The Space Shuttle :: essays research papers

The plaza ShuttleThe shuttle, a manned, multipurpose, orbital- effect space plane, was designed tocarry payloads of up to virtually 30,000 kg (65,000 lb) and up to seven crew membersand passengers. The upper part of the spacecraft, the satellite stage, had atheoretical lifetime of perhaps 100 bursters, and the winged satellite could makeunpowered landings on returning to earth. Because of the shuttles designedflexibility and its plan use for satellite deployment and the rescue andrepair of previously orbited satellites, its proponents saw it as a majoradvance in the practical exploitation of space. Others, however, distressed thatNASA was placing too much reliance on the shuttle, to the detriment of other,unmanned vehicles and missions.The counterbalance space shuttle mission, piloted by John W. Young and Robert Crippenaboard the satellite Columbia, was launched on April 12, 1981. It was a testflight flown without payload in the orbiters committal bay. The fifth space shut tleflight was the first operational mission the astronauts in the Columbiadeployed two commercial communications satellites from November 11 to 16, 1982. later on memorable flights included the seventh, whose crew included the first U.S.woman astronaut, whirl K. Ride the ninth mission, November 28-December 8, 1983,which carried the first of the European Space Agencys Spacelabs the 11thmission, April 7-13, 1984, during which a satellite was retrieved, repaired, andredeployed and the 14th mission, November 8-14, 1984, when two expensivemalfunctioning satellites were retrieved and returned to earth.Despite such(prenominal) successes, the shuttle program was falling behind in its plannedlaunch program, was increasingly being used for military tests, and was meetingstiff ambition from the European Space Agencys unmanned Ariane program forthe orbiting of satellites. Then, on January 28, 1986, the shuttle competitionwas destroyed about one minute after launch because of the ruin of a s ealantring on one of its solid booster rockets. Flames escaping from the booster burned ahole in the main propellant armored combat vehicle of liquid hydrogen and oxygen and caused thebooster to nose into and shiver the tank. This rupture caused a nearlyexplosive disruption of the whole system. Seven astronauts were killed in thedisaster commander Francis R. Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, missionspecialists Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Ronald E. McNair, andpayload specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe had beenselected the preceding course as the first "teacher in space," a civilian instance for the shuttle program. The tragedy brought an immediate halt toshuttle flights until systems could be analyse and redesigned. A presidentialcommission headed by former secretary of produce William Rogers and former