Orbiter

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired reusable Low Earth Orbital launch system. It consisted of two reusable Solid Rocket Boosters that landed by parachute, were recovered at sea, and were the most powerful rocket motors ever made until they were superseded by those of NASA’sSLS rocket, with a liftoff thrust of 2,800,000 pounds-force (12 MN), which soon increased to 3,300,000 pounds-force (15 MN) per booster, and were fueled by a combination of PBAN and APCP, the Space Shuttle Orbiter, with 3 RS-25 engines that used a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen propellant combination, and the bright orange throwaway Space Shuttle external tank from which the RS-25 engines sourced their fuel. The orbiter was a spaceplane that was launched at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre and landed mainly at the Shuttle Landing Facility, which is part of Kennedy Space Centre. A second launch site, Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 in California, was revamped so it could be used to launch the shuttles, but it was never used. The launch system could lift about 29 tonnes (64,000 lb) into an eastward Low Earth Orbit. Each orbiter weighed roughly 78 tonnes (172,000 lb), however the different orbiters had differing weights and thus payloads, with Columbia being the heaviest orbiter, Challenger being lighter than Columbia but still heavier than the other three. The orbiter structure was mostly composed of aluminium alloy. The orbiter had seven seats for crew members, though on STS-61-A the launch took place with 8 crew onboard. The orbiters had 4.6 metres (15 ft) wide by 18 metres (59 ft) long payload bays and also were equipped with a 15.2 metres (50 ft) CanadaArm1, an upgraded version of which is used on the International Space Station. The heat shield (or Thermal Protection System) of the orbiter, used to protect it from extreme levels of heat during atmospheric reentry and the cold of space, was made up of different materials depending on weight and how much heating a particular area on the shuttle would receive during reentry, which ranged from over 2,900 °F (1,600 °C) to under 700 °F (370 °C). The orbiter was manually operated, though an autonomous landing system was added while the shuttle was still on service. It had an in orbit maneouvreing system known as the Orbital Manoeuvring System, which used the hypergolic propellants monomethylhydrazine (MMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide, which was used for orbital insertion, changes to orbits and the deorbit burn.