab returned to Earth by the Space Shuttle. Shuttle can be reused about 50 times. 1-6 TheSpaceShuttlewill bringwithinreachprojects Space Shuttle Components thatmanyconsideredimpracticalnottoo long ago.TheShuttlecouldcarryintoorbitthe The Space Shuttle has three main units: the "building blocks" for constructing large solar Orbiter, the External Tank (ET), and two Solid power stations that would convert the unlimited Rocket Boosters (SRB's) (fig. 1-3). Each booster solar heat and sunlight of space into electricity rocket has a sea level thrust of 11 600 for an energy-hungry world. The components kilonewtons (2 600 000 pounds). would be assembled by specialists transported to and supported in space by the Shuttle. The The Orbiter is the crew- and payload-carrying Shuttle could also carry into Earth orbit the unit of the Shuttle system. It is 37 meters (121 modular units for self-sustaining settlements. The feet) long, has a wingspan of 24 meters (79 feet), inhabitants of the settlements could be employed and weighs approximately 68 000 kilograms in building and maintaining solar power stations (150 000 pounds) without fuel. It is about the size and in manufacturing drugs, metals, electronics and weight of a DC-9 commercial air transport. crystals, and glass for lenses. Manufacturing in weightless space can, among other things, The Orbiter can transport a payload of 29 500 reduce the cost of certain drugs, create new kilograms (65 000 pounds) into orbit. It carries its alloys, produce drugs and lenses of unusual cargo in a cavernous payload bay 18.3 meters purity, and enable crystals to grow very large. (60 feet) long and 4.6 meters (15 feet) in diameter. The bay is flexible enough to provide accommodations for unmanned spacecraft in a variety of shapes and for fully equipped scientific laboratories. The