The Story of the Space Shuttle

by Harland, David M.

• ISBN13: 9781852337933
• ISBN10: 1852337931
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-30
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

In spite of the Challenger and Columbia disasters, the US Space Shuttle, which entered service in 1981, remains the most successful spacecraft ever developed. Conceived and designed as a reusable spacecraft to provide cheap access to low Earth orbit, and to supersede expendable launch vehicles, serving as the National Space Transportation System, it now coexists with a new range of commercial rockets. David Harland's definitive work on the Space Shuttle explains the scientific contribution the Space Shuttle has made to the international space programme, detailing missions to Mir, Hubble and more recently its role in the assembly of the International Space Station. This substantial revision to existing chapters and extension of 'The Space Shuttle', following the loss of Columbia, will include a comprehensive account of the run-up to resumption of operations and conclude with a chapter beyond the Shuttle, looking at possible future concepts for a partly or totally reusable space vehicle which are being considered to replace the Shuttle.

Table of Contents

List of figures	xiii
List of tables	xvii
Foreword	xix
Author's preface	xxiii
Acknowledgements	xxv
Origins	1	(18)
Grandiose ideas	1	(1)
Cost--benefit	2	(1)
Ways and means	3	(4)
The stack	7	(2)
Launch facilities	9	(1)
Glide trials	10	(9)
The Early Years	19	(28)
Test flights	19	(10)
The dreamtime	29	(18)
The Challenger Accident	47	(16)
A major malfunction	47	(13)
Grounded	60	(3)
Communications Satellites	63	(20)
Geostationary relay	63	(3)
The Aces	66	(1)
Satellites galore	67	(5)
Ever more capacity	72	(1)
Tracking and data relay	73	(4)
Market factors	77	(6)
Department of Defense Involvement	83	(20)
`Pact with the Devil'	83	(2)
An inauspicious start	85	(1)
Reconnaissance	86	(2)
Communications	88	(2)
Early warning	90	(2)
Navigation	92	(1)
Star Wars	93	(4)
Spaceflight engineers	97	(1)
Millitary-man-in-space	98	(2)
The return of the Titans	100	(3)
A Multiplicity of Missions	103	(50)
Stripping the manifest	103	(2)
Return to flight	105	(6)
The long hot summer	111	(2)
Catch-up	113	(7)
Endeavour's debut	120	(7)
Fixing Hubble: spacewalkers on trial	127	(5)
Visiting rights	132	(5)
The milk run	137	(6)
Difficult years	143	(7)
Crisis	150	(3)
The Art of Spacewalking	153	(38)
Venturing out	153	(1)
Expectation and triumph	154	(10)
Two up and two down	164	(4)
Hot-wiring a satellite	168	(2)
Astronaut hard-hats	170	(4)
Hiatus	174	(1)
Working in the bay	175	(1)
Try, try and try again	176	(5)
Back to basics	181	(9)
The task ahead	190	(1)
Microgravity	191	(42)
Facilities for commercial research	191	(4)
Biological systems	195	(14)
Materials processing	209	(17)
Limitations of microgravity	226	(1)
The Wake Shield Facility	227	(3)
All due credit	230	(3)
Studying Earth	233	(20)
The atmosphere	233	(1)
Lightning	234	(1)
The solar--terrestrial relationship	235	(4)
Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite	239	(3)
Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science	242	(3)
Spaceborne lidar	245	(1)
Terra firma	246	(2)
Mapping from orbit	248	(1)
Shuttle Radar Laboratory	248	(5)
Shuttle--Mir	253	(24)
Competitors	253	(1)
Partners	253	(1)
Close approach	254	(2)
First tour	256	(2)
Atlantis . . . now arriving!	258	(7)
Space truck	265	(1)
Comings and goings	266	(4)
Good times and bad	270	(6)
The calm after the storm	276	(1)
International Space Station	277	(82)
Shuttle and station	277	(1)
Space Station Freedom	277	(1)
Alpha	278	(1)
Two stations into one	279	(6)
The greatest orbital construction project	285	(1)
Years of preparation	285	(2)
Zarya and Unity	287	(7)
Back to waiting	294	(1)
Maintaining Zarya	295	(3)
Awaiting Zvezda	298	(3)
Zvezda, at last!	301	(1)
Commissioning Zvezda	302	(3)
The Zl truss	305	(4)
First residents	309	(3)
Adding power	312	(3)
NASA's microgravity laboratory	315	(4)
Canada's contribution	319	(7)
Taxi	326	(1)
Two airlocks	327	(10)
Integrated Truss Structure	337	(14)
Crisis	351	(6)
An assessment	357	(2)
The Loss of Columbia	359	(18)
A new module	359	(2)
Final flight	361	(1)
The investigation	362	(5)
Fatal re-entry	367	(6)
Board recommendations	373	(4)
Reflections	377	(10)
A spaceplane	377	(1)
Natural selection	377	(2)
A matter of cost	379	(1)
Risky business	380	(1)
Superseding the Shuttle	381	(6)
Shuttle mission log	387	(26)
Acronyms	413	(14)
Index	427