Space Shuttle Challenger
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Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, ''Challenger'' was the second Space Shuttle orbiter to fly into space after '' Columbia'', and launched on its maiden flight in April 1983. It was destroyed in January 1986 soon after launch in an accident that killed all seven crewmembers aboard. Initially manufactured as a test article not intended for spaceflight, it was utilized for ground testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter's structural design. However, after NASA found that their original plan to upgrade ''Enterprise'' for spaceflight would be more expensive than upgrading ''Challenger'', the orbiter was pressed into operational service in the Space Shuttle program. Lessons learned from the first orbital flights of ''Columbia'' led to ''Challenger''s design possessing fewer thermal protectio ...
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STS-6
STS-6 was the sixth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the maiden flight of the . Launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 4, 1983, the mission deployed the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1, into orbit, before landing at Edwards Air Force Base on April 9, 1983. STS-6 was the first Space Shuttle mission during which a Extravehicular activity, spacewalk was conducted, and hence was the first in which the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) was used. Crew STS-6 was the last shuttle mission with a four-person crew until STS-135, the final shuttle mission, which launched on July 8, 2011. Commander Paul Weitz had previously served as Pilot on the Skylab 2 , first Skylab crewed mission (Skylab-2), where he lived and worked in Skylab for nearly a month from May to June 1973. After Skylab, Weitz became the Chief of the Astronaut Office, Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office under Chief Astronaut John Young (astronaut), John Young. Bobko originally became an astronaut for ...
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Spaceplane
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft. All spaceplanes to date have been rocket-powered but then landed as unpowered gliders. Four types of spaceplanes have successfully launched to orbit, reentered Earth's atmosphere, and landed: the U.S. Space Shuttle, Russian Buran, U.S. X-37, and the Chinese CSSHQ. Another, Dream Chaser, is under development in the U.S. As of 2019 all past, current, and planned orbital vehicles launch vertically on a separate rocket. Orbital spaceflight takes place at high velocities, with orbital kinetic energies typically at least 50 times greater than suborbital trajectories. Consequently, heavy heat shielding is required ...
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Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System
The Space Shuttle thermal protection system (TPS) is the barrier that protected the Space Shuttle Orbiter during the searing heat of atmospheric reentry. A secondary goal was to protect from the heat and cold of space while in orbit. Materials The TPS covered essentially the entire orbiter surface, and consisted of seven different materials in varying locations based on amount of required heat protection: * Reinforced carbon–carbon (RCC), used in the nose cap, the chin area between the nose cap and nose landing gear doors, the arrowhead aft of the nose landing gear door, and the wing leading edges. Used where reentry temperature exceeded . * High-temperature reusable surface insulation (HRSI) tiles, used on the orbiter underside. Made of coated LI-900 silica ceramics. Used where reentry temperature was below 1,260 °C. * Fibrous refractory composite insulation (FRCI) tiles, used to provide improved strength, durability, resistance to coating cracking and weight reducti ...
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Teacher In Space Project
The Teacher in Space Project (TISP) was a NASA program announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration. The project would carry teachers into space as Payload Specialists (non-astronaut civilians), who would return to their classrooms to share the experience with their students. NASA cancelled the program in 1990, following the death of its first participant, Christa McAuliffe, in the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster (STS-51-L) on January 28, 1986. NASA replaced Teachers in Space in 1998 with the Educator Astronaut Project, which required its participants to become astronaut Mission Specialists. The first Educator Astronauts were selected as part of NASA Astronaut Group 19 in 2004. Barbara Morgan, who was selected as a Mission Specialist as part of NASA Astronaut Group 17 in 1998, has often been incorrectly referred to as an Educator Astronaut. However, she was selected as a ...
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Christa McAuliffe
Sharon Christa McAuliffe ( Corrigan; September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire, who was killed on the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L where she was serving as a payload specialist. She received her bachelor's degree in education and history from Framingham State College in 1970 and her master's degree in education, supervision and administration from Bowie State University in 1978. She took a teaching position as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1983. In 1985, McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher to fly in space. As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from ''Challenger''. On January 28, 1986, the shuttle broke apart 1 minute 13 seconds after launch, killing all onboard. After her death, several schools ...
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Marc Garneau
Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau (born February 23, 1949) is a Canadian politician, retired Royal Canadian Navy officer and former astronaut who served as a Cabinet minister from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, Liberal Party, Garneau was the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada), minister of foreign affairs from January to October 2021 and Minister of Transport (Canada), minister of transport from November 2015 to January 2021. He is the Member of Parliament (Canada), Member of Parliament (MP) for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount. Prior to entering politics, Garneau served as a naval officer and was selected as an astronaut, part of the 1983 NRC Group. On October 5, 1984, he became the first Canadian in outer space as part of STS-41-G and served on two subsequent Space Shuttle missions—STS-77 and STS-97. Personal life Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau was born on February 23, 1949, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He attended primary and secondary schools i ...
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Guion Bluford
Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (born November 22, 1942) is an American aerospace engineer, retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut in which capacity he became the second person of African descent to go to space. While assigned to NASA, he remained a USAF officer rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter ''Challenger'' on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second person of African descent in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. Personal life Born in Philadelphia, Bluford graduated from Overbrook High School in 1960. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1964, a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1974, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in A ...
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Kathryn D
Kathryn is a feminine given name and comes from the Greek meaning for 'pure'. It is a variant of Katherine. It may refer to: In television and film: * Kathryn Beaumont (born 1938), English voice actress and school teacher best known for her Disney animation film works * Kathryn Bernardo (born 1996), Filipina actress and recording artist * Kathryn Bigelow (born 1951), American film director, first woman to win the Academy Award, BAFTA, and DGA award for Best Director * Kathryn Busby, American television and film executive * Kathryn Cressida also known as "Kat" Cressida (born 1968), American voice actress * Kathryn Crosby (born 1933), American actress and singer who performed her most memorable roles under her birth-name Kathryn Grant * Kathryn Drysdale (born 1981), English actress * Kathryn Eames (1908 – 2004), American screen, stage, and television actress * Kathryn Erbe (born 1966), American actress best known for her lead role as Detective Eames on ''Law & Order: Criminal In ...
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Sally Ride
Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space, after cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. She was the youngest American astronaut to have flown in space, having done so at the age of 32. Ride was a graduate of Stanford University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1973, a Master of Science degree in physics in 1975, and a Doctor of Philosophy in physics in 1978 for research on the interaction of X-rays with the interstellar medium. She was selected as a mission specialist astronaut with NASA Astronaut Group 8, the first class of NASA astronauts to include women. After completing her training in 1979, she served as the ground-based capsule communicator (CapCom) for the second and third Spac ...
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STS-61-A
STS-61-A (also known as Spacelab D-1) was the 22nd mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. It was a scientific Spacelab mission, funded and directed by West Germany – hence the non-NASA designation of D-1 (for Deutschland-1). STS-61-A was the ninth and last successful flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. STS-61-A holds the current record for the largest crew - eight people - aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing. The mission carried the NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Spacelab module into orbit with 76 scientific experiments on board, and was declared a success. Payload operations were controlled from the German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, West Germany, instead of from the regular NASA control center. This was the first spaceflight to include multiple crewmembers from any single country other than the United States or Soviet Union. Crew Backup crew Crew seating arrangements Mission summary Space Shutt ...
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Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, and other related hardware housed in the Shuttle's cargo bay. The components were arranged in various configurations to meet the needs of each spaceflight. Spacelab components flew on a total of about 32 Shuttle missions, depending on how such hardware and missions are tabulated. Spacelab allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in geocentric orbit. There was a variety of Spacelab-associated hardware, so a distinction can be made between the major Spacelab program missions with European scientists running missions in the Spacelab habitable module, missions running other Spacelab hardware experiments, and other Space Transportation System (STS) missions that used some component of Spacelab hardware. There is some variation ...
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Solar Maximum Mission
The Solar Maximum Mission satellite (or SolarMax) was designed to investigate Sun, Solar phenomena, particularly solar flares. It was launched on February 14, 1980. The SMM was the first satellite based on the Multimission Modular Spacecraft bus manufactured by Fairchild Industries, a platform which was later used for Landsat 4, Landsats 4 and Landsat 5, 5 as well as the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. After an attitude control failure in Nov 1980 it was put in standby mode until April 1984 when it was repaired by a Shuttle mission. The Solar Maximum Mission ended on December 2, 1989, when the spacecraft Atmospheric reentry, re-entered the atmosphere and burned up over the Indian Ocean. Instruments Failure and repair The white-light coronagraph/polarimeter (C/P) took coronal images for about six months from March 1980 before suffering an electronics failure in September that prevented operation. In November 1980, the second of four fuses in SMM's attitude control system ...
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