NASA STS-1 First Space Shuttle Mission Press Kit: Columbia's First Flight Shakes Down Space Transportation System (English Edition) [Print Replica] [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

The first space shuttle mission is described. Topics include launch preparations, flight profile, trajectory, and landing operations. The spaceflight tracking and data network is discussed and the photography and television schedules are included. From the Introduction: The Space Shuttle Orbiter Columbia, first in a planned fleet of spacecraft in the nation's Space Transportation System, will liftoff on its first orbital shakedown fright in April 1981. Launch will be no earlier than 45 minutes after sunrise from the NASA Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A. Crew for the first orbital flight will be John W. Young, commander, veteran of two Gemini and two Apollo space flights, and U.S. Navy Capt. Robert L. Crippen, pilot. Crippen has not flown in space. Columbia will have no payloads in the payload bay on this first orbital flight, but will carry instrumentation for measuring orbiter systems performance in space and during its glide through the atmosphere to a landing after 54 1/2 hours. Extensive testing of orbiter systems, including the space radiators and other heat rejection systems, fills most of the STS-1 mission timeline. The clamshell-like doors on Columbia's 4.6 by 18-meter (15 by 60-foot) payload bay will be opened and closed twice during the flight for testing door actuators and latch mechanisms in the space environment. Other tests will measure performance of maneuvering and attitude thrusters, the Columbia's computer array and avionics "black boxes," and, during entry, silica-tile heatshield temperatures. The first of four engineering test flights, STS-1, will be launched into a 40.3 degree inclination orbit circularized first at 241 kilometers (130 nautical miles) and later boosted to 278 km (150 nm). Columbia will be used in these four test flights in proving the combined booster and orbiter combination before the Space Transportation System becomes operational with STS-5, now forecast for launch in September 1982. After "tower clear" the launch team in the Kennedy Space Center Firing Room will hand over STS-1 control to flight controllers in the Mission Control Center, Houston, for the remainder of the flight. 66 pages, dozens of photographs, drawings, illustrations and charts. This is a Print Replica that maintains the formatting and layout of the original edition and offers many of the advantages of standard Kindle books.