The Space Shuttle: NASA's Astronaut Pod

this video is brought to you by surfshark safety and security online are critically important and you can protect yourself online with surfshark get 83 off and three months for free through the link in the description [Music] below [Music] an object that was said to launch like a rocket in land like a glider for 30 years it was on the most recognizable transportation objects on the planet powering off the launch pad and into the sky above it became a symbol of exploration and space travel involved in 135 separate launches spread across five different shuttles it was the spacecraft from the early 1980s for the next 30 years but the story of the space shuttle is also one of disaster a tale marred by two of the most devastating and public tragedies to occur during our exploration of the cosmos needless to say placing humans at the tip of what can only be described as a massive controlled explosion is and always has been fraught with danger perhaps the most significant aspect to focus on with the space shuttles was their reusability before their introduction the majority of launch systems could be used once and only once understandably in the early years of space exploration the focus was on just making sure a vehicle could make it safely into space and back again without too much thought for recycling and in the early decades perhaps they didn't really even need to during the 1960s and 1970s nasa's annual budget fluctuated between 3 billion and 4 billion which is roughly between 24.7 billion and 33 billion dollars today this was the heyday of u.s space exploration and one in which the government was more than happy to throw hefty sums of money at nasa by the mid-1960s nasa was receiving roughly 4.5 percent of the total federal budget admittedly this was a high point and it quickly came down after but it does show just how important the space race became to the american government but things began to change by the mid-1970s as the vietnam war dragged on seemingly infinite budgets for the space program were no longer a given the conflict in southeast asia is believed to have cost in the region of a trillion dollars when adjusted for inflation a figure that dwarfs anything nasa ever did when apollo 11 landed on the moon on the 24th of july 1969 it was watched by an audience of roughly 650 million people around the world including 53 million in the united states that was a staggeringly high number but actually accounted for only about a quarter of the us population at the time which begs the question what were the other three court is doing when the country was putting a man on the moon for the first time but when apollo 17 touched down on the lunar surface in 1972 the number of those watching was only a fraction it may have been difficult for many involved to admit but the audience at home was becoming disinterested with space travel this led to a significant tightening of the belt and one of the best ways to do this was to design a shuttle that could go into space multiple times [Music] the idea of a reusable spacecraft had been bouncing around since the 1950s when the u.s air force began developing plans for a piloted glider that it could use for a variety of military purposes including reconnaissance satellite attacks and air-to-ground weapons deployment nasa soon became involved and the two agencies collaborated on the x-20 dinosaur very clever name there a program that ran between 1957 and 1963 costing 660 million dollars which is 5.51 billion dollars today and it was cancelled shortly after construction of a prototype had begun with nasa choosing to focus on project gemini the second human spaceflight program if you've ever wondered why space exploration was so expensive in the early decades well that's a really good example in 1966 nasa and the us air force announced jointly that a new space vehicle would be needed and in 1968 they went as far as to say that whatever came next had to be reusable shortly after nasa issued a request for proposal an rfp for what they termed as an integrated launch and re-entry vehicle ilrv now normally with these kinds of rfps companies are invited to submit a design along with a bid for the projected cost typically the organization involved would then choose the best and a contract would be awarded from there this one however was a little bit different with nasa breaking the process into four phases phase a was a request for studies completed by competing aerospace companies phase b was a competition between two contractors for a specific contract phase c involved designing the details of the spacecraft components and phase d was the production of the spacecraft in december 1968 the space shuttle task group was created and asked to establish the best design for a reusable spacecraft while at the same time study contracts were delivered to general dynamics lockheed macdonald douglas and north american rockwell this was not a quick process and it took nearly three years for nasa and the air force to determine that a reusable delta wing orbiter mounted on an expendable propellant tank was the way forward the following year president nixon authorized the production of the space shuttle with north american rockwell building the orbiter morton circle responsible for the solid rocket booster and martin marietta constructing the two external boosters on top of this the decision was made that the current f1 and j2 engines in the saturn rockets would need to be updated and nasa contracted rocketdyne to start work on the new engine which would eventually become the rs-25 if the name space shuttle enterprise sounds a little unfamiliar to you that's because it never went into space enterprise which formally began life as ov-101 was purely a test space shuttle and was not equipped with the heat shield needed for takeoff or re-entry work began on enterprise in 1974 and was completed two years later before moving to edwards air force base for testing but if the construction of the orbiter was fairly brisk the development of the new engine and the thermal protection system the heat shield well that was less brisk engine development was initially held up for nine months thanks to a legal challenge by pratt and whitney over the issuing of the contract and even when things got going the rs-25 suffered numerous problems with its nozzle and turbine blades however nasa must have been sufficiently satisfied because they ordered three more engines for the other orbiters under construction the heat shield was another significant problem the ablative heat shield that had been used on previous launches and worked by pushing the shock layer gas away from the shield under extreme heat was not reusable so nasa instead went with a rather novel approach of ceramic tiles that could be individually replaced and were located around the upper forward fuselage sections of the orbital maneuvering system pods vertical stabilizer and upper body flap surface when i say tiles it's easy to think of kitchens and bathrooms but these tiles could withstand temperatures of up to 1 260 degrees celsius which is about 2 300 fahrenheit they were 90 hollow and primarily formed of high purity silica fibers their distinctive black coating was the reaction cured glass rcg which included tetrasilicide and borosilicate glass as well as other components enterprise underwent its preliminary testing at edwards air force base with the aid of a modified boeing 747 which would carry the enterprise on its back the first set of tests involved the space shuttle remaining attached to the 747 at all times but by august 1977 it was detaching and gliding down to earth on its own after countless further tests which addressed its aerodynamic capabilities vibrations on a simulated launch and how it would all fit together with the fuel tank and boosters well testing was completed in 1979. all that remained was the real thing and speaking of the real thing let's have a word from 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it's only available in the uk and you live in the northwest territory of canada oh no that's specific terrible but surf shark will fix that right up boom sneaky now you're in the uk through the magic of vpn technology and you can watch the hobbit all you want i don't know where the hobbit's available it's just an example okay also surf shark is totally unlimited so if you like i'd like to download the hobbit in raw 8k and use it in my glorious home cinema or go nuts because surf shark's unlimited there are no logs there's great support there's a 30 day money back guarantee if you don't like it get 83 percent off and three months for free through the link in the description below or use my code mega [Music] while the enterprise was being put through its paces four further orbiters were at various stages of production columbia and challenger would be the first to arrive followed by discovery in atlantis there was also a sixth space shuttle known as endeavour but after nasa decided to limit the number to four work on this final shuttle was halted in 1983 although it would recommence after the challenger disaster the first launch using the new space shuttle came on the 12th of april 1981 with the rather unimaginative name space transportation system 1 or sts-1 space shuttle colombia blasted off from the kennedy space center in florida midday carrying two astronauts commander john w young and pilot robert l crippen the first test flight involving a space shuttle was hailed as a great success with colombia orbiting the earth 36 times and traveling 1 million 728 000 kilometers in the process the crew were able to test various components and equipment and a little over two days after its launch the columbia re-entered the earth's atmosphere and landed safely at edwards air force base where they were welcomed home by none other than president ronald reagan along with half a million spectators but while the columbia had made it up and down without any major incident it was far from smooth sailing in fact there was a whole host of problems which had cropped up during the flight ranging from tiles falling off damage to the heat shield and even a small gas leak that had led to the buckling of the landing door something neither astronauts noticed at the time and only discovered after reading the flight report it was clear that while the basics of the new space shuttle were certainly sound there were a lot of tweaks needed [Music] ok before we continue with any more launches let's take a look at the space shuttle itself the image that we see upon takeoff is composed of the orbiter one enormous external fuel tank and two solid rocket boosters which but not exactly small either the orbiter included a crew compartment set over three decks the first had the flight deck which included panels with over 2 100 displays and controls under that was the galley and sleeping quarters and below that the equipment deck where scientific instruments were stored as well as the waste management system if we were feeling a little immature here we might call it the poop deck but this is a very serious video on a serious channel so i'm not going to but i already did behind this area came the space shuttle main engines ssme comprised of three rs-25 engines and the orbital maneuvering system the oms with one aj10190 engine that allowed the crew to enter exit and modify the shuttle's orbit the orbiter came with double delta wings swept back at 81 degrees at the inner edge and 45 degrees at the outer edge in total the orbiter had a wingspan of 23 meters and included elevons to control the shuttle's reentry which are those small flaps located at the rear of the wings the vertical stabilizer sometimes referred to as the fin on aircraft stood at 45 degrees and included a small rudder that could be split upon landing to act as a break if that wasn't enough to slow the space shuttle down there was also a two-part drag parachute system located in the vertical stabilizer as well as conventional braking in the landing gear the monstrous external fuel tank that the space shuttle appears to piggyback on during takeoff measured at 47 meters in height slightly smaller than the statue of liberty and had a diameter of 8.4 meters it was capable of carrying an enormous 2.4 million liters of propellants comprising 1.7 million liters of liquid hydrogen and 660 thousand liters of liquid oxygen to give you an idea of just how complex something like this was the external tanks used on the space shuttles came with an extraordinary 480 000 separate parts but funnily enough was also the only part of the space shuttle that couldn't be reused instead after it detached it was directed towards the indian or pacific oceans with most of it burning up during re-entry the two additional solid rocket boosters each measured 45 meters in height had a diameter of 3.7 meters and provided 12 500 kilonewtons of thrust together these engines had a thrust equal to 65 engines on board the f-35 lightning in its afterburner mode so they were fairly powerful they weighed 68 tons and came with a tough steel exterior measuring 13 millimeters in thickness inside they were each filled with solid rocket propellant which added an extra 500 tons of weight so now we know where everything is how does everything work together the process actually begins at the orbiter processing facility the opf where the orbiter is prepared before being attached to the fuel tank boosters the entire assembly is then transported to the launch pad on a crawler transport an enormous contraption weighing 2 700 tons the crew arrives roughly three hours before liftoff and the doors to the shuttle closed two hours prior three minutes and 45 seconds before the launch the engine begins running through a series of tests and at 6.6 seconds before launch the engines roar into life one by one with a gap of milliseconds between them as the countdown reaches zero the eight fragile nuts which connected the boosters to the launch pad are detonated and the final umbilicals are released roughly 123 seconds after launch the two boosters disconnect and fall back to earth landing in the ocean where they are retrieved the external tank has a burn time of around 420 seconds before the engine power is reduced and the tank disconnected re-entry strangely enough begins with an upside-down tail first orientation with the oms engine fired for between two and four minutes after which the shuttle swings back around so its nose is first once again at a 40 degree angle as it begins its re-entry which dasa defined as being when the shuttle was at an altitude of 120 kilometers and traveling at mach 25. that's 30 870 kilometers an hour eight minutes and 44 seconds before landing the shuttle angle is changed to 36 degrees with the landing phases commenced when the shuttle hits an altitude of 3000 meters that's 10 000 feet and is traveling at 150 meters a second the angle has changed to 18 to 20 degrees with the landing gear coming down 10 seconds before landing as the shuttle touches down on earth once again it's traveling at a speed of about 100 to 150 meters a second after which the parachute deploys and this is followed by the wheel brakes once the shuttle has slowed to a sufficient speed as i mentioned right at the start of this video the space shuttle covered 135 separate missions costing a staggering 450 million dollars per launch as a cheaper alternative it really wasn't that cheap the overwhelming majority of the space shuttle missions were completed successfully so it's difficult to argue that the whole program was anything other than a success over the years they were involved in transporting equipment to the international space station as well as carrying the hubble space telescope into orbit and later its pair of spectacles needed to correct a previous era and if you're interested in that story you should probably check out our video on the hubble telescope itself but it doesn't matter how many successful missions there are you'll still be judged by those that go catastrophically wrong and the space shuttle had two of those particular missions sts-51l was to be a space flight quite unlike any other keen to inspire a whole new generation nasa had launched a teacher in space project in 1984 which resulted in sharon christa mccalla the teacher from concord new hampshire being included in the seven-person crew on the space shuttle challenger that lifted off at 4 38 p.m on the 28th of january 1986. just 73 seconds into the flight challenger suffered a fatal structural failure caused by both the primary and secondary o-ring seals on the rocket boosters both failing this quickly led to the disintegration of all four components and left the orbiter hurtling back down to earth killing all seven on board the challenger with millions glued to the television zeds to watch the first teacher in space including huge numbers of children the accident was a harrowing visual image that left some wondering whether the space shuttle program would even continue the program was grounded for two and a half years as investigators searched for the cause while also trying to determine whether it was safe to fly again the problem focused on the o-rings but also on the fact that the launch had taken place at temperatures of -3 celsius well below the limit set for the boosters it was a sobering time for all involved with the space shuttle but on the 29th of september 1988 the space shuttle discovery blasted off and four days later it landed successfully between 1994 and 1998 space shuttles visited the mere space station a total of 11 times with american astronauts spending extended periods on board but that was nothing compared to the international space station which involved 37 separate space shuttle visits over 13 years as the iss slowly took shape but unfortunately another tragedy was just around the corner as the space shuttle columbia began re-entry on the 1st of february 2003 to the general public there were no obvious signs of problems however flight control knew full well that the chances of a successful re-entry hung in the balance the heat shield had been compromised during takeoff after a piece of the external fuel tank had come loose and damaged part of the wing when the shuttle attempted re-entry hot air began rushing into the shuttle which quickly disintegrated once again all seven astronauts lost their lives again the fleet was grounded this time for nearly three years as the investigation took place it quickly became apparent that the foam shedding from the fuel tank had occurred before on previous missions but for whatever reason had never been fully corrected nasa implemented much more stringent pre-flight safety checks as a result which sounds a little strange because well they should have been doing it all along the space shuttles were involved in 22 further missions without incident and on july the 21st 2011 the space shuttle atlantis landed at the kennedy space center and taxied slowly to a waiting hangar where it was greeted by a huge crowd the age of the space shuttle was over despite the two tragic accidents the space shuttles were incredibly reliable vehicles when you think about how many times they were used unfortunately the projected cost and turnaround time proved to be wildly inaccurate while costs may not have been quite as enormous as during the 1960s the cost of the space shuttle program was still huge thought to be roughly 196 billion dollars when you adjust for inflation then there was the turnaround time nasa had envisioned a space vehicle that could quickly and easily transport people and equipment into space perhaps with periods as little as a week or two in between in reality the fastest ever turnaround was 54 days while the space shuttles were certainly not perfect they remain an iconic image their role in the development of how we put people into space is undeniable and it's difficult to imagine how long the iss would have taken without them they also helped to rekindle interest in space that had begun to lag during the 1970s but with the two high-profile tragic incidents there is also somewhat of a shadow cast across the space shuttle program they were and in many ways still are symbols of both the wonder but also the horror of space travel so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to support our fantastic sponsor surfsharkvpn there's a link to them below and thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 362,643

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Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021