Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Space exploration in america
Space exploration in america
Space exploration in america
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Space exploration in america
Skylab
Skylab was America's first experimental space station. Some of Skylab's program objectives were: To prove that humans could live and work in space for extended periods, and to expand our knowledge of solar astronomy well beyond Earth-based observations. Skylab made much use of Saturn and Apollo equipment. Through the use of a "dry" third stage of the Saturn V rocket, the station was completely made as a workshop area before launch. Crews visited Skylab and returned to earth in the Apollo spacecraft.
THE FLIGHTS
Skylab's 1st unmanned mission
May 14, 1973
The station was launched into orbit by a Saturn V booster. Almost immediately, problems developed due to vibrations during lift-off. A critical meteoroid shield ripped off taking one of the craft's two solar panels with it; a piece of the shield wrapped around the other panel keeping it from deploying.
Skylab was maneuvered so its Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) solar panels faced the
Sun to provide as much electricity as possible. Because of the loss of the meteoroid shield, however, this positioning caused workshop temperatures to rise to 126 degrees F. The launch of Skylab 2 was postponed 10 days while NASA engineers developed procedures and trained the crew to make the workshop habitable. At the same time, engineers "rolled" Skylab to lower the temperature of the workshop.
Skylab's 2nd manned mission - May 25th to June 22nd
Astronauts;
Charles Conrad, Jr.
Paul J. Weitz
Joseph P. Kerwin
The crew meats with Skylab on the fifth orbit. After making many repairs, including deployment of parasol sunshade which cooled the inside temperatures to
75 degrees F, by June 4 the workshop was in full operation. In orbit the crew conducted solar Earth resources experiments, medical studies, and five student experiments; 404 orbits and 392 experiment hours were completed; three EVAs that totaled six hours, 20 minuets.
Skylab's 3rd manned mission - July 28th to September 25th, 1973
Astronauts;
Alan L. Bean
Jack R. Lousma
Owen K. Garriott
Continued maintenance of the space station and extensive scientific and medical experiments. Completed 858 Earth orbits and 1,081 hours of solar and Earth experiments; three EVAs totaled 13 hours, 43 minuets.
Skylab's 4th mission - November 16th, 1973 to February 8th 1974
Astronauts;
Gerald P. Carr
William R.
...roup seven had were that day one plateaued at a lower temperature than day two.
middle of paper ... ...2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. The "NASA History" Congressional Digest 90.7 (2011): 196-224. Academic Search Premier -. Web.
It was on January 28, 1986 at 11:38 A.M. that the shuttle Challenger, NASA flight 51-L, the twenty-fifth shuttle flight, took off. It was the "Teacher in Space" mission. At lift-off, the temperature at ground level was 36° Fahrenheit, which was 15° Fahrenheit cooler than any previous launch by NASA. It was the Challenger's tenth flight. Take-off had been delayed several times. Finally the shuttle had taken off. The shuttle had climbed high in the sky thirty-five seconds after take-off, and it was getting hit by strong winds. The on board computers were making continuous adjustments so the shuttle would stay on course. About eight miles in the air, about seventy-two seconds after take-off, people watched in fear and horror as the shuttle was engulfed by a huge fire ball. All the crew members were killed instantly.
Apollo 1, launched on 27 January 1967 – during pre-launch there was an on-board fire that killed the crew.
had been shot down in a nuclear war, so the time period must be after the making
[4] Joseph P. Kerwin, “Report to Admiral Truly”, [online], Washington, DC.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, July 28, 1986 [cited March 16, 2010], available from World Wide Web:
The temperature on the morning of the launch was unusually cold and engineers warned supervisors that components, such as the O-rings which sealed rocket booster joints, were subject to failure at low temperatures. From NASA supervisors and managers, to the company that designed the rocket boosters, these warnings and vulnerabilities were ignored, minimized, and excused. Similarly, as was the case with the Vasa, the King pressed and pressed on the shipbuilders to hasten the construction of the Vasa, when resources and materials were their most constrained, including the master shipbuilders themselves, not part of the major portion of construction effort. To wit, Admiral Fleming had to conduct the stability test in their absence and he is on record as having stated “the shipbuilder has built ships before”, in an attempt to excuse and wave off the Boatswain’s warnings that the ship was too narrow at its bottom to be stable under way. As well, Fleming wished the King, himself, had witnessed the test, himself likely believing this was the only way to convey the potential risk of proceeding with the vessel’s launch under rushed conditions, literally pieced together in haste with the wrong sized materials because the correct lumber pieces were not on hand to construct it according to the Kings numerous design revisions. The King didn’t care and no one dared to make him. The result, like as in the three cases to which the Vasa has been herein compared, was a preventable disaster, but for leadership’s negative influence and the “it’s safer to be silent” culture it seemed to imbue in
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost due to structural failure in the left wing. On take-off, it was reported that a piece of foam insulation surrounding the shuttle fleet's 15-story external fuel tanks fell off of Columbia's tank and struck the shuttle's left wing. Extremely hot gas entered the front of Columbia's left wing just 16 seconds after the orbiter penetrated the hottest part of Earth's atmosphere on re-entry. The shuttle was equipped with hundreds of temperature sensors positioned at strategic locations. The salvaged flight recorded revealed that temperatures started to rise in the left wing leading edge a full minute before any trouble on the shuttle was noted. With a damaged left wing, Columbia started to drag left. The ships' flight control computers fought a losing battle trying to keep Columbia's nose pointed forward.
job in 1953 and accepted and became part of the early NASA team. From 1953 to 1958,
for repair. In order to maintain production a temporary bypass pipe was installed between the
In the late Winter of the 1950’s, NASA began working on what became known ...
An engine on the second stage of the rocket shut down about two minute early, causing a minor panic within the crew and the ground operators. However, the crew quickly compensated for the issue by letting the four outboard engines and the third-stage engine burn longer to get the rocket to Earth orbit. The early engine shutdown was later found to be caused by exceedingly severe vibrations which flexed the thrust frame by three inches. In response, the vehicle’s guidance system automatically shut down the engine. Vibrations had been seen on previous space mission, but they were the most severe on Apollo 13. Missions that followed implemented modifications to prevent such vibrations, and subsequently prevent another shutdown. Although it was unknown whether the shutdown had any relation to the explosion, it was a problem worth correcting to
Joint rotation problems and O-ring erosion were discovered and somewhat brushed to the side. Weather was also considered with these problems. Morton- Thiokol manufactured the rocket boosters. However, the engineers who built the boosters had doubts of proper function. Especially within sub-freezing temperatures. Also showing why there was numerous launch delays. The night before the launch, a teleconference was held between engineers and management from Kennedy Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Morton- Thiokol. The Engineers specifically stated that the cold weather would cause problems with O-ring seating and joint rotation. After heated arguments, NASA managers decided to approve the boosters for launch. The night of the launch, temperatures were as low as 8 degrees Fahrenheit. And 72 seconds after lift off, the Challenger exploded. My observations are very clear. The wrong people were in charge of this operation. There was every reason for NASA not to launch and they still decided to. Unfortunately, we cannot change the past but we can change the
The idea of traveling to the moon came to light on May 25, 1961 in a special joint Congress session (1). John Kennedy, the president, made an appearance at this joint meeting to show support his overwhelming support for the advances in space technology. After this sitting, NASA promptly started working on blueprints to travel to the moon. NASA then administered the first Apollo mission, “testing the structural cohesion of the first proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft amalgamation” (4). Sadly, on January 27, 1967, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, a fire started during a manned launch-pad test of the new Apollo spacecraft. Three astronauts were killed in the fire. Despite this complication,
"National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Marshall Space Flight Center." NEW FRONTIERS ::: JUNO. NASA, Web. 01 Apr. 2014. .