The Space Shuttle :: essays research papers

The position ShuttleThe hoot, a manned, multipurpose, orbital-launch space plane, was knowing to extract warheads of up to about 30,000 kg (65,000 lb) and up to seven crew membersand passengers. The top(prenominal) part of the spacecraft, the orbiter stage, had atheoretical lifetime of perhaps coulomb missions, and the winged orbiter could makeunpowered landings on returning to earth. Because of the shuttles designedflexibility and its planned use for satellite deployment and the rescue andrepair of antecedently orbited satellites, its prop anents saw it as a majoradvance in the functional exploitation of space. Others, however, worried thatNASA was placing too much reliance on the shuttle, to the hurt of other,unmanned vehicles and missions.The beginning space shuttle mission, piloted by John W. infantile and Robert Crippenaboard the orbiter Columbia, was launched on April 12, 1981. It was a testflight flown without load in the orbiters cargo bay. The fifth space shuttlefl ight was the beginning(a) operational mission the astronauts in the Columbiadeployed two commercial communication theory satellites from November 11 to 16, 1982.Later memorable flights included the seventh, whose crew included the first U.S.woman astronaut, Sally 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 expensive malfunction satellites were retrieved and returned to earth.Despite such successes, the shuttle program was falling behind in its plannedlaunch program, was increasingly being used for military tests, and was clashstiff competition from the European Space Agencys unmanned Ariane program forthe orbiting of satellites. Then, on January 28, 1986, the shuttle Challengerwas destroyed about one minute after(prenominal) launch because of the failure o f a sealantring on one of its solid boosters. Flames escaping from the booster burned ahole in the important propellant tank of liquid hydrogen and oxygen and caused thebooster to intrude into and rupture the tank. This rupture caused a nearlyexplosive disruption of the safe and sound 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 year as the first "teacher in space," a civilianspokesperson for the shuttle program. The tragedy brought an immediate halt toshuttle flights until systems could be analyzed and redesigned. A presidentialcommission headed by condition secretary of state William Rogers and former