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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 100 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Space Shuttle
1981. Columbia lifted off on April 12, 1981. The two man crew flew the three day mission and landed at Edwards' AFB on April 14th.
4. There are four: Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour.
104th. The Shuttle Endeavour lifted off on April 19, 2001 on the 104th space shuttle mission. It carried the Canadian built robotic arm that will be installed on the ISS. The 105th Space Shuttle mission is scheduled to liftoff on June 14th, 2001. The Space Shuttle Atlantis will carry the new airlock to be installed on the ISS.
| White Sands, NM was the site for only one space shuttle landing. Columbia landed there because the landing strip at _________ Air Force Base in California Air Force was too wet? | Space Shuttle Program : Part 1
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Edwards. Edwards AFB was the prime landing zone for the Shuttle throughout the first decade of use. Due to the large cost of transporting the shuttle from Edwards to Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle now lands at Kennedy Air Force Base in Florida. Changing from Edwards to KSC cuts down on the time the shuttle is exposed to the elements. Edwards is now used as a backup landing site.
1995. Atlantis succesfully docked with Mir in July of 1995.
| The International Space Station is a breakthrough in space exploration. The construction began in 1997 and was scheduled to continue through what year? | Space Shuttle Program : Part 1
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2003. The schedule is to have the final pieces in place in 2003, completing the 5-year, 45-flight assembly.
Apollo 11. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were the first crew to land on the Moon in July 1969, aboard Apollo 11.
Apollo 17. Apollo 17 was the last manned mission to the moon. NASA had planned Apollo 18, 19 and 20 but they were canceled due to budget cuts. The Saturn V rockets that were to be used on the 3 remaining missions were already built, they are on display in the US. Take my word for it, those things are huge ...
| During the Shuttles' 20 year history, it has completed many successful satellite deployments. This satellite Probe, Magellan, was launched from Columbia in 1989. What planet was it sent to explore? | Space Shuttle Program : Part 2
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Vehicle Assembly Building. Once the shuttle prep is completed, the orbitor is towed into the Vehicle Assembly Building where is lifted to an upright position. The landing gear is retracted and it is mated to the external fuel tank and the solid rocket boosters. It is then secured to the mobile launch platform.
| Once the shuttle is ready for launch, the mobile launch pad is secured onto one of two crawler-transporters. This massive machine will move the shuttle to the launch pad. How long does the move from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad take? | Space Shuttle Program : Part 2
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Five hours. The 3000 ton transporter moves at a speed of 1mph when the shuttle is loaded on it. Once the crawler arrives at the launch pad, the moblie launch pad is lifted and secured to the tower. The crawler is then moved out and moved to a parking slot for the next use. The crawler was originally designed and used to move the Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo missions.
100. They were designed to fly 100 mission each. Discovery is the most experienced, it is scheduled to fly its 30th mission in July. NASA says that the shuttle fleet may not see 100 missions because they are looking for ways to make space flight cheaper.
Ken Mattingly. Mattingly was the command module pilot on Apollo 16. He also flew the space shuttle Columbia in 1982 and the Space shuttle Discovery in 1985. You may remember him as the man Jim Lovell had to replace on Apollo 13, because the flight surgeons said he was going to get the measles. He never got them.
Rockwell International. Though the other three companies built parts for the shuttle, Rockwell International held the contract on the shuttle from NASA. The other three were contracted by Rockwell.
Three. The shuttle has three main engines that are only used in launch. During flight, is uses its' OMS, Orbiting Maneuvering System, for orbit insertion, orbit circularization, orbit transfer, rendezvous, de-orbiting, abort to orbit and aborting once around. It can provide up to 1,000 pounds of propellant to the aft reaction control system. The OMS is housed in two independent pods located on each side of the orbiter's aft fuselage.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Discovery. Discovery completed its 30th mission in August, 2001. Columbia, the oldest in the fleet, has been on 26 missions. Atlantis completed its 24th mission in July, 2001. Endeavour has flown 16 missions. Challenger completed 9 mission before it exploded in 1986.
| A rollback is when the Space Shuttle is moved from the launch pad and sent back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. How many times in the 21 year history has the Shuttle been rolledback to the VAB? | Space Shuttle Program : Part 3
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15 Times. The most common cause of the Shuttle having to be rolledback to the VAB is weather, of the 15 rollbacks, 6 of them were because of the weather.
5. The last was on April 8, 1997. Atlantis was brought back from orbit early due to a malfunction of the number two fuel cell.
Columbia. The average shuttle mission is ten days, but in 1992 the Space Shuttle Columbia was outfitted with Extended Duration Orbitor Hardware. It gave the orbitor the ability to stay for a longer period of time. The new hardware managed fuel, so the shuttle could stay that long in space. Since 1992, there have been 12 missions of of 13 days or longer. Of the twelve, Columbia has completed 11 of those missions. Endeavour has done the other.
January 28, 1986. This particular mission was actually supposed to take place in July of 1985 but due to logistical problems was delayed for about 6 months.
| What was the profession of Christa McAuliffe, one of two non-Federal government employees on the shuttle? | Space Shuttle Challenger
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Teacher. She was a teacher at Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire. Gregory Jarvis, who was on the shuttle representing his company Hughes Aircraft, was the other civilian on the flight.
11,000. All applicants were from the education sector. Christa was chosen in the summer of 1984 and spent the next year training for the mission.
24. This was the 25th launch of a space shuttle, and was designated Mission 51-L.
Michael Smith. Scobee was the Commander of the shuttle; Resnick and McNair were mission specialists.
73. Photographic evidence indicate that just over half a second after ignition, a problem could be seen as puffs of black smoke shot out of a joint in the right solid fuel rocket booster.
2. These are the rockets that help a Shuttle overcome earth's gravity and propel it skyward. They are designed to break away from the shuttle when the fuel is expended.
| What equipment was determined to have failed on the Challenger and was a major reason for the accident? | Space Shuttle Challenger
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a rubber O-ring. The O-rings were responsible for sealing the joints in the Solid Rocket Boosters, which were each made of 4 main segments. One of the O-rings in the right Rocket Booster failed. This allowed hot gases to leak out which eventually burned through the External Tank, igniting the hydrogen and oxygen contained inside.
| What shuttle was the first to be launched after the Challenger disaster, on September 29, 1988, nearly three years later? | Space Shuttle Challenger
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Discovery. The Discovery was launched from the same pad that the Challenger took off from, Pad 39-B, which was originally designed to support the Apollo program.
| Finish this quote from Ronald Reagan: 'We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them...as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch ___ ___ ___ ___ '? | Space Shuttle Challenger
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the face of God. This was the end of Reagan's speech made from the Oval Office a few hours after the accident.
| If there is a problem on the space shuttle and the crew want to bail out they can do so by _____ ? | Space Shuttle
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jumping out the hatch and parachuting to Earth. While seemingly impossible to use, the crew are given parachutes. It is only possible to use them if the shuttle's engines are off and the the shuttle is in a controlled glide.
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