Download or read book SPACE SHUTTLE DECISION V1 PB written by HEPPENHEIMER TA and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 2002-05-17 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heppenheimer looks back at the shuttle's technical antecedents such as the X-15 rocket plane and rocket booster technologies, and illuminates the principal personalities involved in the space shuttle decision and their motivations. He traces NASA's evolving programme goals, the technical calculations, political maneuvering, and fiscal constraints, and explains the myriad designs that preceded the shuttle concept. In closing, he looks in detail at the circumstances leading to the politically charged development decision of 1972.

Download or read book History of the Space Shuttle Volume Two written by T. A. Heppenheimer and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Basing his work on virtually untapped NASA archives, T. A. Heppenheimer has produced the second volume of his definitive history of the space shuttle. Volume Two traces the development of the shuttle through a decade of engineering setbacks and breakthroughs, program-management challenges, and political strategizing, culminating in the first launch in April 1981. The focus is on the engineering challenges—propulsion, thermal protection, electronics, onboard systems—and the author covers in depth the alternative vehicles developed by the U.S. Air Force and European countries. The first launch entailed a monumental amount of planning and preparation that Heppenheimer explains in detail.

Download or read book DEVM SPACE SHUTTLE V2 written by Heppenheimer Ta and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 2002-05-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Space Shuttle Decision written by T. A. Heppenheimer and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before the NASA was the throes of planning for the Apollo voyages to the Moon, many people had seen the need for a vehicle that could access space routinely. The idea of a reusable space shuttle dates at least to the theoretical rocketplane studies of the 1930s, but by the 1950s it had become an integral part of a master plan for space exploration. The goal of efficient access to space in a heavy-lift booster prompted NASA's commitment to the space shuttle as the vehicle to continue human space flight. By the mid-1960s, NASA engineers concluded that the necessary technology was within reach to enable the creation of a reusable winged space vehicle that could haul scientific and applications satellites of all types into orbit for all users. President Richard M. Nixon approved the effort to build the shuttle in 1972 and the first orbital flight took place in 1981. Although the development program was risky, a talented group of scientists and engineers worked to create this unique space vehicle and their efforts were largely successful. Since 1981, the various orbiters -Atlantis, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavour, and Challenger (lost in 1986 during the only Space Shuttle accident)- have made early 100 flights into space. Through 1998, the space shuttle has carried more than 800 major scientific and technological payloads into orbit and its astronaut crews have conducted more than 50 extravehicular activities, including repairing satellites and the initial building of the International Space Station. The shuttle remains the only vehicle in the world with the dual ability to deliver and return large payloads to and from orbit, and is also the world's most reliable launch system. The design, now almost three decades old, is still state-of-the-art in many areas, including computerized flight control, airframe design, electrical power systems, thermal protection system, and main engines. This significant new study of the decision to build the space shuttle explains the shuttle's origin and early development. In addition to internal NASA discussions, this work details the debates in the late 1960s and early 1970s among policymakers in Congress, the Air Force, and the Office of Management and Budget over the roles and technical designs of the shuttle. Examining the interplay of these organizations with sometimes conflicting goals, the author not only explains how the world's premier space launch vehicle came into being, but also how politics can interact with science, technology, national security, and economics in national government.

Download or read book The Space Shuttle Decision written by T. A. Heppenheimer and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The History of the Space Shuttle written by Publishing Whitman and published by Whitman Pub Llc. This book was released on 2012 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the history of the space shuttles, from inception to final mission, including photographs, crew information, and mission timeline.

Download or read book SPACE SHUTTLE DECISION V1 PB written by HEPPENHEIMER TA and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 2002-05-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Space Shuttle Decision NASA s Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle written by T. A. Heppenheimer and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2009-11-18 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This significant new study of the decision to build the Space Shuttle explains the Shuttle's origins and early development. In addition to internal NASA discussions, this work details the debates in the late 1960s and early 1970s among policymakers in Congress, the Air Force, and the Office of Management and Budget over the roles and technical designs of the Shuttle. Examining the interplay of these organizations with sometimes conflicting goals, the author not only explains how the world's premier space launch vehicle came into being, but also how politics can interact with science, technology, national security, and economics in national government. The weighty policy decision to build the Shuttle represents the first component of the broader story: future NASA volumes will cover the Shuttle's development and operational histories.

Download or read book SPACE SHUTTLE DECISION V1 PB written by HEPPENHEIMER TA and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 2002-05-17 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Space Shuttle Decision written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Space Shuttle took shape and won support, and criticism, as part of NASA's search for a post-Apollo future. NASA had grown rapidly during the 1960s and the success of the piloted moon landings brought insistent demands that NASA should shrink considerably. In facing those demands, and in overcoming them to a degree, NASA extended our manned presence in space. Before anyone could speak seriously of a space shuttle, there had to be a widespread awareness that such a craft would be useful and perhaps even worth building. A shuttle would necessarily find its role within an ambitious space program; and while science-fiction writers had been prophesying such wonders since the days of Jules Verne, it was another matter to present such predictions in ways that smacked of realism. This book portrays NASA's search for continued manned space exploration after the success of Apollo. During 1969, with Nixon newly elected and the first astronauts setting foot on the Moon, NASA Administrator Thomas Paine led a push for a future in space that promised to be expansive. He aimed at nothing less than a piloted expedition to Mars, propelled by nuclear rocket engines that were already in development. En route to Mars, he expected to build space stations and large space bases. Almost as an afterthought, he expected to build a space shuttle as well, to provide low-cost flight to these orbiting facilities. Soon after Neil Armstrong made his one small step in the lunar Sea of Tranquillity, Paine received a cold bath in the Sea of Reality. Nixon's budget director, Robert Mayo, chopped a billion dollars from Paine's request. This brought an end to NASA's hopes for a space base and for flight to Mars. It appeared possible, however, to proceed with the space station and the Shuttle, as a joint project. The Shuttle drew particular interest within the Air Force, which saw it as a means to accomplish low-cost launches of reconnaissance satellites and other military spacecraft. Congress, however, was deeply skeptical toward the proposed shuttle/station, as both the House and Senate came close to killing it in 1970. NASA responded to this near-death experience by placing the station on the shelf and bringing the Shuttle to the forefront. Its officials needed political support that could win over doubters in Congress, and they found this support within the Department of Defense. The Air Force now found itself in a most unusual position. Its generals had worked through the 1960s to pursue programs that could put military astronauts in space. These programs had faltered. Yet here was NASA offering the Pentagon a piloted space shuttle. The Air Force gave its political support to the Shuttle, and NASA went on to quell the opposition on Capitol Hill. The OMB was a tougher opponent. These critics forced NASA to abandon plans for a shuttle with two fully reusable liquid-fueled stages, and to set out on a search for a shuttle design that would cost half as much to develop. Budget officials demanded a design that would be smaller and less costly, even though such a shuttle would have significantly less capability than the Air Force wanted. By shrinking the Shuttle, however, NASA won support where it counted. Caspar Weinberger, the OMB's deputy director, gave his endorsement late in 1971. Nixon also decided that the nation should have a shuttle. On the eve of decision, the key player proved to be OMB Director George Shultz. He decided that since the shuttle was to serve the entire nation, it should have the full capability for which NASA hoped and the Air Force demanded. Shultz's decision reinforced Nixon's, putting an end to the OMB's continuing demands to downsize the design. The consequence was the Space Shuttle as we know it today.

Download or read book Space Shuttle Decision 1965 1972 written by T. A. Heppenheimer and published by Turtleback. This book was released on 2002-05-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heppenheimer looks back at the shuttle's technical antecedents such as the X-15 rocket plane and rocket booster technologies, and illuminates the principal personalities involved in the space shuttle decision and their motivations. He traces NASA's evolving program goals, the technical calculations, political maneuvering, and fiscal constraints, and explains the myriad designs that preceded the shuttle concept. In closing, he looks in detail at the circumstances leading to the politically charged development decision of 1972.

Download or read book Dark Star written by Matthew H. Hersch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-12-26 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A captivating history of NASA’s Space Transportation System—the space shuttle—chronicling the inevitable failures of a doomed design. In Dark Star, Matthew Hersch challenges the existing narrative of the most significant human space program of the last 50 years, NASA’s space shuttle. He begins with the origins of the space shuttle: a century-long effort to develop a low-cost, reusable, rocket-powered airplane to militarize and commercialize space travel, which Hersch explains was built the wrong way, at the wrong time, and for all the wrong reasons. Describing the unique circumstances that led to the space shuttle’s creation by President Richard Nixon’s administration in 1972 and its subsequent flights from 1981 through 2011, Hersch illustrates how the space shuttle was doomed from the start. While most historians have accepted the view that the space shuttle’s fatal accidents—including the 1986 Challenger explosion—resulted from deficiencies in NASA’s management culture that lulled engineers into a false confidence in the craft, Dark Star reveals the widespread understanding that the shuttle was predestined for failure as a technology demonstrator. The vehicle was intended only to give the United States the appearance of a viable human spaceflight program until funds became available to eliminate its obvious flaws. Hersch’s work seeks to answer the perilous questions of technological choice that confront every generation, and it is a critical read for anyone interested in how we can create a better world through the things we build.

Download or read book DEVM SPACE SHUTTLE written by Heppenheimer Ta and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 2002-05-17 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book DEVM SPACE SHUTTLE written by Heppenheimer Ta and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 2002-05-17 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Bold They Rise written by David Hitt and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2021-11 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bold They Rise recounts the golden age of the Space Shuttle—from its first to its twenty-fifth launch, ending with the tragic flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Download or read book The Space Shuttle Decision written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published by . This book was released on 2017-10-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This NASA report presents a fascinating history of the decision to proceed with the Space Shuttle program. Contents: Chapter 1 - Space Stations and Winged Rockets * The Collier's Series * Background to the Space Station * Winged Rockets: The Work of Eugen Sanger * The Navaho and the Main Line of American Liquid Rocketry * The X-15: An Airplane for Hypersonic Research * Lifting Bodies: Wingless Winged Rockets * Solid-Propellant Rockets: Inexpensive Boosters * Dyna-Soar: A Failure in Evolution * Chapter 2 - NASA's Uncertain Future * Technology Bypasses the Space Station * Apollo Applications: Prelude to a Space Station * Space Station Concepts of the 1960s * Early Studies of Low-Cost Reusable Space Flight * Two Leaders Emerge: Max Hunter and George Mueller * NASA and the Post-Apollo Future . * Chapter 3 - Mars and Other Dream Worlds * Nuclear Rocket Engines * A New Administrator: Thomas Paine * Space Shuttle Studies Continue * Space Shuttle Policy: Opening Gambits * Paine Seeks a Space Station * Space Shuttles Receive New Attention * Space Task Group Members Prepare Plans * Agnew Leads a Push Toward Mars * Chapter 4 - Winter of Discontent * The Sixties * Mars: The Advance * Mars: The Retreat * The Turn of Congress * Paine Leaves NASA * Chapter 5 - Shuttle to the Forefront * The Air Force in Space * The Air Force and NASA * A New Shuttle Configuration * Station Fades; Shuttle Advances * The Space Shuttle Main Engine * Chapter 6 - Economics and the Shuttle * Why People Believed in Low-Cost Space Flight * The Shuttle Faces Questions * Change at NASA and the Bureau of the Budget * The Fall of the Two-Stage Fully-Reusable Shuttle * Chapter 7 - Aerospace Recession * The Boeing 747 * The Supersonic Transport (SST) * The Lockheed L-1011 * Aftermaths * Chapter 8 - A Shuttle to Fit the Budget * The Orbiter: Convergence to a Good Solution * The Booster: Confusion and Doubt * End Game in the Shuttle Debate * TAOS: A New Alternative * A Time to Decide * Chapter 9 - Nixon's Decision * Nixon and Technology * Space Shuttle: The Last Moves * The Hinge of Decision * Loose Ends I: A Final Configuration * Loose Ends II: NERVA and Cape Canaveral * Awarding the Contracts. The Space Shuttle took shape and won support, and criticism, as part of NASA's search for a post-Apollo future. As with the Army and Navy in World War II, NASA had grown rapidly during the 1960s. Similarly, just as those military services saw a sharp falloff in funding in the wake of victory, the success of the piloted Moon landings brought insistent demands that NASA should shrink considerably. In facing those demands, and in overcoming them to a degree, NASA established itself as a permanent player in Washington. During 1969, with Nixon newly elected and the first astronauts setting foot on the Moon, NASA Administrator Thomas Paine led a push for a future in space that promised to be expansive. He aimed at nothing less than a piloted expedition to Mars, propelled by nuclear rocket engines that were already in development. En route to Mars, he expected to build space stations and large space bases. Almost as an afterthought, he expected to build a space shuttle as well, to provide low-cost flight to these orbiting facilities. Soon after Neil Armstrong made his one small step in the lunar Sea of Tranquility, Paine received a cold bath in the Sea of Reality. Nixon's budget director, Robert Mayo, chopped a billion dollars from Paine's request. This brought an end to NASA's hopes for a space base and for flight to Mars. It appeared possible, however, to proceed with the space station and the shuttle, as a joint project. The shuttle drew particular interest within the Air Force, which saw it as a means to accomplish low-cost launches of reconnaissance satellites and other military spacecraft.

Download or read book The History of the American Space Shuttle written by Dennis R. Jenkins and published by Schiffer + ORM. This book was released on 2019-11-28 with total page 1092 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed history of the American Space Shuttle Program from award-winning NASA insider Each mission is reviewed from its early inception to delivering the remaining vehicles to their final display sites Covers the history of reusable winged spacecraft from the 1920s throughout the final mission of the American space shuttle