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The orbiter was lifted up on a sling very similar to the one used at Kennedy Space Center and placed inside the Dynamic Test Stand building, and there mated to the Vertical Mate Ground Vibration Test tank ( VMGVT-ET ), which in turn was attached to a set of inert Solid Rocket Boosters ( SRB ) to form a complete shuttle launch stack, and marked the first time in the program's history that all Space Shuttle elements, an Orbiter, an External Tank ( ET ), and two SRBs, were mated together.
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orbiter and was
The main mission objective was to verify performance of Spacelab systems, determine the interface capability of the orbiter, and measure the environment created by the spacecraft.
On September 21, 2003, after 14 years in space and 8 years in the Jovian system, Galileos mission was terminated by sending the orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of over per second, to avoid any chance of it contaminating local moons with terrestrial bacteria.
Subsequently, the name 2001 Mars Odyssey was selected for the orbiter as a specific tribute to the vision of space exploration shown in works by Arthur C. Clarke, including 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The original name for the orbiter was Constitution but was renamed due to Star Trek fans and the personal intervention of President Gerald Ford.
Space Shuttle Challenger ( NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099 ) was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first.
Challenger was also the first orbiter to have a head-up display system for use in the descent phase of a mission.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise ( NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101 ) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter.
In mid-1976 the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, allowing engineers to compare data from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models.
On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, would be added to the collection once the Shuttle fleet was retired.
Also, Columbia was the female symbol of the U. S. After construction, the orbiter arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979, to prepare for its first launch.
Columbia was the only orbiter launched with its Space Shuttle external tank | external tank painted white, which was later discontinued to save weight.
As the second orbiter to be constructed, yet the first able to fly into space, Columbia was roughly heavier than subsequent orbiters such as Endeavour, which were of a slightly different design, and had benefited from advances in materials technology.
Externally, Columbia was the first orbiter in the fleet whose surface was mostly covered with High & Low Temperature Reusable Surface Insulation ( HRSI / LRSI ) tiles as its main thermal protection system ( TPS ), with white silicone rubber-painted Nomex — known as Felt Reusable Surface Insulation ( FRSI ) blankets — in some areas on the wings, fuselage and Payload Bay Doors.
FSRI once covered almost 25 % of the orbiter, though the first upgrade resulted in its removal from many areas, and in later flights was only used on the upper section of the Payload Bay Doors and inboard sections of the upper wing surfaces.
Until its last refit, Columbia was the only operational orbiter with wing markings consisting of an American flag on the port ( left ) wing and the letters " USA " on the starboard ( right ) wing.
Columbia was also the only orbiter not delivered with head-up displays for the Commander and Pilot, although these were incorporated after STS-9.
Atlantis was the only orbiter which lacked the ability to draw power from the International Space Station while docked there ; it had to continue to provide its own power through fuel cells.
As it was constructed later, Endeavour was built with new hardware designed to improve and expand orbiter capabilities.
While Space Shuttle Atlantis was refurbished and relaunched in 53 days between missions STS-51-J and STS-61-B, generally months were required to repair an orbiter for a new mission.
orbiter and lifted
Prior to the closing of the Vandenberg facility, orbiters were transported from the OPF to the VAB on their undercarriages, only to be raised when the orbiter was being lifted for attachment to the SRB / ET stack.
Unlike the Space Shuttle orbiter, which had to be lifted and assembled together with several other heavy components ( a large external tank, plus two solid rocket boosters ), VentureStar was to be simply inspected in a hangar like an airplane.
A similar vehicle was used at the Kennedy Space Center to take astronauts directly from the orbiter to the Operations and Checkout building where the vehicle was again lifted up for the astronauts to exit directly onto the 2nd floor of the facility.
orbiter and up
From time to time, further pieces of debris from the orbiter wash up on the Florida coast.
The winged Space Shuttle orbiter was launched vertically, usually carrying four to seven astronauts ( although eight have been carried ) and up to 50, 000 lb ( 22, 700 kg ) of payload into low Earth orbit ( LEO ).
The lander had two means of returning data to Earth: a relay link up to the orbiter and back, and by using a direct link to Earth.
That eventually ended up as a reusable orbiter with an expendable drop tank and reusable solid rocket boosters to reduce design expenses.
An orbiter kit was developed to allow the shuttle to operate for up to 16 days in Earth orbit, and would later make its debut on Columbias STS-50 mission in 1992.
It began with the spinning up of the Penetrator for stability followed by separation from the orbiter.
After unsuccessful attempts to contact the lander by the Mars Odyssey orbiter up to and past the Martian summer solstice on May 12, 2010, JPL declared the lander to be dead.
The orbiter then began a series of maneuvers to meet up with the first of the two satellites to be recovered, Palapa B-2.
After ascent, the Flash Evaporator System for cooling the orbiter iced up and shut down, increasing the crew cabin temperature to approximately.
After several ham radio contacts around the country and work in a vacuum bag designed to ease the body's readaptation to Earth's environment, the orbiter crew made up of Commander John Blaha, Pilot Richard Searfoss and Mission Specialist William McArthur oversaw a short firing of one of the orbital maneuvering system engines to drop the low end of Columbia's orbit from 150 to 142 nautical miles ( 278 to ) to increase the landing opportunities should the mission be extended for weather or a system problem that would keep the crew in orbit two extra days.
On 3 June 1998 the crew was able to set up a bypass system that allowed AMS data to be downlinked via S-band / FM communications when the orbiter came within range of a ground station.
Pillinger dreamed of launching up to two landing craft from an orbiter in 2009 as part of the European Space Agency's Aurora Programme.
These tiles are reusable for up to 100 missions with refurbishment ( 100 missions is also the design lifetime of each orbiter ).
On February 1, 2003, the Columbia would be destroyed and its crew of 7 killed, after leading edge wing damage led to the orbiter burning up during its return to earth.
* The Spider, the first lunar module to be tested in outer space for docking with a lunar orbiter fell out of orbit and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere.
orbiter and on
The orbiter arrived back at Kennedy Space Center on 11 August 1985.
After releasing its atmospheric probe on 13 July 1995, the Galileo orbiter became the first man-made satellite of Jupiter at 00: 27 UT on 8 December 1995 when it fired its main engine to enter a 198-day parking orbit.
* 2005 – ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.
The orbiter helped analyze potential landing sites for the rovers and performed the same task for NASA's Phoenix mission, which landed on Mars in May, 2008.
On July 31, 2008, NASA announced that the Phoenix lander confirmed the presence of water on Mars, as predicted in 2002 based on data from the Odyssey orbiter.
) Crater counts from high resolution images taken by the Mars Express orbiter in 2004 indicate that lava flows on the northwestern flank of Olympus Mons range in age from 115 million years old ( Mya ) to only 2 Mya.
A letter-writing campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek.
The destruction of the orbiter killed all those on board.
In 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter following Columbia and Challenger, and made its final touchdown at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, 2011 at 10: 57: 17 CST, having spent a cumulative total of one full year ( 365 days ) in space.
The orbiter is named after the British HMS Endeavour, the ship which took Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery ( 1768 – 1771 ).
The Buran orbiter which flew the test flight was crushed in the Buran hangar collapse on May 12, 2002 in Kazakhstan.
Each orbiter, based on the earlier Mariner 9 spacecraft, was an octagon approximately 2. 5 m across.
The power to the two orbiter craft was provided by eight 1. 57 × 1. 23 m solar panels, two on each wing.
The first experimental orbiter was delivered for atmospheric handling test flights in 1976, and the first launch took place on April 12, 1981, with Columbia and STS-1, the first Shuttle orbital flight.
Following the success of STS-121, all subsequent missions have been completed without major foam problems, and the construction of ISS nears completion ( during the STS-118 mission in August 2007, the orbiter was again struck by a foam fragment on liftoff, but this damage was minimal compared to the damage sustained by Columbia ).
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, in its report, noted the reduced risk to the crew when a shuttle flies to the International Space Station ( ISS ), as the station can be used as a safe haven for the crew awaiting rescue in the event that damage to the shuttle orbiter on ascent makes it unsafe for re-entry.
0.932 seconds.