Another reason: Shuttle flight decks get very hot with all of the equipment turned on, and special cooling systems are needed to carry away the heat. See National Geographic's picks of the most unforgettable space shuttle pictures. The flight decks of each of the shuttles have changed throughout the years as a result of periodic upgrades—a complicated process that involved a flight back to California, where all of the orbiters were born, and a temporary break from duty.
Each new space shuttle boasted innovations to reduce weight improve safety, and so forth, Brack explained. Then engineers would apply the improvements to older shuttles.
That one still had old-fashioned style instrumentation," said Horowitz, who served as both a commander and a pilot aboard Discovery.
NASA and United Space Alliance, the agency's prime contractor for servicing the shuttles, made the interactive panoramas possible by granting news organizations unprecedented access to the hundred-ton spaceships after each final shuttle flight pictures of Endeavour's last mission.
Video: Replay the very last space shuttle launch. National Geographic was one of more than a hundred news outlets allowed inside the space shuttles. When they were granted access, Susan Poulton, a vice president of digital media at the National Geographic Society, and Brack originally planned to make only a couple wrap-around images of Discovery using GigaPan.
The technology, developed for NASA's Mars rovers, uses a camera-ready robot and image-stitching software to create the zoomable, degree panoramas. Poulton and Brack eventually logged 30 hours inside and around Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis, creating 27 gigapans of the space shuttles. The pair captured everything from the flight decks, mid-decks , and air locks to the underbellies , payload bays —and even the toilets. It has always been this forbidden place.
We wanted to get pics of everything as close as possible, and we knew GigaPan's high-definition panoramas would allow you to zoom in intimately close," Brack said.
According to Poulton, a long-time space shuttle fan who's witnessed 19 launches and 57 launch attempts, "We realized there was a story in the details that we didn't know until we took the panoramas. In the interactive gigapan of Discovery , for example, viewers can zoom in on a hidden nugget of space shuttle history: the "Bob" switch.
Bobko found the thick gloves of his pressurized suit made it challenging to quickly throw the switch during landing. Its tradition has carried over and it is present in all three orbiters, affectionately known as the 'Bob' switch, for its namesake commander. Over the thirty-year course of the space shuttle program, the shuttles and their crews assembled parts of the International Space Station, deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory, repaired and re-launched satellites, sent probes to Venus and Jupiter, and more.
Five different orbiters flew into space as part of the program— Columbia , Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis and Endeavour —for a total of missions. Counted together, the space shuttles have carried people, flown over million miles, and spent over 1, days in orbit. The space shuttle was actually made up of several separate components. The main engines are part of the orbiter. All the components were reusable except for the external tank, which by design burned up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean following each launch.
Built to replace space shuttle Challenger , Endeavour was the final orbiter to join the shuttle fleet. Endeavour also visited the Mir space station for a few days in STS's crew members were the first to reach Mir in a shuttle other than Atlantis. Endeavour had the honor of being the first shuttle to assemble the International Space Station. On Dec. Astronauts Jerry Ross and James Newman did three spacewalks to hook the two modules together, at which point the modules were turned on.
Except for a shuttle radar topography mission done on STS, the rest of Endeavour's flights focused on building the station. Prior to the Columbia breakup that halted the program for two years, Endeavour's astronauts took on missions such as installing the Canadarm2 and adding more solar arrays to the station. Endeavour stayed on the sidelines for several years after the shuttle program returned to flight.
Upgrades, which began in December , included putting in a "glass cockpit" with more advanced electronics, and installing a new global positioning system. Endeavour next flew into space in August , for STS NASA was hitting the homestretch of space station construction at that point, but there was plenty of work available for all the shuttles. Notably, Endeavour's ISS missions included ferrying the Dextre robotics system, Japanese Kibo Logistics Module and Tranquility node into space, as well as equipment, connectors and parts.
Endeavour's last space mission reached orbit May 16, STS was commanded by Mark Kelly. His wife — Congress member Gabrielle Giffords — had been shot and seriously wounded in January during a reported assassination attempt. Giffords, who was still in the early stages of recovery, attended the launch. Crew members delivered some spare parts for Dextre and two S-band communication antennas, as well as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
Endeavour's mission was the second-last of the shuttle program. Guests can touch these tires from Endeavour flight STS, which show the wear from landing on the runway. The orthogrid was carved from a single metal plate to be part of the wall of a super-lightweight space shuttle external tank ET.
In the Samuel Oschin Pavilion, guests will be able to see Endeavour up close and discover some of the science behind this amazing vehicle.
Orbiter Vehicle completed 25 missions into space, including the first service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and the first mission to add a U. Still the most advanced, efficient rocket engine in the world, space shuttle main engines helped push the shuttle up to orbit. The only part of the shuttle stack that wasn't reusable, the external tank carried the propellants to power the space shuttle main engines.
Breadcrumb Home Exhibits. Experience Endeavour. Help build Endeavour's new home.
0コメント