Space Shuttle Fun Facts

The Space Shuttle was internally known as the Space Transportation System (or STS) and is why all the shuttle missions were denoted as STS-XX. The origins of the Space Transportation System was rooted to a series of vehicles and spacecraft that in unison could make spaceflight of all sorts easier and cheaper. Sadly the only concepts to make it to light was the Space Shuttle and the earth orbiting space station.

The space shuttle’s main engine was the RS-25. An engine that is fueled by a mixture of fuel called hydrolox (liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen) which is stored in the external fuel tank. The engine produces 512,300 pounds of thrust in space (2,279 kN) and produces 418,000 lbf (1,860 kN) at sea level. The engine was also capable of being reused and also boasted the ability to adjust the thrust it produced and it was capable of an impressive 10.5° degrees of gimbal (changing the angle of thrust).

The space shuttle launch stack stands at 56.1 m (184.2 ft) tall with the highest portion being the external tank. With the orbiter having a wingspan of 23.7m (78ft).

Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102 (OV, Orbiter Vehicle)) flew 28 flights, with the second made orbiter being Challenger (OV-99) which flew 10 flights. The third orbiter to be created was orbiter Discovery (OV-103) which flew the record 38 flights. Followed by Atlantis (OV-104) which flew 32 flights followed lastly by Endeavour (OV-105) which flew 24 flights.

The only vehicle to fly but never be launched was orbiter Enterprise (OV-101). It was built to test the aerodynamic model of the space shuttle. It was even mated to the external tank for structural mating tests. After the Challenger disaster, NASA considered repurposing Enterprise for spaceflight however it was found to be more costly to modify it than to remake a new orbiter. Which they did to make orbiter Endeavour.

Although coming in various sizes (and painted white for STS-1 and STS-2), the external tank could carry around The external tank held 143,000 gallons (541313.885 liters) of liquid oxygen and 383,000 gallons (1449812.71 liters) of liquid hydrogen

The space shuttle being America’s longest lasting space program to date. Lasting 30 years from 1981 to 2011. Whereas Apollo lasted 7 years from 1968 (Apollo 7) to 1975 (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project). The Gemini project lasting one year and Mercury Program lasting 2 years from 1961 (Freedom 7) to 1963 (Faith 7).

To achieve orbital speeds, the space shuttle’s main engines have to accelerate the orbiter to 17,500mph or approximately 8 kilometers per second to orbit the Earth. Initially during launch the orbiter’s three main engines are not capable of lifting itself as the external tank is too heavy, so to get enough thrust, the space shuttle uses two solid rocket motors to assist until the external tank is emptied enough to a point where it’s light enough for the orbiter to continue carrying it into orbit.

When the space shuttle de-orbits, it encounters the atmosphere at approximately 17,000mph. At such high speeds the orbiter passing through the air creates heat through friction in a process known as ‘re-entry’. To protect against the heat of re-entry, the orbiters bottom is covered with silica tiles and the leading edges of the wings are protected by carbon carbon panels.

The sound of Launch is to loud that the air pressure generated from it can travel up to a mile from the launchpad and impact nearby structures and objects and reflect the sound back at the orbiter and launch pad and cause structural damage. To muffle the sound, NASA implemented a series of water jets under the main engines to absorb the air pressure and minimize the damage it can cause.

Because the hydrogen and oxygen fuel must be stored at sun-zero temperatures (as cryogenic fuels) any boil-off from the external tank can cause a fire (or worse an explosion) as the hydrogen is highly flammable (as is seen in the Hindenburg disaster). So to burn off any excess fuel vapor around the rocket, NASA has a series of sparklers to passively burn it off. Some think those sparklers are needed for the ignition of the RS-25s, which is false as the ignition process is contained within the engine system and is not viewable from the outside.

Once the external tank is jettisoned in space, the three large space shuttle main engines no longer have any fuel to function on. So to adjust its course in space, the orbiter uses two Monomethylhydrazine (MMH)/Dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4), AJ-10 engines. These requiring no oxygen (as it’s a byproduct of combustion) and can be ignited many times during a mission making it apt for orbital missions.

Despite being a glider on its return to landing, unlike traditional Manned gliders like the Glaser-Dirks DG-808, which descends at approximately 0.5m/s (100ft/s), the Space Shuttle descends closer to 3,000m/m (10,000ft/m), or at the same speed as a skydiver at free-fall. This is done so the space shuttle can conserve speed for landing.

The space shuttle carried many ethnicities into space along with it. Of them are, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and even Russia (post USSR).

*Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Tax