Space Shuttle program

The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program,
administered by NASA from 1972 to 2011 and first flown in 1981. Its official name, Space Transportation
System (STS), was taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item
funded for development.

The Space Shuttlecomposed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a
disposable external fuel tankcarried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg)
of payload into low Earth orbit(LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's
atmosphere and land like a glider at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base.

The Shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to have achieved orbit and landing, and the only reusable
manned space vehicle that has ever made multiple flights into orbit (the Russian shuttle Buran was very
similar and was designed to have the same capabilities but made only one unmanned spaceflight before it
was cancelled). Its missions involved carrying large payloads to various orbits (including segments to be
added to the International Space Station (ISS)), providing crew rotation for the space station, and
performing service missions. The orbiter also recovered satellites and other payloads (e.g., from the ISS)
from orbit and returned them to Earth, though its use in this capacity was rare. Each vehicle was designed
with a projected lifespan of 100 launches, or 10 years' operational life, though original selling points on the
shuttles were over 150 launches and over a 15-year operational span with a 'launch per month' expected at
the peak of the program, but extensive delays in the development of the International Space Station never
created such a peak demand for frequent flights.

Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972,
and was the sole focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-
1970s. The Shuttle was originally conceived of and presented to the public in 1972 as a 'Space Truck' which
would, among other things, be used to build a United States space station in low Earth orbit during the
1980s and then be replaced by a new vehicle by the early 1990s. The stalled plans for a U.S. space station
evolved into the International Space Station and were formally initiated in 1983 by U.S. President Ronald
Reagan, but the ISS suffered from long delays, design changes and cost over-runs [2] and forced the service
life of the Space Shuttle to be extended several times until 2011 when it was finally retired serving twice
as long than it was originally designed to do. In 2004, according to the President George W. Bush's Vision
for Space Exploration, use of the Space Shuttle was to be focused almost exclusively on completing
assembly of the ISS, which was far behind schedule at that point.
The first experimental orbiter Enterprise was a high-altitude glider, launched from the back of a specially
modified Boeing 747, only for initial atmospheric landing tests (ALT). Enterprise's first test flight was on
February 18, 1977, only five years after the Shuttle program was formally initiated; leading to the launch of
the first space-worthy shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981 on STS-1. The Space Shuttle program finished
with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011, retiring the final Shuttle in the fleet. The Space
Shuttle program formally ended on August 31, 2011.

Since the Shuttle's retirement, many of its original duties are performed by an assortment of government
and private vessels. The European ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle supplied the ISS between 2008 and
2015. Classified military missions are being flown by the US Air Force's unmanned space plane, the X-37B.
By 2012, cargo to the International Space Station was already being delivered commercially under
NASA's Commercial Resupply Services by SpaceX's partially reusable Dragon spacecraft, followed by Orbital
Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft in late 2013. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the
Russian Soyuz while work on the Commercial Crew Development program proceeds. For missions
beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft.

Orbiter

The Space Shuttle orbiter was the reusable space plane component of the Space Shuttle program.
Operated by NASA, the U.S. space agency, this vehicle could carry astronauts and payloads into low Earth
orbit, perform in-space operations, then re-enter the atmosphere and land as a glider, returning its crew
and any on-board payload to the Earth.

Six orbiters were built for flight: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. All
were built in Palmdale, California, by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rockwell International company.
The first orbiter, Enterprise, made its maiden flight in 1977. An unpowered glider, it was carried by a
modified Boeing 747airliner called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and released for a series of atmospheric test
flights and landings. Enterprise was partially disassembled and retired after completion of critical testing.
The remaining orbiters were fully operational spacecraft, and were launched vertically as part of the Space
Shuttle stack.

Columbia was the first space-worthy orbiter, and made its inaugural flight in 1981. Challenger, Discovery,
and Atlantis followed in 1983, 1984 and 1985 respectively. In 1986, Challenger was destroyed in an
accident shortly after launch. Endeavour was built as Challenger's replacement, and was first launched in
1992. In 2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry, leaving just three remaining
orbiters. Discovery completed its final flight on March 9, 2011, and Endeavour completed its final flight on
June 1, 2011. Atlantis completed the last ever Shuttle flight, STS-135, on July 21, 2011.

In addition to their crews and payloads, the reusable orbiter carried most of the Space Shuttle
System's liquid-fueled rocket propulsion system, but both the liquid hydrogen fuel and the liquid
oxygen oxidizerfor its three main rocket engines were fed from an external cryogenic propellant tank.
Additionally, two reusable solid rocket boosters provided additional thrust for approximately the first two
minutes of launch. The orbiters themselves did carry hypergolic propellants for their RCS thrusters and
Orbital Maneuvering System engines.

Attitude control system

Space Shuttle forward reaction control thrusters

The Space Shuttle orbiter resembled an airplane in its design, with a standard-looking fuselage and
two double delta wings, both swept wings at an angle of 81 degrees at their inner leading edges and 45
degrees at their outer leading edges. The vertical stabilizer of the orbiter had a leading edge that was swept
back at a 45-degree angle. There were four elevons mounted at the trailing edges of the delta wings, and
the combination rudder and speed brake was attached at the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer. These,
along with a movable body flap located underneath the main engines, controlled the orbiter during later
stages of descent through the atmosphere and landing.

Overall, the Space Shuttle orbiter was roughly the same size as a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 airliner.

The Reaction Control System (RCS) was composed of 44 small liquid-fueled rocket thrusters and their very
sophisticated fly-by-wire flight control system, which utilized computationally intensive digital Kalman
filtering. This control system carried out the usual attitude control along the pitch, roll, and yaw axes during
all of the flight phases of launching, orbiting, and re-entry. This system also executed any needed orbital
maneuvers, including all changes in the orbit's altitude, orbital plane, and eccentricity. These were all
operations that required a lot more power and energy than mere attitude control.

The forward rockets of the Reaction Control System, located near the nose of the Space Shuttle orbiter,
included 14 primary and two vernier RCS rockets. The aft RCS engines were located in the two Orbital
Maneuvering System (OMS) pods at the rear of the orbiter, and these included 12 primary (PRCS) and two
vernier (VRCS) engines in each pod. The PRCS system provided the pointing control of the Orbiter, and the
VRCS was used for fine maneuvering during the rendezvous, docking, and undocking maneuvers with
the International Space Station, or formerly with the Russian Mir space station. The RCS also controlled the
attitude of the orbiter during most of its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere until the air became dense
enough that the rudder, elevons and body flap became effective.

During the early design process of the orbiter, the forward RCS thrusters were to be hidden underneath
retractable doors, which would open once the orbiter reached space. These were omitted in favor of flush-
mounted thrusters for fear that the RCS doors would remain stuck open and endanger the crew and orbiter
during re-entry.
 Pressurized cabin

Space Shuttle glass cockpit

The orbiter crew cabin consisted of three levels: the flight deck, the mid-deck, and the utility area. The
uppermost of these was the flight deck, in which sat the Space Shuttle's commander and pilot, with up to
two mission specialists seated behind them. The mid-deck, which was below the flight deck, had three
more seats for the rest of the crew members.

The galley, toilet, sleep locations, storage lockers, and the side hatch for entering and exiting the orbiter
were also located on the mid-deck, as well as the airlock. The airlock had an additional hatch into the
payload bay. This airlock allowed two or three astronauts, wearing their Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU)
space suits, to depressurize before a walk in space (EVA), and also to repressurize and re-enter the orbiter
at the conclusion of the EVA.

The utility area was located under the floor of the mid-deck and contained air and water tanks in addition
to the carbon dioxide scrubbing system.

Propulsion

Atlantis's main engines during launch

Three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) were mounted on the orbiter's aft fuselage in the pattern of
an equilateral triangle. These three liquid-fueled engines could be swiveled 10.5 degrees vertically and 8.5
degrees horizontally during the rocket-powered ascent of the orbiter in order to change the direction of
their thrust. Hence, they steered the entire Space Shuttle, as well as providing rocket thrust towards orbit.
The aft fuselage also housed three auxiliary power units(APU). The APUs chemically
converted hydrazine fuel from a liquid state to a gas state, powering a hydraulic pump which supplied
pressure for all of the hydraulic system, including the hydraulic sub-system that pointed the three main
liquid-fueled rocket engines, under computerized flight control. The hydraulic pressure generated was also
used to control all of the orbiter's "flight control surfaces" (the elevons, rudder, speed brake, etc.), to
deploy the landing gear of the orbiter, and to retract the umbilical hose connection doors located near the
rear landing gear, which supplied the orbiter's SSMEs with liquid hydrogen and oxygen from the external
tank.
Two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) thrusters were mounted in two separate removable pods on the
orbiter's aft fuselage, located between the SSMEs and the vertical stabilizer. The OMS engines provided
significant thrust for coarse orbital maneuvers, including insertion, circularization, transfer, rendezvous,
deorbit, abort to orbit, and to abort once around. At lift-off, two solid rocket boosters(SRBs) were used to
take the vehicle to an altitude of roughly 140,000 feet.

Solid Rocket Boosters

The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) were the first solid fuel motors to be used for primary
propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight and provided the majority of the Space Shuttle's thrust
during the first two minutes of flight. After burnout, they were jettisoned and parachuted into the Atlantic
Ocean where they were recovered, examined, refurbished, and reused.

The SRBs were the most powerful rocket motors ever flown. Each provided a maximum 13,800 kN
(3,100,000 lbf) thrust, roughly double the most powerful single-combustion chamber liquid-propellant
rocketengine ever flown, the Rocketdyne F-1. With a combined mass of about 1,180,000 kg (2,600,000 lb),
they comprised over half the mass of the Shuttle stack at liftoff. The motor segments of the SRBs were
manufactured by Thiokol of Brigham City, Utah, which was later purchased by ATK. The prime contractor
for most other components of the SRBs, as well as for the integration of all the components and retrieval of
the spent SRBs, was USBI, a subsidiary of Pratt and Whitney. This contract was subsequently transitioned
to United Space Alliance, a limited liability company joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Out of 270 SRBs launched over the Shuttle program, all but four were recovered those from STS-4 (due to
a parachute malfunction) and STS-51-L (Challenger disaster). Over 5,000 parts were refurbished for reuse
after each flight. The final set of SRBs that launched STS-135 included parts that flew on 59 previous
missions, including STS-1. Recovery also allowed post-flight examination of the boosters, identification of
anomalies, and incremental design improvements.
 External Tank

A 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 Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) in the orbiter. The ET was
jettisoned just over 10 seconds after MECO (Main Engine Cut Off), where the SSMEs were shut down, and
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.