Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A launch status check, also known as a "go/no go poll" and several other terms, occurs at the beginning of an American spaceflight mission in which flight controllers monitoring various systems are queried for operation and readiness status before a launch can proceed. For Space Shuttle missions, in the firing room at the Launch Control Center ...
The longest orbital flight of the Shuttle was STS-80 at 17 days 15 hours, while the shortest flight was STS-51-L at one minute 13 seconds when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch. The cold morning shrunk an O-Ring on the right Solid Rocket Booster causing the external fuel tank to explode.
Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6, pronounced "Slick Six") is a launch pad and associated support infrastructure at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Construction at the site began in 1966, but the first launch didn't occur until 1995 due to program cancellations and subsequent repurposing efforts.
The Air Force expected to use the Space Shuttle to launch large satellites, and required it to be capable of lifting 29,000 kg (65,000 lb) to an eastward LEO or 18,000 kg (40,000 lb) into a polar orbit. The satellite designs also required that the Space Shuttle have a 4.6 by 18 m (15 by 60 ft) payload bay.
The final journey for the last space shuttle ever built is complete. Set against the black backdrop of the night sky, a crane hoisted a white shrink-wrapped Endeavour 200 feet overhead before ...
The original intention was to compensate for this lower payload by lowering the per-launch costs and a high launch frequency. However, the actual costs of a Space Shuttle launch were higher than initially predicted, and the Space Shuttle did not fly the intended 24 missions per year as initially predicted by NASA. [66] [28]: III–489–490
U.S. officials on Thursday confirmed that a 20-foot segment of the space shuttle Challenger was discovered earlier this year off the Florida coast by divers who were filming a television ...
At one point before retirement, extension of the Space Shuttle program for an additional five years, while a replacement could be developed, was considered by the U.S. government. [4] Some programs proposed to provide access to space after the shuttle were the Lockheed Martin X-33, VentureStar, the Orbital Space Plane Program, and Ares I launcher.