The Space Shuttle Program: Technologies and Accomplishments

369 Pages·2017·19.4 MB·English

by  Davide Sivolella (auth.)

The
SPACE SHUTTLE
PROGRAM
Technologies and
Accomplishments
Davide Sivolella
The Space Shuttle Program
Technologies and Accomplishments

Davide Sivolella
The Space Shuttle
Program
Technologies and Accomplishments
Davide Sivolella
Aerospace Engineer
Hemel Hempstead
United Kingdom
SPRINGER PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION
Springer Praxis Books
ISBN 978-3-319-54944-6 ISBN 978-3-319-54946-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54946-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017942940
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
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Contents
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... ix
1 A Remarkable Flying Machine ......................................................................... 1
The Spaceplane .................................................................................................... 1
Space Shuttle 101 ................................................................................................. 3
Solid Rocket Boosters .......................................................................................... 6
External Tank ....................................................................................................... 10
Orbiter Vehicle ..................................................................................................... 11
Space Shuttle: What for? ...................................................................................... 21
2 Launch Platform ................................................................................................ 23
“A tale of two upper stages” ................................................................................. 23
Payload Assist Module maiden flight ................................................................... 27
Space Shuttle Inertial Upper Stage debut ............................................................. 31
Death Star ............................................................................................................. 39
Gateway to the Solar System ............................................................................... 46
Additional Upper Stages ...................................................................................... 49
3 EVA Operations .................................................................................................. 54
“There was no requirement for EVA” .................................................................. 54
A Wardrobe for the Astronauts ............................................................................. 59
A Tale of Two Spacewalks ................................................................................... 68
EMU Improvements ............................................................................................. 73
Human Satellite .................................................................................................... 75
4 Learning to Build a Space Station .................................................................... 84
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 84
Heavy Payload Lifting ......................................................................................... 86
Space Station Hardware Testing .......................................................................... 90
On-Orbit Assembly .............................................................................................. 94
Spacewalking Quality Time ................................................................................. 104
v
vi Contents
5 Satellite Servicing ............................................................................................... 112
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 112
The First On-Orbit Satellite Servicing ................................................................. 115
“Something that nobody’s ever done before” ...................................................... 123
“Something we weren’t planning on doing” ........................................................ 129
“We think we could go up and fix this thing” ...................................................... 132
“I’m going downstairs to get ready” .................................................................... 136
Threesome Spacewalk .......................................................................................... 138
Servicing the Hubble Space Telescope ................................................................ 142
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 151
6 Science Laboratory ............................................................................................ 153
From Sortie Can to Sortie Laboratory .................................................................. 153
European Collaboration ....................................................................................... 157
Spacelab Development ......................................................................................... 158
Small Payload Carriers ......................................................................................... 176
Get Away Specials ................................................................................................ 177
Hitchhiker Program .............................................................................................. 179
7 Spacelab Stories .................................................................................................. 183
“An unqualified success” ...................................................................................... 183
“The cheapest experiment that has ever gone into space” ................................... 190
“The most important scientific mission” .............................................................. 193
“The whole crew was put to the test” ................................................................... 202
“We called it the ignorosphere” ........................................................................... 206
“Kind of busy, but very comfortable” .................................................................. 211
8 Space Industries ................................................................................................. 215
“The prospect of doing something useful for humanity” ..................................... 215
“I wanted to be part of the action” ....................................................................... 228
SPACEHAB versus Spacelab ............................................................................... 234
SPACEHAB Missions .......................................................................................... 237
A Pioneering Initiative: The Industrial Space Facility ......................................... 238
Ultra-Vacuum: The Wake Shield Facility ............................................................. 242
9 Space Shuttle in Uniform ................................................................................... 250
Military Space Shuttle .......................................................................................... 250
“The mission was pretty vanilla” ......................................................................... 251
The Lost Polar Mission ........................................................................................ 252
“I wasn’t such a hot pilot as I thought” ................................................................ 260
“We were tremendous”......................................................................................... 260
A Misty Mission ................................................................................................... 261
Espionage Deception ............................................................................................ 264
A Milkshake in Space .......................................................................................... 265
Military Man in Space .......................................................................................... 268
Honorable Discharge ............................................................................................ 270
Contents vii
10 Something That Nobody Had Ever Done Before ............................................ 275
Origins of the Satellite on a Tether ....................................................................... 275
Tethered Satellite System 101 .............................................................................. 278
TSS-1 Experiments and Science Objectives ........................................................ 284
Fundamentals of Space Tethered System Dynamics ............................................ 289
The Eventful Flight of STS-46/TSS-1 ................................................................. 299
STS-75/TSS-1R “This can’t be happening again” ............................................... 308
11 More Power and Time Needed .......................................................................... 314
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 314
The Power Extension Package ............................................................................. 315
The 25 kW Power Module ................................................................................... 320
Extended Duration Orbiter ................................................................................... 321
EDO First Flight: STS-50 .................................................................................... 324
12 Adding New Capabilities ................................................................................... 328
Night Operations .................................................................................................. 328
“The conservative thing to do” ............................................................................. 330
“The potential for additional flexibility in the future” ......................................... 335
Payload Planning and Integration ........................................................................ 337
13 The Legacy of the Shuttle Program .................................................................. 340
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 340
The Failures of the Space Shuttle ......................................................................... 341
The Achievements of the Space Shuttle ............................................................... 345
Conclusion............................................................................................................ 348
About the Author ...................................................................................................... 349
References .................................................................................................................. 350
Index ........................................................................................................................... 356
Acknowledgements
I have always been an insatiable reader. In my teen years, I used to fantasize that one day
I would write a book, possibly on the subject of space exploration. That dream became
a reality when in the summer of 2013 Springer-Praxis published To Orbit and Back
Again: How the Space Shuttle Flew in Space. Little did I know that a few years later, I
would be able to repeat the endeavor. Shortly after having delivered that manuscript,
Clive Horwood of Praxis suggested I take up this new project. For this reason, I will
always be indebted to him for his confidence and trust. And I can never praise enough
space historian David M. Harland, who played an instrumental role in making this book
readable and in improving my writing skills. I am also immensely grateful to Maury
Solomon and her staff at Springer in New York for assisting me in transforming the
original idea into a finished book.
Writing a book such as this takes a lot of time, particularly if you have a full-time day
job and family. No one knows this better than my wife Monica. Her continuous support
and patience, in particular in the final months of writing when I really had to sacrifice a lot
of family time, were of paramount value for the success of this project. This book would
not have become a reality if it were not for my parents, Pasquale and Maria, who, since I
was a young boy, encouraged me to pursue my passion for space exploration. Several
friends, close and far, gave me their most heartfelt moral support. I will name Vincenzo
Gallo, Brigida Marica Corrado and Giuseppe Pelosi, although there were many more
whose kind words of encouragement, approval, and interest I shall always remember.
Unless otherwise stated, the illustrations are taken from www.nasa.gov website or asso-
ciated websites such as www.nasaimages.com, www.spaceflight.nasa.gov and www.ntrs.
nasa.gov. As such, they are freely available under NASA terms. For all pictures from other
sources, written permission has been obtained for their use in this book.
ix
1
A Remarkable Flying Machine
THE SPACEPLANE
Even before the last Apollo crew left the Moon on December 14, 1972, the American
aerospace industry had already begun to assign their design offices to the next space pro-
gram. Although it would travel to low Earth orbit only, and therefore might look less excit-
ing than reaching Earth’s natural satellite, the new spaceship promised to be something
radically different from its predecessors. In fact, it would be the chance to make a long-
standing dream come true. The idea had been conceived several decades earlier, even
before the Space Age began.
By the end of the 18th century, those few sci-fi novels or stories that attempted to dis-
cuss space flight relied on rather impractical means of transportation. For instance, in
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, the main
character engages in a voyage into space using a revolutionary balloon that enables him to
reach the Moon in ninety days. In Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, three men
travel to the Moon on a bullet-like capsule that is shot into space using an enormous can-
non. It was only when people such as the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the American
Robert H. Goddard, and the German Werner Von Braun became involved that real physics
was brought into play to determine a plausible and efficient propulsion system for space
travel. Within the first two decades of the 19th century these men were able to demon-
strate, either using theoretical studies or field experimentation (or both) that in terms of
Isaac Newton’s third law of motion rockets are the most viable means of reaching space
and moving within its emptiness. At the same time, the burgeoning aircraft industry had
created the firm impression that any flying machine worth its name really ought to have
wings. As rocketry was seen as a specialization of aeronautical engineering, and because
most of the engineers with an interest in space travel had an aeronautical background, it
became natural to marry rockets and wings. Thus was born the concept of a spaceplane.
In the aftermath of World War II, the notion of winged rockets flying into space was
reinforced by both sci-fi literature and the cinema industry. The winged rockets of the
1950 George Pal movie Destination Moon or the Walt Disney animations Man in Space
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1
D. Sivolella, The Space Shuttle Program, Springer Praxis Books,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54946-0_1