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STS-93 Patch
STS-93 in 1999 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of ''Columbia'', and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight. Its primary payload was the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It would also be the last mission of ''Columbia'' until March 2002. During the interim, ''Columbia'' would be out of service for upgrading, and would not fly again until STS-109. The launch was originally scheduled for 20 July but the launch was aborted at T−7 seconds. The successful launch of the flight occurred 3 days later. The payload was also the heaviest payload ever carried by the Space Shuttle system, at over 22.7 tonnes (25 tons). Crew Problems during ascent During the main engine ignition sequence, a gold pin used to plug an oxidizer post in the Space Shuttle's number three (right) engine came loose and was violently ejected, striking the engine nozzle's inner surface and tearing open three cooling tube ... [...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] |
Payload
Payload is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of the flight or mission, the payload of a vehicle may include cargo, passengers, flight crew, munitions, scientific instruments or experiments, or other equipment. Extra fuel, when optionally carried, is also considered part of the payload. In a commercial context (i.e., an airline or air freight carrier), payload may refer only to revenue-generating cargo or paying passengers. A payload of ordnance carried by a combat aircraft is sometimes alternatively referred to as the aircraft's warload. For a rocket, the payload can be a satellite, space probe, or spacecraft carrying humans, animals, or cargo. For a ballistic missile, the payload is one or more warheads and related systems; their total weight is referred to as the throw-weight. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eileen Collins (S93-E-5033, 1999-07-24)
Eileen Marie Collins (born 19 November 1956) is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Air Force (USAF) colonel. A former flight instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and the first to command a Space Shuttle mission. A graduate of Corning Community College, where she earned an associate degree in mathematics in 1976, and Syracuse University, where she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics in 1978, Collins was commissioned as an officer in the USAF through Syracuse's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. She was one of four women chosen for Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. After earning her pilot wings, she stayed on at Vance for three years as a T-38 Talon instructor pilot before transitioning to the C-141 Starlifter at Travis Air Force Base, California. During the American invasion of Grenada in October 1983, her aircraft flew troops of the 82nd Ai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EarthKAM
Sally Ride EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA educational outreach program started in 1996. The program was initiated by JoBea Way Holt, an Earth scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and was initially named KidSat. It allowed students to direct a digital camera aboard a series of space shuttle flights to take photographs of specific places on Earth. In 1998, KidSat was co-opted Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and renamed EarthKAM. Dr. Ride directed the installation of camera equipment on the International Space Station (ISS), where it became a permanent fixture independent of shuttle flights. During KidSat and EarthKAM missions (periods during which the program camera is operational), middle school students around the world can submit requests to capture photographs of specific locations. There are typically four missions a year. Students’ requests are relayed to a camera on the ISS. The camera then images the desi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz ( to ) and energies in the range 145 eV to 124 keV. X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays. In many languages, X-radiation is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it on November 8, 1895. He named it ''X-radiation'' to signify an unknown type of radiation.Novelline, Robert (1997). ''Squire's Fundamentals of Radiology''. Harvard University Press. 5th edition. . Spellings of ''X-ray(s)'' in English include the variants ''x-ray(s)'', ''xray(s)'', and ''X ray(s)''. The most familiar use of X-rays is checking for fractures (broken bones), but X-rays are also used in other ways. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inertial Upper Stage
The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), originally designated the Interim Upper Stage, was a two-stage, solid-fueled space launch system developed by Boeing for the United States Air Force beginning in 1976 for raising payloads from low Earth orbit to higher orbits or interplanetary trajectories following launch aboard a Titan 34D or Titan IV rocket as its upper stage, or from the payload bay of the Space Shuttle as a space tug. Development During the development of the Space Shuttle, NASA, with support from the Air Force, wanted an upper stage that could be used on the Shuttle to deliver payloads from low earth orbit to higher energy orbits such as GTO or GEO or to escape velocity for planetary probes. The candidates were the Centaur, propelled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the Transtage, propelled by hypergolic storable propellants Aerozine-50 and , and the Interim Upper Stage, using solid propellant. The DOD reported that Transtage could support all defense needs, but could ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STS-93 Launch
STS-93 in 1999 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of ''Columbia'', and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight. Its primary payload was the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It would also be the last mission of ''Columbia'' until March 2002. During the interim, ''Columbia'' would be out of service for upgrading, and would not fly again until STS-109. The launch was originally scheduled for 20 July but the launch was aborted at T−7 seconds. The successful launch of the flight occurred 3 days later. The payload was also the heaviest payload ever carried by the Space Shuttle system, at over 22.7 tonnes (25 tons). Crew Problems during ascent During the main engine ignition sequence, a gold pin used to plug an oxidizer post in the Space Shuttle's number three (right) engine came loose and was violently ejected, striking the engine nozzle's inner surface and tearing open three cooling tube ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
External Tank
The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the three RS-25 main engines in the orbiter. The ET was jettisoned just over 10 seconds after main engine cut-off (MECO) and it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. Unlike the Solid Rocket Boosters, external tanks were not re-used. They broke up before impact in the Indian Ocean (or Pacific Ocean in the case of direct-insertion launch trajectories), away from shipping lanes and were not recovered. Overview The ET was the largest element of the Space Shuttle, and when loaded, it was also the heaviest. It consisted of three major components: * the forward liquid oxygen (LOX) tank * an unpressurized intertank that contains most of the electrical components * the aft liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank; this was the largest part, but it was relatively ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Abort Modes
Space Shuttle abort modes were procedures by which the nominal launch of the NASA Space Shuttle could be terminated. A pad abort occurred after ignition of the shuttle's main engines but prior to liftoff. An abort during ascent that would result in the orbiter returning to a runway or to an orbit lower than planned was called an "intact abort", while an abort in which the orbiter would be unable to reach a runway, or any abort involving the failure of more than one main engine, was called a "contingency abort". Crew bailout was still possible in some situations in which the orbiter could not land on a runway. Redundant set launch sequencer abort The three Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were ignited roughly 6.6 seconds before liftoff, and computers monitored their performance as they increased thrust. If an anomaly was detected, the engines would be shut down automatically and the countdown terminated before ignition of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) at T = 0 seconds. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RS-25
The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is currently used on the Space Launch System (SLS). Designed and manufactured in the United States by Rocketdyne (later Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Aerojet Rocketdyne), the RS-25 burns Cryogenic fuel, cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, with each engine producing thrust at liftoff. Although RS-25 heritage traces back to the 1960s, its concerted development began in the 1970s with the first flight, STS-1, on April 12, 1981. The RS-25 has undergone upgrades over its operational history to improve the engine's reliability, safety, and maintenance load. The engine produces a specific impulse (''I''sp) of in a vacuum, or at sea level, has a mass of approximately , and is capable of throttling between 67% and 109% of its #Engine throttle/output, rated power level in one-percent increments. Com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxidizing Agent
An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or "Electron acceptor, accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In other words, an oxidizer is any substance that oxidizes another substance. The oxidation state, which describes the degree of loss of electrons, of the oxidizer decreases while that of the reductant increases; this is expressed by saying that oxidizers "undergo reduction" and "are reduced" while reducers "undergo oxidation" and "are oxidized". Common oxidizing agents are oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and the halogens. In one sense, an oxidizing agent is a chemical species that undergoes a chemical reaction in which it gains one or more electrons. In that sense, it is one component in an Redox, oxidation–reduction (redox) reaction. In the second sense, an oxidizing agent is a chemical species that transfers electronegative atoms, usually oxygen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STS-93 SSME Hydrogen Coolant Nozzle Leak At Liftoff
STS-93 in 1999 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of ''Columbia'', and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight. Its primary payload was the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It would also be the last mission of ''Columbia'' until March 2002. During the interim, ''Columbia'' would be out of service for upgrading, and would not fly again until STS-109. The launch was originally scheduled for 20 July but the launch was aborted at T−7 seconds. The successful launch of the flight occurred 3 days later. The payload was also the heaviest payload ever carried by the Space Shuttle system, at over 22.7 tonnes (25 tons). Crew Problems during ascent During the main engine ignition sequence, a gold pin used to plug an oxidizer post in the Space Shuttle's number three (right) engine came loose and was violently ejected, striking the engine nozzle's inner surface and tearing open three cooling tube ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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