|
|
|
|
The orbital spaceplanes are designed to ascend orbit vertically under rocket power like conventional expendable launch vehicles. Orbital spaceplanes has a much smaller payload fraction than a ballistic design with the same takeoff weight. Thus, it significantly reduces the payload size due to the wings' weight, but the reusability is intended to offset the disadvantage.
|
"The Space Shuttle Orbiter is the Orbital vehicle of the Space Shuttle and is a mixture of rocket, spacecraft and aircraft. It is a reusable winged ""spaceplane"" and it launches crew and payload into Earth orbit and performs on-orbit operations. Individual Orbiters are both named and numbered, a similar manner to ships by the NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation system. All Orbiters' external structures are very similar, though they have minor differences such as new equipment fitted on a rotating basis for maintenance and the newer Orbiters tend to be structurally lighter. The first test Shuttle, the Enterprise, was designed for testing the Space Shuttle behavior in atmospheric flight. Columbia, first launched on April 12, 1981 and the first space shuttle to fly into orbit. Challenger, first launched on April 4, 1983 and the second orbiter to become operational at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Discovery, first launched on August 30, 1984, has flown 33 missions and is still currently operational though Discovery will be retiring in 2010. Atlantis, first launched on October 3, 1985, has flown 26 missions and is still operational today but will be retiring also in 2010. And the Endeavor, first launched on May 7, 1992 and has flown 19 missions and still operational but is due to retire also in 2010. The Orbiter's crew cabin has a flight deck, mid-deck and utility area. The Orbiter has a large payload bay at about 60 by 15 feet. There are three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) mounted on the Orbiter's aft fuselage in a triangular pattern. The aft fuselage houses three auxiliary power units. The Orbiter structure is primarily made from aluminum alloy, although the engine thrust structure is made from titanium alloy. Space Shuttle Orbiters support scientific experiments and observations, spacecraft deployment, retrieval, service and repair, assembly of large space structures, such as the International Space Station and other various space operations. "
|
|
|
"NASA had many successful space missions and programs, including over 150 unmanned missions and many space flight missions, most notably the space mission on Mars. NASA probes have been continually performing science at Mars since 1997, with at least two orbiters since 2001 and several Mars rovers. The orbiting Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will continue monitoring the geology and climate of the Red Planet and will continue searching for evidence of water and life presence, as they have since 2001 and 2006. The cockpit houses the pressurized crew module and it provides support for the nose section, nose gear and the nose gear wheel well and doors. The crew station consists of the flight deck, middle deck/equipment bay and an airlock. The flight deck permits the vehicle to be piloted from either seat and permits one-man emergency return while the middle deck contains provisions and stowage facilities for four crew sleep stations. The Orbiter is both the brains and heart of the Space Transportation System. About the same size and weight as a DC-9 aircraft, the Orbiter contains the pressurized crew compartment,the huge cargo bay and the three main engines mounted on its aft end and a midfuselage that supports the payload bay of the Orbiter."
|
"Endeavour, the last addition to the orbiter fleet, is named after the first ship commanded by James Cook, the 18th century British explorer, navigator and astronomer. On Endeavour's maiden voyage in August 1768, Cook sailed to the South Pacific (to observe and record the infrequent event of the planet Venus passing between the Earth and the sun). Determining the transit of Venus enabled early astronomers to find the distance of the sun from the Earth, which then could be used as a unit of measurement in calculating the parameters of the universe. In 1769, Cook was the first person to fully chart New Zealand (which was previously visited in 1642 by the Dutchman Abel Tasman from the Dutch province of Groningen). Cook also surveyed the eastern coast of Australia , navigated the Great Barrier Reef and traveled to Hawaii. Cook's voyage on the Endeavour also established the usefulness of sending scientists on voyages of exploration. While sailing with Cook, naturalist Joseph Banks and Carl Solander collected many new families and species of plants, and encountered numerous new species of animals. Endeavour and her crew reportedly made the first long-distance voyage on which no crewman died from scurvy, the dietary disease caused by lack of ascorbic acids. Cook is credited with being the first captain to use diet as a cure for scurvy, when he made his crew eat cress, sauerkraut and an orange extract. The Endeavour was small at about 368 tons, 100 feet in length and 20 feet in width. In contrast, its modern day namesake is 78 tons, 122 feet in length and 78 feet wide. The Endeavour of Captain Cook's day had a round bluff bow and a flat bottom. The ship's career ended on a reef along Rhode Island. For the first time, a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools produced the name of the new orbiter; it was announced by President George Bush in 1989. The Space Shuttle orbiter Endeavour was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in May 1991, and flew its first mission, highlighted by the dramatic rescue of a stranded communications satellite, a year later in May 1992. In the day-to-day world of Shuttle operations and processing, Space Shuttle orbiters go by a more prosaic designation. Endeavour is commonly refered to as OV-105, for Orbiter Vehicle-105. Empty Weight was 151,205 lbs at rollout and 172,000 lbs with main engines installed. "
|
The Space Shuttle Orbiter is the Space Shuttle's orbital vehicle. The orbiter carries most of the main propulsion system for reusable purpose, but the propellant for the three main engines is fed by an external Tank, and solid boosters, helping it to propel during the first two minutes of ascent. Its crew cabin consists of the flight deck, mid-deck and the utility area. The Orbiter hs a large 60 by 15 ft payload bay, filling most of the midfuselage. There are three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) mounted on the Orbiter's aft fuselage in a triangular pattern. The Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) provides orbital maneuvers, including insertion, circularization, transfer, rendezvous, abort to orbit and abort once around. The Reaction Control System (RCS) provides altitude control and translation along with the pitch, roll and yaw axes during the flight phases of orbit insertion, orbit and re-entry. The Thermal Protection System (TPS) covers the outside of the Orbiter for protection from cold temperature. The Orbiter is made primarily from aluminum alloy. There are six individual orbiters; the Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour.
|
"The construction of the Orbiter Atlantis began on March 3, 1980. On April 9, 1985, Atlantis arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and prepared for its maiden voyage over the next seven months. Atlantis was completed in just about half the time in man-hours spent on Columbia and this was due to lessons learned regarding the construction testing of orbiters Enterprise, Columbia and Challenger. Atlantis weighs at about 151,315 pounds, nearly 3.5 tons lighter than Columbia. On October 3, 1985, Atlantis launched its first space flight, STS-51-J, with a classified payload for the U.S. Deprtment of Defense. Atlantis went on to carry four more DOD payloads on its later mission. The mission is commanded by Navy Capt. Brent Jett, a veteran of three previous spaceflights. Navy Capt. Chris Ferguson, a first-time flyer, joined Jett who will serve as the mission's pilot. Joe Tanner, crewmate of Jett's on the STS-97 mission, will be leading the two teams of spacewalkers in his fourth spaceflight. NASA has delayed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis that was supposedly scheduled on September 7, 2006 due to a fuel cell anomaly."
|
"The Douglas Skyrocket (D-558-2) was a rocket and jet-powered research aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the United States Navy. On November 20, 1953, shortly before the 50th anniversary of powered flight, Scott Crossfield piloted the D-558-2 to Mach 2, the first time an aircraft had exceeded twice the speed of sound. Since it was so fast, it would sometimes be used to fly over enemy territories and take pictures. A total of three Skyrockets had been built, and all are now on display in different locations. "
|
"The Douglas Skystreak (D-558-1) was designed in 1945 by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, in conjunction with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The Skystreak was a turbojet powered aircraft that took off from the ground under its own power and had straight wings and tails. The D-558-1 reached Mach 0.99 in level flight, but only flew supersonic in a dive. In the public mind, much of the research performed by the D-558-1 was quickly overshadowed by Chuck Yeager and the supersonic X-1 rocket plane. However, the Skystreak played an important role in aeronautical research by flying for extended periods of time at transonic speeds, which freed the X-1 to fly for limited periods at supersonic speeds. "
|
"Command/Service Module is one of the two spacecraft that were utilized for the Apollo program, along with the Lunar Module, to land astronauts to the Moon. The Command Module together with the Lunar Module, are oftenly called the Apollo spacecraft. The spacecraft consists of two segments, the command module, housing the crew and the equipment needed for re-entry and splashdown and a service module which provide propulsion, electrical power and storage for various consumables required during a mission. The Command Module is a truncated cone. The forward compartment contained two reaction control engines, the docking tunnel and the components of the Earth Landing System. The inner pressure vessel housed the crew accommodations, equipment bays, controls and displays and many spacecraft systems. The aft compartment contains 10 reaction control engines and their related propellant tanks, fresh water tanks and the CSM umbilical cables. The Service Module houses the service propulsion system and its propellants, the fuel cell power system, four maneuvering thruster quads, the S-band antenna for communication with Mission Control and storage tanks for water and air. The Service Module is divided into six sectors."
|
"The Boeing 747, also known as ""Jumbo Jet"", is a commercial airliner made by Boeing and is considered to be a wide body aircraft. The B747 is known for its impressive size and it is one of the world's most recognizable aircraft. In 1970, the B747 had its first flight and held the passenger capacity record for 35 years. American first lady Pat Nixon was the first one who used the B747 at the Washington Dulles International Airport. Red, white and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft instead of breaking a bottle of champagne. The first commercial flight of B747 took place on January 22, 1970 which was headed to New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport and London Heathrow Airport. The Boeing 747 was designed in such a way that it could easily adapt to carrying of shipments so when sales of passenger version dried up, the plane could remain production as a cargo transport. The cockpit of B747 was placed on a shortened upper deck thus this created a unique bulge for the B747. The B747 was expected to become obsolete after sales of 400 units but it passed the critic’s expectation and the production passed the 1000 mark in 1993. As the year 2006 ended 1380 planes were built. The latest one was the B747-8. Throughout its history, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA has used several different types of aircraft on a permanent, semi-permanent, or short-term basis. The agency has three 747s: a 747-100, a 747-100SR, and a 747SP. The 747-100 and 747-100SR are currently used as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) while the 747SP is in use as Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The SCAs are used to ferry space shuttles from landing sites back to the launch complex at the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, and to and from other locations too distant for the orbiters to be delivered by ground transport. The 747-100 was was acquired from American Airlines in 1974 and was extensively modified in 1976. Its cabin was stripped, mounting struts were added, the fuselage was strengthened, and vertical stabilizers were added to the tail. The avionics and engines were also upgraded. In 1988, in the wake of the Challenger accident, NASA procured the 747-100SR from Japan Airlines on recommendation from the review board. It entered service with NASA in 1990 after similar modifications. It was the first used to ferry the new shuttle Endeavour in 1991. "
|
"The Lockheed Martin Atlas II is a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which stemmed from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. It was the last Atlas to use a three-engine, two and a half stage to orbit concept, meaning two of its three engines were jettisoned during ascent, but its fuel tanks and other structural elements were retained. It was designed to launch payloads into low earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. The Atlas II family, which includes the Atlas II, IIA and IIAS, was developed in the mid-1980s to address the growing demand for large commercial geosynchronous satellites. Sixty-three launches of all three models were carried out between 1988 and 2004. The Atlas II had its maiden flight on December 7, 1991. It provided higher performance than the earlier Atlas I by using engines with greater thrust and longer fuel tanks for both stages. It utilized an improved Centaur rocket stage, the world's first high-energy propellant stage, to increase its payload capability. The Atlas II was equipped with lower-cost electronics, an improved flight computer and longer propellant tanks than the Atlas I. The IIAS was the most powerful derivative. The Atlas has been used by NASA since 1958. It served as the launch vehicle for Project SCORE, an instrumentation package developed by the United States Army Signal Corps that became the world’s first communications satellite. The satellite broadcast President Eisenhower’s pre-recorded Christmas message worldwide. "
|
|
|
