The US government program STS (Space Transportation System) is better known throughout the world as the Space Shuttle. This program was implemented by NASA specialists, its main goal was the creation and use of a reusable manned transport spacecraft designed to deliver people and various cargo to low-earth orbits and back. Hence the actual name - "Space Shuttle".
Work on the program began in 1969 with funding from two US government departments: NASA and the Department of Defense. Development and development work was carried out as part of a joint program between NASA and the Air Force. At the same time, the specialists applied a number of technical solutions that were previously tested on the lunar modules of the Apollo program of the 1960s: experiments with solid-propellant boosters, systems for separating them and obtaining fuel from an external tank. The basis of the space transport system being created was to be a manned reusable spacecraft. The system also included ground support complexes (the Kennedy Space Center's assembly, test and launch landing complex located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Florida), the flight control center in Houston (Texas), as well as data relaying and communication systems via satellites and other means. …
All leading American aerospace companies took part in the work on this program. The program was truly large-scale and national, more than 1000 companies from 47 states supplied various products and equipment for the Space Shuttle. The contract for the construction of the first orbital ship in 1972 was won by Rockwell International. Construction of the first two shuttles began in June 1974.
The first flight of the space shuttle Columbia. The external fuel tank (center) was painted white only on the first two flights. In the future, the tank was not painted to reduce the weight of the system.
System Description
The structurally reusable space transport system Space Shuttle included two salvage solid-fuel boosters, which served as the first stage and an orbiting reusable spacecraft (orbiter, orbiter) with three oxygen-hydrogen engines, as well as a large outboard fuel compartment that formed the second stage. After the completion of the space flight program, the orbiter independently returned to Earth, where it landed like an airplane on special runways.
The two solid rocket boosters operate for about two minutes after launch, propelling and guiding the spacecraft. After that, at an altitude of about 45 kilometers, they separate and, with the help of a parachute system, splash down into the ocean. After repair and refilling, they are used again.
The external fuel tank, which burns in the earth's atmosphere, filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen (fuel for the main engines), is the only disposable element of the space system. The tank itself is also a frame for attaching the solid propellant boosters to the spacecraft. It is thrown in flight about 8.5 minutes after takeoff at an altitude of about 113 kilometers, most of the tank burns up in the earth's atmosphere, and the remaining parts fall into the ocean.
The most famous and recognizable part of the system is the reusable spacecraft itself - the shuttle, in fact the "space shuttle" itself, which is launched into low-earth orbit. This shuttle serves as a testing ground and platform for scientific research in space, as well as home for a crew of two to seven people. The shuttle itself is made according to an aircraft scheme with a triangular wing in plan. For landing, he uses an aircraft-type landing gear. If solid-propellant rocket boosters are designed to be used up to 20 times, then the shuttle itself - up to 100 flights into space.
Dimensions of the orbital ship compared to the Soyuz
The American Space Shuttle system could put into orbit an altitude of 185 kilometers and an inclination of 28 ° up to 24.4 tons of cargo when launched to the east from Cape Canaveral (Florida) and 11.3 tons when launched from the territory of the Kennedy Space Flight Center into an orbit with an altitude of 500 kilometers and an inclination of 55 °. When launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (California, west coast), up to 12 tons of cargo could be put into a circumpolar orbit with an altitude of 185 kilometers.
What we managed to implement, and what of our plans remained only on paper
As part of a symposium dedicated to the implementation of the Space Shuttle program, which took place in October 1969, the "father" of the shuttle, George Mueller, noted: “Our goal is to reduce the cost of delivering a kilogram of payload into orbit from $ 2,000 for Saturn-V to 40-100 dollars per kilogram. So we can open a new era of space exploration. The challenge over the coming weeks and months for this symposium, and for NASA and the Air Force, is to ensure that we can achieve this.” In general, for the various variants based on the Space Shuttle, it was predicted that the cost of launching the payload in the range from 90 to 330 dollars per kilogram was predicted. Moreover, it was believed that the second generation shuttles would reduce the amount to $ 33-66 per kilogram.
In reality, however, these numbers turned out to be unattainable even close. Moreover, according to Mueller's calculations, the cost of launching the shuttle should have been $ 1-2.5 million. In fact, according to NASA, the average cost of launching a shuttle was about $ 450 million. And this significant difference can be called the main discrepancy between the stated goals and reality.
Shuttle "Endeavor" with open cargo compartment
After the completion of the Space Transportation System program in 2011, we can already confidently say which goals were achieved during its implementation, and which were not.
The goals for the Space Shuttle program have been achieved:
1. Implementation of delivery of various types of cargo to orbit (upper stages, satellites, segments of space stations, including the ISS).
2. Possibility of repairing satellites located in low earth orbit.
3. Possibility of returning satellites back to Earth.
4. The ability to fly up to 8 people into space (during the rescue operation, the crew could be brought up to 11 people).
5. Successful implementation of reusable flight and reusable use of the shuttle itself and solid propellant accelerators.
6. Implementation in practice of a fundamentally new layout of the spacecraft.
7. Ability to carry out horizontal maneuvers by the ship.
8. Large volume of the cargo compartment, the ability to return to the Earth cargo weighing up to 14, 4 tons.
9. The cost and development time was managed to meet the deadlines that were promised to US President Nixon in 1971.
Goals not achieved and failures:
1. Qualitative facilitation of access to space. Instead of reducing the cost of delivering a kilogram of cargo to orbit by two orders of magnitude, the Space Shuttle actually turned out to be one of the most expensive methods of delivering satellites to Earth's orbit.
2. Rapid preparation of shuttles between space flights. Instead of the expected timeline, which was estimated at two weeks between launches, shuttles could actually prepare for launch into space for months. Before the disaster of the space shuttle Challenger, the record between flights was 54 days, after the disaster - 88 days. Over the entire period of their operation, they were launched on average 4, 5 times a year, while the minimum allowable economically justified number of launches was 28 launches per year.
3. Simplicity of service. The technical solutions chosen during the creation of the shuttles were rather laborious to maintain. The main engines required dismantling procedures and long service times. The turbopump units of the engines of the first model required their complete bulkhead and repair after each flight into space. Thermal shielding tiles were unique - each nest had its own tile. In total, there were 35 thousand of them, moreover, the tiles could be damaged or lost during the flight.
4. Replace all disposable media. The shuttles never launched into polar orbits, which was necessary mainly for the deployment of reconnaissance satellites. In this direction, preparatory work was carried out, but they were curtailed after the Challenger disaster.
5. Reliable access to space. Four space shuttles meant that the loss of any of them was the loss of 25% of the entire fleet (there were always no more than 4 flying orbiters, the Endeavor shuttle was built to replace the lost Challenger). After the disaster, flights were stopped for a long time, for example, after the disaster of the Challenger - for 32 months.
6. The carrying capacity of the shuttles turned out to be 5 tons lower than required by the military specifications (24.4 tons instead of 30 tons).
7. Large horizontal maneuvering capabilities have never been applied in practice, for the reason that the shuttles did not fly into polar orbits.
8. The return of satellites from the earth's orbit stopped already in 1996, while only 5 satellites were returned from space during the entire period.
9. Repair of satellites turned out to be in little demand. In total, 5 satellites have been repaired, however, the shuttles have also carried out maintenance of the famous Hubble telescope 5 times.
10. The implemented engineering solutions negatively affected the reliability of the entire system. At the time of takeoff and landing, there were areas that did not leave the crew a chance of rescue in an emergency.
11. The fact that the shuttle could only perform manned flights put astronauts at risk unnecessarily, for example, automation would be sufficient for routine satellite launches into orbit.
12. The closure of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 was superimposed on the cancellation of the Constellation program. This caused the United States to lose its independent access to space for many years. As a result, image losses and the need to acquire places for their astronauts on the spacecraft of another country (Russian manned spacecraft "Soyuz").
Shuttle Discovery performs a maneuver before docking with the ISS
Some statistics
The shuttles were designed to stay in Earth's orbit for two weeks. Usually their flights lasted from 5 to 16 days. The record for the shortest flight in the history of the program belongs to the space shuttle Columbia (died together with the crew on February 1, 2003, the 28th flight into space), which in November 1981 spent only 2 days, 6 hours and 13 minutes in space. The same shuttle made the longest flight in November 1996 - 17 days 15 hours 53 minutes.
In total, during the operation of this program from 1981 to 2011, 135 launches were carried out by space shuttles, of which Discovery - 39, Atlantis - 33, Columbia - 28, Endeavor - 25, Challenger - 10 (died along with the crew on January 28, 1986). In total, within the framework of the program, five of the above shuttles were built, which made flights into space. Another shuttle, Enterprise, was the first to be built, but initially it was intended only for ground and atmospheric testing, as well as preparatory work at launch sites, it never flew into space.
It is worth noting that NASA planned to use the shuttles much more actively than it actually turned out. Back in 1985, experts from the American space agency expected that by 1990 they would make 24 launches every year, and ships fly up to 100 flights into space, in practice, all 5 shuttles made only 135 flights in 30 years, two of which ended a disaster. The record for the number of flights into space belongs to the shuttle "Discovery" - 39 flights into space (the first on August 30, 1984).
Landing of the shuttle "Atlantis"
The American shuttles also own the saddest anti-record among all space systems - in terms of the number of people killed. Two disasters with their participation caused the death of 14 American astronauts. On January 28, 1986, during takeoff, as a result of an explosion in an external fuel tank, the Challenger shuttle collapsed, this happened in the 73rd second of flight and led to the death of all 7 crew members, including the first lay astronaut - former teacher Christa McAuliffe, who won the nationwide American competition for the right to fly into space. The second disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, during the return of the Columbia spacecraft from its 28th flight into space. The cause of the catastrophe was the destruction of the outer heat-shielding layer on the left plane of the shuttle wing, which was caused by a piece of thermal insulation of the oxygen tank falling onto it at the time of launch. On its return, the shuttle collapsed in the air, killing 7 astronauts.
The Space Transportation System program was officially completed in 2011. All operating shuttles were decommissioned and sent to museums. The last flight took place on July 8, 2011 and was carried out by the Atlantis shuttle with a crew reduced to 4 people. The flight ended early in the morning on July 21, 2011. For 30 years of operation, these spaceships have performed 135 flights, in total, they have made 21,152 orbits around the Earth, delivering 1,600 tons of various payloads into space. During this time, the crew included 355 people (306 men and 49 women) from 16 different countries. Astronaut Franklin Storey Musgrave was the only one to fly all five shuttles built.
