Geography 2090A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Space Shuttle External Tank, Liquid Oxygen, Liquid Hydrogen
2 Oct 2018
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Shuttle launch system: a mostly disposable launch system, capable of 6. 6 million pounds of thrust. Solid rocket boosters: t(cid:449)o rb"s pushed of shuttle lau(cid:374)(cid:272)hed pad, separate from shuttle at 45km, recovered from ocean and refurbished, the rockets used apcp as propellant, the fuel cut into a star shape. External tank: big orange middle section, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, empties at 113km, covered in orange foam, the gas tank for the orbiter. Shuttle payload bay: basically, a cargo bay for material, designed to deliver satellites, probes, space station components to leo, 18 meters long, 5 meters in diameter. In 1976 the first shuttle was revealed: enterprise would never launch to space, had no engines or heat shield, there were 5 test flights. Shuttle design turnaround: 650,000 hours of labour to refurbish, rebuild entire engine, 1-1. 5 billion dollars to turn around product.
