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SOLAR TEST DYNAMIC GROUND TEST DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
STS110-334-025 - STS-110 - View of the aft avionics tray between the Z1 and S0 Trusses taken during the fourth EVA of STS-110
S107E05130 - STS-107 - View of an APDU in the Spacehab RDM during STS-107
The Magnetic Induction Decontamination System (MIDS)
US Air Force Captain Barry Barnes (Left) and STAFF Sergeant David Walker of the 517th Airlift Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, unload a water purification system during a humanitarian airlift to Tan Son Nhat, Viet Nam. Soldiers from the Viet Nam People's Army stand by the rear entrance to the USAF C-130 Hercules cargo plane. (sub-standard)
S129E006477 - STS-129 - Close-up view of Docking Mechanism and PMA-2 taken during ISS/STS-129 Docking
NASA JUNO MISSION - Public domain NASA photogrpaph
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The Stage 1, 2 and 3 motors of the Taurus XL rocket are being prepared for transfer to Space Launch Complex 576-E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Taurus is the launch vehicle for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, which is a new Earth-orbiting mission sponsored by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program. The observatory is scheduled to launch Feb. 23 from Vandenberg. The spacecraft will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists will analyze OCO data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas. This improved understanding will enable more reliable forecasts of future changes in the abundance and distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere and the effect that these changes may have on the Earth's climate. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB KSC-2009-1558
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-112 Pilot Pamela Melroy looks at equipment for the mission as part of the Crew Equipment Interface Test. Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus is behind her. Mission STS-112 will be ferrying the S1 truss to the International Space Station on its scheduled Aug. 22 flight. The S1 truss is the first starboard (right-side) truss segment, whose main job is providing structural support for the orbiting research facility's radiator panels that cool the Space Station's complex power system. The S1 truss segment also will house communications systems, external experiment positions and other subsystems. The S1 truss will be attached to the S0 truss KSC-02pd0988
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Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Space Transportation System, Space Shuttle Main Engine, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX
Summary
Significance: The Space Shuttle used three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) mounted to the orbiter. The SSME was designed and developed under a contract with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. The contract was awarded in 1971 to the Rocketdyne Division of North American Rockwell Corp., Canoga Park, California. In late 2005, Pratt & Whitney purchased Rocketdyne from the Boeing Company. Rocketdyne was combined with the rocket engine contingent of Pratt & Whitney, West Palm Beach, Florida to form a division named Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
The SSME was a large reusable liquid rocket engine which used liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. Both propellants were stored in the External Tank. The SSME operated using the staged-combustion cycle, meaning propellants were initially burned in preburners in order to power the high-pressure turbopumps and were then burned again at a higher mixture ratio in the main combustion chamber. This cycle yielded a specific impulse substantially higher than previous rocket engines thus minimizing volume and weight for the integrated vehicle. Along with high efficiency and low weight came system complexity, high turbopump speeds, high chamber pressures, and a high thrust-to-weight ratio of sixty-six at full power level. ...
Survey number: HAER TX-116-I
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.