Who controls a space shuttle?
Table of Contents
Who controls a space shuttle?
At 25 miles (40 km) out, the shuttle’s landing computers give up control to the commander. The commander flies the shuttle around an imaginary cylinder (18,000 feet or 5,500 m in diameter) to line the orbiter up with the runway and drop the altitude.
How do astronauts control the space shuttle?
It’s all done by computer. There are a handful of manual controls, mostly associated with aborts. On the space shuttle, it was capable of doing all functions to and from orbit by computer control except one, lowering the landing gear. That required crew input.
What powers the space shuttle?
The main engines burn liquid hydrogen — the second coldest liquid on Earth at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 252.8 degrees Celsius) — and liquid oxygen. The engines’ exhaust is primarily water vapor as the hydrogen and oxygen combine.
How do they move the space shuttle?
To load the shuttle onto the jet, NASA uses a giant gantry-like machine called the Mate-Demate device. This contraption uses two 100-foot steel towers with a massive lift beam in between them to hoist the orbiter off the ground.
Who made the space shuttle?
United Space Alliance
| Space Shuttle | |
|---|---|
| Has use | Crewed orbital launch and reentry |
| Manufacturer | United Space Alliance Thiokol/Alliant Techsystems (SRBs) Lockheed Martin/Martin Marietta (ET) Boeing/Rockwell (orbiter) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Project cost | US$211 billion (2012) |
Who controls a space rocket?
Launch Director (LD) The Launch Director is the head of the launch team, and is responsible for making the final “go” or “no go” decision for launch after polling the relevant team members. There have been eight different Space Shuttle launch directors between 1981 and 2011.
How does the space shuttle land?
How Did the Space Shuttle Launch and Land? The space shuttle launched like a rocket. But it landed like a glider airplane. The solid rocket boosters and the main engines on the orbiter helped the shuttle blast off from Earth like a rocket.
Where did they move the Space Shuttle?
It was built by Guard-Lee in Apopka, Florida, installed at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 1993, and moved to Space Center Houston in 2012. It was built using schematics, blueprints and archival documents provided by NASA and by shuttle contractors such as Rockwell International.
Who invented the Space Shuttle?
| Space Shuttle | |
|---|---|
| Has use | Crewed orbital launch and reentry |
| Manufacturer | United Space Alliance Thiokol/Alliant Techsystems (SRBs) Lockheed Martin/Martin Marietta (ET) Boeing/Rockwell (orbiter) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Project cost | US$211 billion (2012) |
Who was the commander of the first shuttle mission?
John Young
The shuttle program was officially referred to as the Space Transportation System (STS), so this flight was STS-1. The mission had a two-person crew: the commander, John Young, a veteran of Gemini and Apollo, and the pilot, Bob Crippen.
Where is the space shuttle?
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
The shuttle is now on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum….Space Shuttle Discovery.
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Preserved at | Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Chantilly, Virginia |
| Space Shuttle orbiters Atlantis → |