The Complete Book of Spaceflight From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity David Darling John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This book is printed on acid-free paper. ●∞ Copyright © 2003 by David Darling. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, email: [email protected]. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com. ISBN 0-471-05649-9 Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 Contents Acknowledgments v Introduction 1 How to Use This Book 3 Exponential Notation 3 Orbits 3 Units 3 Spaceflight Entries A to Z 5 Acronyms and Abbreviations 498 References 504 Web Sites 513 Category Index 521 iii Acknowledgments book of this size and scope isn’t a one-man enter- detail. Any mistakes and inaccuracies that remain are my Aprise. Dozens of individuals at space agencies, gov- responsibility alone. As always, my thanks go to my very ernment laboratories, military bases, aerospace companies, special agent, Patricia van der Leun, for finding the book and universities generously provided information and a home and providing support along the way. Finally and illustrations. At John Wiley, I’m particulary grateful to my foremost, my love and gratitude go to my family—my par- editor, Jeff Golick, and to Marcia Samuels, senior manag- ents, my wife, Jill, and my now-grownup children, Lori- ing editor, for their excellent suggestions and attention to An and Jeff—for making it all possible. Introduction t is astonishing to think that there are people alive light-years. We can extol the virtues of mining the Moon Itoday from the time when man first flew in an engine- or the asteroid belt, or learning about our origins in powered, heavier-than-air plane. In the past century, we cometary dust, or the things that can be made or gleaned have learned not only to fly, but to fly to the Moon, to from a laboratory in zero-g. But these reasons are not at Mars, and to the very outskirts of the Solar System. Look the core of why we go—why we must go—on a voyage that up at the right time and place on a clear night and you will ultimately take us to the stars. Our reason for space- can see the International Space Station glide across the flight is just this: we are human, and to be human is to be sky and know that not all of us are now confined to inquisitive. At heart, we are explorers with a universe of Earth: always there are a handful of us on the near edge billions of new worlds before us. of this new and final frontier of space. This book is intended as a companion to the human Our first steps beyond our home planet have been hes- journey into space. Of course, it has many facts and fig- itant and hazardous. There are some who say, “Why ures—and acronyms!—as all books on this subject do. But bother?” Why expend effort and money, and risk lives, beyond the technical details of rockets and orbits, it tries when there are so many problems to be resolved back on to capture something of the drama of the quest, the this world? In the end, the answer is simple. We can point human thread—in a word, the culture of space explo- to the enormous value of Earth resources satellites in ration. I hope that many readers will use it to wander monitoring the environment, or to the benefits of space- from reference to reference and so create their own craft that help us communicate among continents or pre- unique paths through this most unique of adventures. dict the weather or gaze with clear sight across the Enjoy the ride! 1 How to Use This Book ntries range from simple definitions to lengthy articles For example, the Japanese Ohzora satellite is listed as Eon subjects of central importance or unusual interest, having an orbit of 247 ×331 km ×75°. This means that and are extensively cross-referenced. Terms that are in the low and high points of the orbit were 247 km and 331 boldtype have their own entries. Numbers that appear as km, respectively, above Earth’s surface, and that the orbit superscripts in the text are references to books, journal was tilted by 75°with respect to Earth’s equator. articles, and so on, listed alphabetically by author at the back of the book. A list of web sites on subjects dealt with Units in the text is also provided. Entries are arranged alphabetically according to the first Distance word of the entry name. So, for example, “anti-gsuit” pre- 1 kilometer (km) =0.62 mile cedes “antigravity.” Where names are also known by their 1 meter (m) =3.28 feet (ft) =39.37 inches (in.) acronyms or abbreviations, as happens frequently in the language of spaceflight, the definition appears under the 1 centimeter (cm) =0.39 in. form most commonly used. For example, the headwords 1 km =1,000 m “NASA” and “TIROS” are preferred to “National Aero- 1 m =100 cm =1,000 millimeters (mm) nautics and Space Administration” and “Television = 3 µ = 6 Infrared Observations System.” On the other hand, “Hub- 1 mm 10 microns ( m) 10 nanometers (nm) ble Space Telescope” and “Goddard Space Flight Center” 1 astronomical unit (AU) =1.50×108km are preferred to “HST” and “GSFC.” The alternative form 1 light-year =63,240AU=9.46×1012km is always given in parentheses afterward. In addition, the Acronyms and Abbreviations section in the back of the Area book lists all of the alternative forms for easy reference. 1 hectare =2.47 acres Metric units are used throughout, unless it is more 1 square meter (m2)=10.76 square feet (ft2) appropriate, for historical reasons, to do otherwise. See the “Units” section below for conversion factors. Volume 3 = 3 Exponential Notation 1 cubic meter (m ) 35.31 cubic feet (ft ) In the interest of brevity, exponential notation is used in Speed this book to represent large and small numbers. For 1 km/s =2,240 mph example, 300,000,000 is written as 3 ×108, the power of 10 indicating how many places the decimal point has Acceleration been moved to the left from the original number (or, = 2 = 2 more simply, the number of zeroes). Small numbers have 1g (one-gee) 9.81 m/s 32.19 ft/s negative exponents, indicating how many places the Mass point has been shifted to the left. For example, 0.000049 − = is written as 4.9 ×10 5. 1 kilogram (kg) 2.21 pounds (lb) 1 kg = 1,000 grams (g) Orbits 1 g = 103 milligrams (mg) = 109 nanograms (ng) Orbits of satellites are given in the form: 1 metric ton = 1,000 kg = 2,205 lb = 0.98 long ton perigee×apogee×inclination Note: In this book, tons refers to metric tons. 3 4How to Use This Book Energy Force 1 joule (J) =9.48×10−4British thermal unit (Btu) 1 newton (N) = 0.22 pounds-force (lbf) = 0.102 kilo- 1 electron-volt (eV) =1.60×10−19J grams-force (kgf) = 1 GeV = 103 MeV = 106 keV = 109 eV 1 kilonewton (kN) 1,000 N Note: Electron-volts are convenient units for measuring the energies of particles and electromagnetic radiation. In Power the case of electromagnetic radiation, it is customary to 1 watt (W) = 0.74 ft-lbf/s = 0.0013 horsepower (hp) measure longer-wavelength types in terms of their wave- 1 kilowatt (kW) = 1,000 W length (in units of cm, µm, etc.) and shorter-wavelength types, especially X-rays and gamma-rays in terms of their Temperature energy (in units of keV, MeV, etc.). The wavelength asso- = 5 − ciated with electromagnetic waves of energy 1 keV is C ⁄9 (F 32) 9 0.124 nm.