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SPAS-II
STS-39 was the twelfth mission of the NASA Space Shuttle ''Discovery'', and the 40th orbital shuttle mission overall. The primary purpose of the mission was to conduct a variety of payload experiments for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Crew Crew seating arrangements Mission highlights Launch was originally scheduled for March 9, 1991, but during processing work at Pad LC-39A, significant cracks were found on all four lug hinges on the two external tank umbilical door drive mechanisms. NASA managers opted to roll back the vehicle to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on March 7, 1991, and then to Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) for repair. The faulty hinges were replaced with units taken from orbiter ''Columbia'', and reinforced. ''Discovery'' was returned to the pad on April 1, 1991, and the launch was rescheduled for April 23. The mission was again postponed when, during prelaunch external tank loading, a transducer on high-pressure oxidizer turbopum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuttle Pallet Satellite
The shuttle pallet satellite was a satellite bus designed to be deployed and then retrieved for return to Earth on NASA's Space Shuttle. It carried a variety of payloads both scientific and military in nature. It was made by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm and first flew in 1983. It was carried for the first time during the STS-7 mission and called SPAS-01 carrying 10 payloads. It flew again on the STS-39 mission in 1991 called IBSS-SPAS (Infrared Background Signature Survey – Shuttle Palette Satellite) for the DOD testing various ballistic missile detection sensors. SPAS flew for the third time with the STS-51 mission in 1991 called ORFEUS-SPAS (Orbiting & Retrievable Far & Extreme UV Spectrometer – Shuttle Palette Satellite) with ultraviolet instruments. ORFEUS-SPAS was flown again on the STS-80 mission. SPAS was flown for the second to last time with the CRISTA-SPAS (Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers & Telescopes for the Atmosphere – Shuttle Palette Satellit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Coats
Michael Lloyd Coats (born January 16, 1946) is a former NASA astronaut (three spaceflights), raised in Riverside, California. From December 2005 to December 2012, he served as Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Early life and education Coats was born January 16, 1946, in Sacramento, California. He was raised in Riverside, California, and graduated from Ramona High School in 1964. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1968, a Master of Science degree in Administration of Science and Technology from George Washington University in 1977, and a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1979.https://www.epnaao.com/BIOS_files/1-REGULAR%20MEMBERS-195/Coats-%20Michael%20L%20(2).pdf Organizations *Member, Society of Experimental Test Pilots; *Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Honors Coats was awarded the Defense Superior Service Med ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guion Bluford
Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (born November 22, 1942) is an American aerospace engineer, retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut in which capacity he became the second person of African descent to go to space. While assigned to NASA, he remained a USAF officer rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter ''Challenger'' on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second person of African descent in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. Personal life Born in Philadelphia, Bluford graduated from Overbrook High School in 1960. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1964, a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1974, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Transportation System
The Space Transportation System (STS), also known internally to NASA as the Integrated Program Plan (IPP), was a proposed system of reusable crewed space vehicles envisioned in 1969 to support extended operations beyond the Apollo program. (NASA appropriated the name for its Space Shuttle Program, the only component of the proposal to survive Congressional funding approval). The purpose of the system was two-fold: to reduce the cost of spaceflight by replacing the current method of launching capsules on expendable rockets with reusable spacecraft; and to support ambitious follow-on programs including permanent orbiting space stations around Earth and the Moon, and a human landing mission to Mars. In February 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed a Space Task Group headed by Vice President Spiro Agnew to recommend human space projects beyond Apollo. The group responded in September with the outline of the STS, and three different program levels of effort culminating with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AFP-675
AFP-675 (Air Force Program-675) was a Space Shuttle experiment package that was carried into orbit on '' Discovery'' as part of STS-39. AFP-675 consisted of six experiment packages mounted on a pallet in the ''Discovery's'' cargo bay. The total weight of the package was 5,080 kilograms (11,200 lb). The objectives of the project were: # To obtain data in several wavelength regions to support the development of Department of Defense (DOD) systems # To validate technologies for DOD applications # To validate the use of man as an autonomous experimenter in space # To demonstrate the cost effectiveness of performing DOD experiments on reusable systems. The experiments Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle The Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle (CIRRIS 1A) experiment was designed to measure the spectral, spatial, and temporal properties of the Earth's limb (edge). The primary instruments in this experiment were a Michelson spatial inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small portion of westernmost Brazil in South America, along with certain Caribbean and Atlantic islands. Places that use: * Eastern Standard Time (EST), when observing standard time (autumn/winter), are five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−05:00). * Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), when observing daylight saving time (spring/summer), are four hours behind Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−04:00). On the second Sunday in March, at 2:00 a.m. EST, clocks are advanced to 3:00 a.m. EDT leaving a one-hour "gap". On the first Sunday in November, at 2:00 a.m. EDT, clocks are moved back to 1:00 a.m. EST, thus "duplicating" one hour. Southern parts of the zone (Panama and the Caribbean) do not observe daylight saving time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transducer
A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another. Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, measurement, and control systems, where electrical signals are converted to and from other physical quantities (energy, force, torque, light, motion, position, etc.). The process of converting one form of energy to another is known as transduction. Types * Mechanical transducers, so-called as they convert physical quantities into mechanical outputs or vice versa; * Electrical transducers however convert physical quantities into electrical outputs or signals. Examples of these are: ** a thermocouple that changes temperature differences into a small voltage; ** a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT), used to measure displacement (position) changes by means of electrical signals. Sensors, actuators and transceivers Transducers can be categorized by wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the Columbia Rediviva, first American ship to circumnavigate the upper North American Pacific coast and the Columbia (personification), female personification of the United States, ''Columbia'' was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle launch vehicle on STS-1, its maiden flight in April 1981. As only the second full-scale orbiter to be manufactured after the Approach and Landing Tests, Approach and Landing Test vehicle ''Space Shuttle Enterprise, Enterprise'', ''Columbia'' retained unique features indicative of its experimental design compared to later orbiters, such as test instrumentation and distinctive black Chine (aeronautics), chines. In addition to a heavier fuselage and the retention of an internal airlock throughout its lifetime, these made ''Columbia'' the heaviest of the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orbiter Processing Facility
Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) is a class of hangars where U.S. Space Shuttle orbiters underwent maintenance between flights. They are located west of the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the orbiter was mated with its External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters before transport to the launch pad. OPF-1 and OPF-2 are connected with a low bay between them, while OPF-3 is across the street. OPF-3 was previously called the Orbiter Maintenance & Refurbishment Facility (OMRF), but was upgraded to a fully functioning OPF. Processing flow When a Shuttle mission was completed, the orbiter was towed from the Shuttle Landing Facility to its assigned OPF where it spent several months (typically less than 100 days) being prepared for the next mission. Any remaining payloads from the previous mission were removed and the vehicle was fully inspected, tested, and refurbished. * The orbiter's main engines were purged to remove the moisture that was a by-product of liquid oxygen and liquid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vehicle Assembly Building
The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V and the Space Shuttle, and stacking (rocketry), stack them vertically onto one of three mobile launcher platforms used by NASA. As of March 2022, the first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket was assembled inside in preparation for the Artemis 1 mission, which launched on November 16, 2022. At , it is the List of largest buildings in the world, eighth-largest building in the world by volume as of 2022. The building is at Launch Complex 39 at KSC, south of Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville, north of Miami, Florida, Miami, and due east of Orlando, Florida, Orlando, on Merritt Island, Florida, Merritt Island on the Atlantic coast of Florida. The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world, was the tallest building () in Florida until 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Seating Plan
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe. However, disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework. Debates concerning the nature, essence and the mode of existence of space date back to antiquity; namely, to treatises like the ''Timaeus'' of Plato, or Socrates in his reflections on what the Greeks called ''khôra'' (i.e. "space"), or in the ''Physics'' of Aristotle (Book IV, Delta) in the definition of ''topos'' (i.e. place), or in the later "geometrical conception of place" as "space ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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