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The US Space Shuttle An Aging Transport Vehicle
Washington (AFP) Jun 30, 2006 The Space Shuttle Discovery lifting off Saturday in Cape Canaveral, Florida, has the ability to fly both astronauts and heavy payload into space. The shuttle fleet, which will be retired in 2010, took off for the first time from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 12, 1981. In 114 missions, the Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour shuttles have taken 607 men and women into space. The fleet has also worked like a space truck, carrying 1,500 tonnes of equipment to help build the first space telescope, Hubble, and the International Space Station. Made up of two million parts carefully put together by engineers, the shuttle has shown in tragic images seen around the world that it can be a fragile spacecraft. The Challenger shuttle exploded during liftoff on January 28, 1986. Columbia broke apart as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003. Fourteen astronauts were killed in total. The orbiter has room for three astronauts in its cockpit and five others in the bridge. It also has plenty of space in its 18-meter (59-foot) long, 4.6-meter (15-foot) wide cargo bay to carry equipment. The shuttle is placed in a vertical position for liftoff with an external fuel tank flanked by two rocket boosters. The spacecraft takes off with three engines fueled by a mix of liquid oxygen and hydrogen stored in the external tank, and a strong push from the two rockets. The rockets, which furnish 83 percent of the power, separate 45,700 meters (28 miles) above earth about two minutes into liftoff and parachute down into the ocean to be used again. The external fuel tank splits from the shuttle once in orbit about eight minutes after the launch and disintegrates in Earth's atmosphere. During re-entry in Earth, the shuttle glides all the way to landing. NASA plans to replace the shuttle fleet with a Crew Exploration Vehicle by 2014.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links -
Weather Doubts Remain Over Discovery Launch
Cape Canaveral, Florida (AFP) Jun 29, 2006NASA said Thursday that bad weather remained a threat to the scheduled launch this Saturday of the Discovery shuttle. While the US space agency said it was technically ready for a blastoff, NASA meteorologist Kathy Winters told a press briefing there was a 60 percent chance that storms and rainfall around the Cape Canaveral launchpad would force a delay. |
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