All Questions
Tagged with nasaspace-shuttle
60 questions
1vote
0answers
131views
How many of the heat shield tiles on Atlantis and Endeavour are original?
Original in this context means heat shield tiles that were never replaced. From my answer to Are there any original heat shield tiles on any of the retired space shuttles that flew to space?, 75% of ...
4votes
1answer
299views
Unable to find Incident Report for aborted launch of first Shuttle flight
There is an amazingly well writen report on the aborted launch of the first(?) shuttle because the computers did not sync up. I remember reading this report and it being fascinating and prescient ...
- 143
23votes
5answers
11kviews
What is SpaceX doing differently with their Falcon 9 so that it doesn't cost as much as the Space Shuttle?
SpaceX has been launching and reusing their Falcon 9 for very cheaply quite often. Even though it is quite revolutionary, it is isn't the first time a rocket has been reused. The Space Shuttle side ...
user47291
10votes
2answers
2kviews
How were the control surfaces of the Space Shuttle designed to withstand the forces of reentry?
Perhaps the most critical part of the Shuttle's flight is the communications blackout phase of reentry, when atmospheric plasma is directly interacting with the vehicle's heat shield. As I understand ...
19votes
1answer
2kviews
What is the orange material seen within the window frames of the Columbia Shuttle?
I'm seeing this orange material within the windows of Columbia shuttles -- any thoughts on its precise function? The ISS's Cupola also contains similar international orange bands, though they seem ...
1vote
1answer
347views
What if both SRBs failed in a shuttle launch?
I'm certain there are several flight regimes where this could happen, and that the procedures should be different for each one. For instance, this is a very different question before lift off than it ...
6votes
1answer
4kviews
How did pages of Ramon's diary survive the Columbia disaster?
In early 2003, the space shuttle Columbia burnt up due to a failed leading edge on the wing from an external tank foam strike. All seven astronauts were killed. Yet, some pages of Ilan Ramon's diary, ...
1vote
0answers
97views
Does anybody have a contact for the Docents for the Space Shuttles? [closed]
I would like to pass along the following information to the Docents for Enterprise (Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York) and Endeavour (Los Angeles Science Center). Documents describing ...
- 921
4votes
1answer
2kviews
Why isn't NASA planning on saving some of the RS-25Ds due to their historical significance?
A while ago, Scott Manley made a video about the Artemis program and how NASA will expend all its Block II RS-25D engines through the SLS's first four launches. Why isn't NASA planning on putting some ...
- 3,137
1vote
0answers
82views
Who's buried in Grant's Tomb? Size of 122 cm conductive spheres charge collection in the Shuttle's Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators?
Why were the three 122-cm diameter conductive spheres for charge collection in the Shuttle's Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators black? links to How did three 1.2 meter spheres and a Xe+ ...
- 153k
1vote
1answer
138views
Does NASA yet have an official history of the Shuttle?
NASA has official "histories" of many of their past programs. These are more about people and decisions, not technical details. This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury On the ...
- 48.7k
3votes
0answers
113views
How much did NASA pay Roscosmos for the Soyuz to provide assured crew return services
The STS orbiter wasn't able to stay on orbit for very long, and the ISS had an SOP of having a return seat for each body on the station, so during the years of the Shuttle performing crew rotation ...
- 108
13votes
1answer
2kviews
Could supplies have been launched to Columbia?
I've seen the discussions of whether NASA could imaginably have saved the crew of Columbia if they'd known about the damage to the wing in time. A lot comes down to the maximum time the crew could ...
5votes
1answer
157views
Which shuttle mission is this video from?
At 12 minutes and 19 seconds into the NASA video Space Shuttle Documentary (Narrated by William Shatner), there’s a really neat video of a space shuttle lighting up the clouds from underneath and then ...
- 153
14votes
3answers
4kviews
How often do other space vehicles visit the international space station?
I was surprised to read NASA's statement that This (27 May 2020) mission marks the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 that humans will fly to the space station from U.S. ...
- 257
