| From: [email protected] (WILLIAM HARWOOD, UPI Science Writer)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.features,clari.news.aviation
Subject: Celebrates 10th anniversary
Date: 2 Apr 91 18:34:04 GMT
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- Ten years ago next Friday, a
winged spaceship carrying two astronauts and the dreams of a proud
nation triumphantly rocketed into orbit to usher in what NASA promised
would be a new era of routine, low-cost access to space.
Awing thousands of spectators and millions more watching on
television, the space shuttle Columbia thundered away on its maiden
voyage atop a 600-foot pillar of flame, leaving a now familiar column of
dirty brown exhaust in its wake.
It was 7 a.m. EST, April 12, 1981 -- 20 years to the day after Soviet
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space -- and American
astronauts were on their way to orbit for the first time in six years.
``What a view, what a view!'' co-pilot Robert Crippen radioed mission
control as the shuttle slipped into orbit 8 1/2 minutes after liftoff.
``Glad you're enjoying it,'' replied astronaut Daniel Brandenstein
from Houston.
``Well, the view hasn't changed any,'' added shuttle skipper John
Young, making his fifth space flight. ``It's really something else.''
Young and Crippen, a space rookie, spent two days putting Columbia
through its paces and despite concern about a few missing heat-shield
tiles, the spaceplane landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.,
two days after launch to close out the first shuttle mission.
Despite NASA's post-flight euphoria and the clear demonstration of a
capability unmatched by any other nation in the world, the space
agency's dream of frequent, low-cost shuttle missions never became a
reality.
In the decade since the dawn of the shuttle program, less than 40
very expensive shuttle flights have been launched and one of them, the
25th, ended in disaster when a flawed rocket booster ruptured, dooming
Challenger and its seven-member crew in 1986.
Tight budgets, the lack of adequate spare parts, criticism from the
media and political pressure on NASA to live up to impossible, if self-
imposed, expectations all contributed to the worst disaster in space history.
Even now, it is difficult for many to separate the old dreams from
the new reality.
NASA officials frequently complain of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-
you-don't ``Catch-22'' mentality in the media, for example, in which
agency managers are criticized for being too cautious if a flight is
delayed or too reckless if a shuttle is cleared for launch with a known
technical problem.
But the new reality is clear to most observers.
The ultra-complex shuttle requires around-the-clock care and near
perfect weather for launch and landing. And despite constant attention,
processing accidents, bad weather and technical glitches have conspired
to make launch delays the rule rather than the exception.
``We're only 30 years into space flight and space flight is going to
be with this nation as long as this nation exists,'' said NASA
Administrator Richard Truly. ``Fifty years from now, people will look
back on the shuttle ... as a pretty archaic and pretty early version of
a launch vehicle.''
The new reality prompted the Air Force, once expected to book one-
third of all shuttle missions, to launch high-priority spy satellites
aboard unmanned Titan 4 rockets to avoid the long delays caused by
problems with the manned space shuttle.
Further reducing the scope of NASA's manned space mission, the Reagan
administration banned commercial payloads from the spaceplane as well to
encourage development of a private sector rocket industry.
Science missions and space station construction flights later this
decade now flesh out a shuttle launch schedule struggling to reach 12
flights per year.
Even so, the world's first and only reusable spaceship had chalked up
a 97.3 percent success rate through the end of 1990, carrying dozens of
costly satellites into space and ferrying 119 individuals from nine
nations into orbit.
And while it is clear in hindsight that NASA never had a chance of
launching 60 flights a year with an ``operational'' spaceship as once
advertised, the space shuttle remains the most advanced launch vehicle
ever built, one that still strikes awe into the hearts of even the most
jaded observers.
``It's the first winged launch vehicle that anybody's ever flown and
gotten away with,'' Young said in a 10th anniversary interview. ``It's a
pretty high-tech machine.''
As for not achieving up to 60 flights per year, NASA spokesman Brian
Welch said such launch rates were based on ``the original notion of a
seven-orbiter fleet.''
The ambitious projections, Welch said, also assumed NASA ultimately
would have two spare shuttles, three launch pads, four shuttle
processing bays and routine clearance to land at the Kennedy Space
Center instead of Edwards.
Instead, NASA ended up with just four shuttles, two launch pads, no
spares, only two shuttle processing bays and routine landings in California.
Given those constraints, Crippen, now shuttle program director at
NASA headquarters in Washington, said he is proud of the program's
performance over its first 10 years.
``Yes, we did not live up to what some people had advertised,'' he
said. ``But if you go back and look at what we have accomplished since
we set out on April 12, 1981, in my opinion it's still the most
fantastic flying machine in the world today for taking cargos to space.
And it is repeatedly proving that.
``And yes, it can't do the 40 to 60 flights a year that some people
predicted at one time. We're still trying to establish what it can do on
a repeated basis. (But) I personally am very proud of what we achieved
over the past decade.''
------
Regardless of how one views the overall value of the shuttle and its
role in the nation's space program, its accomplishments cannot be denied.
While the shuttle has logged just 4 percent of all U.S. launches, it
has carried 40 percent of all the payload mass launched by American
rockets -- 292 satellites and other payloads weighing a 545,887 pounds.
Five Spacelab science missions generated reams of priceless data and
spacewalking astronauts repaired two broken satellites and returned two
others to Earth for repairs and relaunch, clearly demonstrating the
ability of men and women to work in the harsh environment of space.
Eugene Kranz, a legendary Apollo-era flight controller who now works
with the space station program, gives the shuttle a mixed report card.
``The shuttle ... was originally established to replace other
unmanned launch systems we had in our inventory,'' he said in an
interview. ``I think that was a bad decision right from the very
beginning because any flight systems as complex as the shuttle are going
to have difficulties during their lifetime.
``However, I believe that the basic capabilities of the shuttle, to
deploy (satellites), to retrieve (spacecraft), to support science and to
provide an ability to return things from space has been amply demonstrated.''
But he said NASA is still in the process of recovering from the
Challenger disaster and, ``We have to improve our ability to launch on a
schedule and on time.''
``The challenge of the '90s is to demonstrate our ability to fly
routinely, well and on schedule and to do this, I think we're going to
have to (reduce) some of the performance from the system.''
Young, now 60, was NASA's most experienced active astronaut when he
and Crippen, now 53, strapped in aboard Columbia the morning of April 12, 1981.
A launch attempt two days earlier ended in failure because of a
glitch with the shuttle's flight computers. But this time around, it was
smooth sailing.
Tension at the Kennedy Space Center was high as the launch team and
thousands of spectators braced for Columbia's takeoff.
``Knowing how complex this machine was, I was fully prepared for us
to go count it down a half dozen more times before we actually did a
liftoff,'' Crippen said, recalling his first countdown. ``So I was
pleasantly surprised. I don't think it was until about the final minute
that I fully realized that we stood a good chance of going launching.''
As the countdown ticked smoothly toward zero, Crippen's heartbeat
shot up and he became ``very excited. It certainly was one of the more
thrilling moments of my life. There's no doubt about it.''
Young, a veteran of four previous space missions including a stroll
on the moon, was somewhat calmer.
``When you're on a space flight like that, you worry about the things
you can do something about and you don't spend a lot of time worrying
about something you have no control over,'' he said. ``That's what Crip
and I were doing.''
As for the launch, Young remembers the vibrations produced by the
shuttle's powerful solid-fuel boosters.
``The solid rocket motors, when they lit off, the noise was like
somebody set off ... dynamite in your backyard,'' Young said. ``It was
pretty awesome vibrational frequencies right at liftoff (but) you could
still read the instruments.
``When you get to orbit ... it's really pretty out the window. It's a
real eye grabber. The machinery just performed flawlessly, it got better
and better the whole flight. We trained for everything you can imagine .
... and none of them happened. So it was really nice.''
The shuttle program has demonstrated that men and women can ``do
things like space construction and science in space and deploy
satellites, big communications satellites, which everybody says in
hindsight was a mistake,'' Young said.
``But we could also do the kinds of things human beings can do best,
which is recovering and repairing big satellites.''
NASA managers now say the shuttle will remain America's premier
manned spacecraft well into the next century, although the agency plans
to develop a new unmanned launch vehicle to carry payloads into orbit
that do not require a human presence in space.
Most agency officials believe another shuttle accident is inevitable
in the long run and they worry about the nation's willingness to
continue despite such a loss.
In the meantime, they can only press ahead.
``The risks of space flight will never go away,'' Kranz said. ``Any
time you've got a human being on top of several million pounds of solid
propellant and one and a half million pounds of oxygen and hydrogen it's
going to be a risky business.''
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From: [email protected] (WILLIAM HARWOOD, UPI Science Writer)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.features,clari.news.aviation
Subject: Mountains of statistics
Date: 2 Apr 91 18:34:10 GMT
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) -- NASA's space shuttle is a
statistician's dream, with more than 30 rocket engines, 228 miles of
wiring, five computers, some 2,000 cockpit instruments, a
seat-belt-equipped toilet and more than 5,000 ounces of gold.
Despite being designed some 20 years ago, the shuttle remains a
state-of-the-art space vehicle with three main engines that generate 37
million horsepower during launch -- the energy equivalent of 23 Hoover
Dams -- using fuel pumps that could drain a swimming pool in just 25
seconds.
But even the powerful main engines are eclipsed by the shuttle's two
14-story-tall, 1.2-million-pound solid-fuel rocket boosters, which
provide 2.6 million pounds of push each at liftoff.
Total thrust at launch is 6,425,000 pounds, enough to accelerate the
4.5-million-pound ship from zero to 70 mph straight up in seven seconds.
While the shuttle has logged just 4 percent of all U.S. launches, it
has carried 40 percent of all the payload mass launched by American
rockets -- 292 satellites and other payloads weighing 545,887 pounds.
Through the end of 1990, 119 different men and women had flown in
space aboard a shuttle, 199 counting astronauts who have flown more than
once. Total man hours in space by shuttle astronauts is 28,688 while
total distance flown is 93,990,298 miles, roughly the same as the Earth
from the sun.
And not all of that time was spent inside the orbiter. Prior to the
shuttle Atlantis's mission this month, and not including classified
military flights, U.S. astronauts had logged 136.66 hours of time spent
outside the shuttle during spacewalks.
Overall, NASA's space shuttles have spent 225 days in space while
covering 3,572 orbits at an average altitude of 217 miles.
In contrast, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs of the 1960s and
early 1970s logged about 327 days in space while covering 3,580 Earth
orbits and another 363 lunar orbits for a total distance flown of 109,
904,139 miles.
The shuttle's five flight computers, which obey software that runs to
500,000 lines of code, are capable of operating in 140 different modes.
In contrast, the Apollo moon ships flew with four computers capable of
just 50 modes.
With the additional computing power and other advances in
electronics, a shuttle crew is confronted with far more raw data than
previous astronauts. Some 2,170 measurements are displayed aboard the
orbiter versus a mere 494 in the Apollo program.
In terms of habitable volume, the shuttle's 1,765.73 cubic feet,
second only to the old Skylab space station, provides far more room to
move about than did the three-man Apollo capsules, which had just 209.76
cubic feet of room, or the lunar landers, which had a cramped 159.97
cubic feet of space.
The shuttle's electrical generators, which combine oxygen and
hydrogen to produce electricity, are 50 pounds lighter than those used
in the Apollo era yet they generate eight times the power.
The total weight of the electronic ``black boxes'' and wiring
connectors aboard the shuttle is 17,116 pounds, with 4,600 pounds of
copper used per shuttle and more than 5,000 troy ounces of gold.
The shuttle Columbia, for example, is loaded with 5,483 troy ounces
of gold with 132 ounces used in the ship's fuel cells and 5,351 ounces
used as insulating film.
In all, more than 228 miles of wiring snakes through the shuttle, an
electronic nervous system made up of 120,400 individual wire segments
and 6,491 connectors. The ship's plumbing consists of 756 valves with an
additional 299 ``quick-disconnect'' fittings.
Each space shuttle measures 122.17 feet long, has a wingspan of 78.06
feet and a vertical stabilizer measuring 26.31 feet tall. Unloaded, the
shuttle weighs close to 200,000 pounds.
Its rust-colored external fuel tank tips the scales at 78,100 pounds
when dry and 1.7 million pounds when loaded with a half-million gallons
of supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel.
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From: [email protected] (United Press International)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.features,clari.news.aviation
Subject: Shuttle firsts impressive
Date: 2 Apr 91 18:34:12 GMT
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In the 10 years since NASA's Space Shuttle first took off on April
12, 1981, America's winged spaceships have amassed an impressive series
of ``firsts.'' Among the highlights:
--April 12, 1981: First flight of Columbia, the first reusable
spaceship; First use of solid-fuel boosters in a manned launch vehicle.
--Nov. 12, 1981: First flight of the shuttle's 50-foot robot arm.
--Nov. 11, 1982: First four-man crew; first satellite launched from a
shuttle (a communications satellite owned by Satellite Business System);
first non-pilot ``mission specialist'' astronauts (William Lenoir, now
NASA's associate administrator for space flight, and Joseph Allen, vice
president of Space Industries Inc. of Houston).
--April 4, 1983: First flight of Challenger.
--April 7, 1983: First shuttle spacewalk (astronauts Story Musgrave
and Donald Peterson); first use of an Inertial Upper Stage booster.
--June 18, 1983: First launch of an American woman (Sally Ride); first
re-flight of a shuttle astronaut (Robert Crippen, now director of the
shuttle program); first satellite release, rendezvous and retrieval.
--Aug. 30, 1983: First black astronaut launched (Guion Bluford); first
night launch of a shuttle; first night shuttle landing (Sept. 5, 1983).
--Nov. 28, 1983: First launch of the European-built Spacelab module;
first of eight foreign payload specialists launched aboard a shuttle
(Ulf Merbold); commander John Young becomes the only person in history
to make six space flights.
--Feb. 3, 1984: First launch of a Buck Rogers-type ``manned
maneuvering unit;'' first satellite payloads to fail after deployment
(Westar-6 and Palapa-B2).
--Feb. 11, 1984: First shuttle landing at the Kennedy Space Center.
--April 6, 1984: Challenger launched on the first satellite repair
mission (Solar Maximum Mission satellite).
--June 26, 1984: First shuttle launch abort when Discovery's three
main engines shut down four seconds before the ship's scheduled maiden liftoff.
--Aug. 30, 1984: First flight of Discovery; first flight of a
commercial payload specialist (Charles Walker, McDonnell Douglas Astronautics
Co.).
--Nov. 12-14, 1984: First retrieval of broken satellites (Westar-6 and
Palapa B-2).
--Jan. 24, 1985: First fully classified military shuttle flight.
--April 12, 1985: First flight of a U.S. senator (Jake Garn, R-Utah).
--April 29, 1985: First flight of research animals aboard a shuttle
(four monkeys, rats).
--July 29, 1985: First in-flight engine failure when one of
Challenger's three main engines shut down five minutes and 45 seconds
after liftoff.
--Oct. 3, 1985: First flight of the shuttle Atlantis.
--Oct. 30, 1985: Largest crew launched aboard a shuttle (8).
--Jan. 12, 1986: First flight of a U.S. congressman (Bill Nelson, D-
Fla.).
--Jan. 28, 1986: First loss of a space shuttle (Challenger) and
American astronauts in flight (7).
--Sept. 29, 1988: Discovery takes off on the first post-Challenger
shuttle flight.
--May 4, 1989: Launch of the Magellan Venus probe, the first
interplanetary spacecraft deployed from a space shuttle.
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From: [email protected] (United Press International)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.features,clari.news.aviation
Subject: Shuttle launch record
Date: 2 Apr 91 18:34:18 GMT
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Ten years after the first flight of a space shuttle, NASA's winged
orbiters have logged 37 successful missions and one failure, for a
success rate of 97.3 percent.
Here is a list of all shuttle missions through the end of 1990, along
with those planned for 1991, and their primary payloads:
_ _1_9_8_1_ _(_2_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)_:
1. April 12-14, 1981. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 2. Payload: Test
equipment.
2. Nov. 12-14, 1981: Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 2. Payload: Test
equipment.
_ _1_9_8_2_ _(_3_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)
3. March 22-30, 1982: Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 2. Payload: Test
equipment and a small science package.
4. June 27-July 4, 1982: Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 2. Payload: Test
equpment, a military experiment package and an experimental drug
production payload.
5. Nov. 11-16, 1982. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 4. Payload: Two
satellites.
_ _1_9_8_3_ _(_4_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)
6. April 4-9, 1983. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 4. Payload: A NASA
satellite.
7. June 18-24, 1983. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 5. Payload: Three
satellites, a science package and the drug production equipment.
8. Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 1983. Shuttle: Challenger: Crew: 5. Payload: One
satellite.
9. Nov. 28-Dec. 8, 1983. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 6. Payload:
Spacelab module.
_ _1_9_8_4_ _(_5_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)_:
10. Feb. 3-11, 1984. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 5. Payload: Two
satellites.
11. April 6-13, 1984. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 5. Payload: One
science satellite. Crew also repaired a broken satellite during two
spacewalks.
12. Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 1984. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 6. Payload:
Three satellites.
13. Oct. 5-13, 1984. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 7. Payload: One
satellite, large format camera, experimental solar cell mast.
14. Nov. 8-16, 1984. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload: Two
satellites. Crew also retrieved two faulty satellites and returned them
to Earth for repairs.
_ _1_9_8_5_ _(_9_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)_:
15. Jan. 24-27, 1985. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload:
Classified military cargo.
16. April 12-19, 1985. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 7. Payload: Two
satellites.
17. April 29-May 6, 1985. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 7. Payload:
Spacelab.
18. June 17-24, 1985. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 7. Payload: Three
satellites.
19. July 29-Aug. 6, 1985. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 7. Payload:
Spacelab equipment.
20. Aug. 27-Sept. 3, 1985. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload:
Three satellites. Crew also repaired a satellite stranded in a useless
orbit.
21. Oct. 3-7, 1985. Shuttle Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload: Classified
military cargo.
22. Oct. 30-Nov. 6, 1985. Shuttle: Challenger. Crew: 8. Payload:
Spacelab.
23. Nov. 26-Dec. 3, 1985. Shuttle Atlantis. Crew: 7. Payload: Three
satellites, space station construction test equipment.
_1_9_8_6_ _(_2_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)_:
24. Jan. 12-18, 1986. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 7. Payload: One
satellite, materials processing equipment.
25. Jan. 28, 1986. Shuttle Challenger. Crew: 7. Payload: Two NASA
satellites. Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after liftoff by a
booster failure.
_ _1_9_8_8_ _(_2_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)_:
26. Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 1988. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5.
Payload: A NASA satellite.
27. Dec. 2-6, 1988. Shuttle: Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload: Classified
military cargo.
_ _1_9_8_9_ _(_5_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)_:
28. March 13-18, 1989. Shuttle Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload: A NASA
satellite.
29. May 4-8, 1989. Shuttle: Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload: The Magellan
Venus probe.
30. Aug. 8-13, 1989. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 5. Payload: Classified
military cargo.
31. Oct. 18-23, 1989. Shuttle: Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload: The
Galileo Jupiter probe.
32. Nov. 22-27, 1989. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload:
Classified military cargo.
_ _1_9_9_0_ _(_6_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_)_:
33. Jan. 9-20, 1990. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 5. Payload: One
satellite; crew also retrieved a NASA science satellite and returned it
to Earth.
34. Feb. 28-March 4, 1990. Shuttle Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload:
Classified military cargo.
35. April 24-29, 1990. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload: Hubble
Space Telescope.
36. Oct. 6-10, 1990. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload: Ulysses
solar probe.
37. Nov. 15-20, 1990. Shuttle: Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload: Classified
military cargo.
38. Dec. 2-11, 1990. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 7. Payload: Astro-1
Spacelab equipment.
_ _1_9_9_1_ _(_6_ _f_l_i_g_h_t_s_
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39. April 5, 1991. Shuttle Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload: Gamma Ray
Observatory.
40. April 25, 1991. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 7. Payload:
Unclassified military experiments.
41. Late May,. 1991. Shuttle: Columbia. Crew: 7. Payload: Spacelab
life sciences module.
42. July 25, 1991. Shuttle: Atlantis. Crew: 5. Payload: A NASA
satellite.
43. Sept. 19, 1991. Shuttle: Discovery. Crew: 5. Payload: Upper
Atmosphere Research Satellite.
44. Nov. 15, 1991: Shuttle: Atlantis. Crew: 6. Payload: Defense
Support Program early warning satellite.
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