Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
English: A diagram showing the payload bay configuration for STS-107, the twenty-eighth and final flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102). In view (from left to right) are the SPACEHAB access tunnel, the SPACEHAB Research Double Module, the FREESTAR and OARE experiments (mounted to a Hitchhiker Multipurpose Equipment Support Structure), and the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) pallet.
The combined space station and Air Force payload requirements were not sufficient to reach desired shuttle launch rates. Therefore, the plan was for all future U.S. space launches—space stations, Air Force, commercial satellites, and scientific research—to use only the Space Shuttle.
The satellite designs also required that the Space Shuttle have a 4.6 by 18 m (15 by 60 ft) payload bay. NASA evaluated the F-1 and J-2 engines from the Saturn rockets , and determined that they were insufficient for the requirements of the Space Shuttle; in July 1971, it issued a contract to Rocketdyne to begin development on the RS-25 engine.
During the NSTS era, payloads typically arrived in the Shuttle's Payload Bay. During grapple, the SRMS' joints were "limped", allowing it to conform its posture to the exact location of the payload. The SSRMS typically grapples a free-flying payload that has maneuvered itself to maintain a constant distance and orientation with respect to the ISS.
The mission lasted a total of 6 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 51 seconds. STS-61-C was the last successful Space Shuttle flight before the Challenger disaster, which occurred on January 28, 1986, only 10 days after Columbia ' s return. Accordingly, commander Gibson later called the STS-61-C mission "The End of Innocence" for the Shuttle Program ...
A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) is a large pressurized container that was used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initially berthed to the Unity and later the Harmony module on the ISS. Once attached, supplies were ...
When the Space Shuttle flew the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLMs) to the station, the MPLM would be temporarily berthed to the nadir mechanism of Harmony. [28] The Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle and the American Commercial Resupply Service (COTS) vehicles, Dragon and Cygnus , are temporarily berthed to either the nadir or zenith mechanism.
The Space Shuttle flight software that monitors and controls the Canadarm was developed in Houston, Texas, by the Federal Systems Division of IBM. Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division designed, developed, tested, and built the systems used to attach the Canadarm to the payload bay of the orbiter.