Hypergolic Maintenance And Checkout Facility
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Hypergolic Maintenance And Checkout Facility
Hypergol Maintenance and Checkout Facility was a rocket fuel and engine complex located in an isolated part of the Kennedy Space Center industrial area. It was constructed in 1964 to support the Apollo program and upgraded in 1985 to support the Space Shuttle program. The hypergolic propellants used in the Space Shuttle's reaction control system, Orbital Maneuvering System, and the auxiliary power units provided hydraulic power to the shuttle's control surfaces, main engines and brakes were stored and processed in part of the complex. Part of the facility was used for cryogenic testing during the Apollo program and Solid Rocket Booster A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and Space Shuttle, have used SRBs to give laun ... aft skirt hot-testing. Among other structures, the facility included two hypergol storage buil ...
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Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field centers, field centers. Since 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch operations for the Apollo Program, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle Program, Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). The management of the two entities work very closely together, share resources, and operate facilities on each other's property. Though the first Apollo flights and all Project Mercury and Project Gemini flights took off from the then-Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the launches were managed by KSC and its previous organization, ...
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Apollo Program
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in space. It was conceived in 1960 as a three-person spacecraft during President Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to United States Congress, Congress on May 25, 1961. It was the third American human spaceflight program to fly, preceded by Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo. Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins ( ...
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Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development, as a proposed nuclear shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips. The Space Shuttle, composed of an Space Shuttle orbiter, orbiter launched with two reusable Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank, carried up to eight astronauts and up to of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would atmospheric reentry, reenter the Earth's atmosphere and land like a glider (aircraft), glider at either ...
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Hypergolic Propellant
A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other. The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. The main advantages of hypergolic propellants are that they can be stored as liquids at room temperature and that engines which are powered by them are easy to ignite reliably and repeatedly. Common hypergolic propellants are extremely toxic or corrosive, making them difficult to handle. In contemporary usage, the terms "hypergol" and "hypergolic propellant" usually mean the most common such propellant combination: dinitrogen tetroxide plus hydrazine. History The fact that turpentine may spontaneously combust when mixed with nitric acid was discovered as early as the late 17th century by Frederick Slare, but it remained a scientific curiosity for centuries until it was proposed to use it for rocket-assisted take off during WWII. In 1935 ...
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Reaction Control System
A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses Thrusters (spacecraft), thrusters to provide Spacecraft attitude control, attitude control and translation (physics), translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels can be used for attitude control, rather than RCS. Use of diverted engine thrust to provide stable attitude control of a V/STOL, short-or-vertical takeoff and landing aircraft below conventional winged flight speeds, such as with the Hawker Siddeley Harrier#Controls and handling, Harrier "jump jet", may also be referred to as a reaction control system. Reaction control systems are capable of providing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions. An RCS is also capable of providing torque to allow control of rotation (aircraft principal axes, roll, pitch, and yaw). Reaction control systems often use combinations of large and small (vernier thruster, vernier) thrusters, to allow different levels of response. Uses Spacecr ...
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Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System
In spaceflight, an orbital maneuver (otherwise known as a burn) is the use of propulsion systems to change the orbit of a spacecraft. For spacecraft far from Earth, an orbital maneuver is called a ''deep-space maneuver (DSM)''. When a spacecraft is not conducting a maneuver, especially in a transfer orbit, it is said to be ''coasting''. General Rocket equation The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation, can be useful for analysis of maneuvers by vehicles using rocket propulsion. A rocket applies acceleration to itself (a thrust) by expelling part of its mass at high speed. The rocket itself moves due to the conservation of momentum. Delta-v The applied change in velocity of each maneuver is referred to as delta-v (\Delta\mathbf\,). The delta-v for all the expected maneuvers are estimated for a mission are summarized in a delta-v budget. With a good approximation of the delta-v budget designers can estimate the propellant required for planned maneuver ...
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Flight Control Surfaces
Flight control surfaces are aerodynamic devices allowing a pilot to adjust and control the aircraft's flight attitude. The primary function of these is to control the aircraft's movement along the three axes of rotation. Flight control surfaces are generally operated by dedicated aircraft flight control systems. Development of an effective set of flight control surfaces was a critical advance in the history of development of aircraft. Early efforts at fixed-wing aircraft design succeeded in generating sufficient lift to get the aircraft off the ground, however with limited control. The development of effective flight controls allowed stable flight. A conventional fixed-wing aircraft uses three primary flight control surfaces– aileron, rudder and elevator to control the roll, yaw, and pitch respectively. Secondary flight control surfaces might include spoiler, flaps, and slats on the wings. The main control surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft are attached to the airfram ...
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Space Shuttle Main Engine
The RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is used on the Space Launch System. Designed and manufactured in the United States by Rocketdyne (later Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Aerojet Rocketdyne), the RS-25 burns cryogenic (very low temperature) liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, with each engine producing thrust at liftoff. Although RS-25 heritage traces back to the 1960s, its concerted development began in the 1970s with the first flight, STS-1, on April 12, 1981. The RS-25 has undergone upgrades over its operational history to improve the engine's thrust, reliability, safety, and maintenance load. The engine produces a specific impulse (''I''sp) of 452 seconds (4.43 kN-sec/kg) in vacuum, or 366 seconds (3.59 kN-sec/kg) at sea level, has a mass of approximately , and is capable of throttling between 67% and 109% of its rated power level in one ...
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Solid Rocket Booster
A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and Space Shuttle, have used SRBs to give launch vehicles much of the thrust required to place the vehicle into orbit. The Space Shuttle used two Space Shuttle SRBs, which were the largest solid propellant motors ever built until the Space Launch System and the first designed for recovery and reuse. The propellant for each solid rocket motor on the Space Shuttle weighed approximately 500,000 kilograms.. Advantages Compared to liquid propellant rockets, the solid-propellant motors (SRMs) have been capable of providing large amounts of thrust with a relatively simple design. They provide greater thrust without significant refrigeration and insulation requirements, and produce large amounts of thrust for their size. Adding detachable SRBs to a vehicle also powered by liquid-propel ...
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Buildings And Structures In Merritt Island, Florida
A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for numerous factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, monument, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the concept, see ''Nonbuilding structure'' for contrast. Buildings serve several societal needs – occupancy, primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical separation of the :Human habitats, human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) from the ''outside'' (a place that may be harsh and harmful at times). buildings have been objects or canvasses of much architecture, artistic expression. ...
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