Space shuttle launches in 1985 Shuttle against Buran. A history of rivalry. Expensive and deadly

As you know, the solution of the same problems in the fields of science or industry is sometimes achieved in different ways. In something similar, in something completely different (due to objective or subjective reasons). A striking example of such a statement is two space programs, the results of which were the Space Shuttle (USA) and the Energia-Buran complex (USSR). In a way it was a competition - "Shuttle" against "Buran".

On October 30, 1968, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), having come to the conclusion that a reusable space system can significantly reduce costs (in case of regular use), came out with a proposal to American companies engaged in the design of space technology. The essence of the proposal was to study the possibilities of creating a complex capable of regularly flying into space and safely delivering a certain amount of payload to the ground (in addition to the crew).

Already in September 1970, a specially created Space Task Force, led by S. Agnew (US Vice President), developed two preliminary projects involving the use of a new "spacecraft".

The complete version included:
orbital tugs;
space shuttles;
small orbital station in the orbit of the moon;
a large orbital station in Earth orbit (up to 50 crew members);
creation of a habitable base on the moon;
manned expeditions to Mars;
landing of people on the surface of Mars.

As an alternative, only the creation of a large orbital station in earth orbit was envisaged. Both in the first and in the second case, all work on the supply of the station, the delivery of cargo to orbit and the change of crews, as well as all other tasks in orbit, were supposed to be carried out using a reusable system called the Space Shuttle. The entire program was threatened with complete oblivion due to the enormous cost of even the cheapest project ($ 5 billion a year). President Richard Nixon vetoed all options without exception. NASA made a tough decision. The expediency of creating the "Shuttle" was substantiated as a very profitable system, in a short time capable of returning the amounts invested in it. Instead of initially being used as a transport ship, it was assigned the role of a reusable launch vehicle to launch satellites into orbit (on a commercial basis).

The US Congress adopted a project for the development and creation of a reusable Space Shuttle system after an economic expert opinion gave the following conclusion: with a complete rejection of the use of disposable carriers and a launch frequency of at least 30 annually, the Space Shuttle system was (theoretically) recognized as cost-effective. The military also did not stand aside, putting forward a number of requirements for the future system. One of them was the clearly defined dimensions of the cargo compartment (at least 18 meters in length and 4.5 meters in diameter), as well as the possibility of launching about 30 tons of payload into orbit and returning about 14.5 tons to the ground. These calculations were made on the basis of the size and weight of the newest (at that time) optical reconnaissance satellite KN-11 KENNAN, which was to be put into the space shuttle orbit. In 1979, the first space shuttle was manufactured, named Columbia. Its components were as follows:
a spacecraft (rocket orbiter) which was launched into orbit;
an external fuel tank (8.38 m in diameter and 47 m long), which contained 756 tons of fuel (oxygen and hydrogen) for the operation of three propulsion engines;
two solid-propellant rocket boosters (50 m high and 3.71 m in diameter) with a total weight of 1180 tons.

The Space Shuttle system was launched as follows. Vertical start on sustainer engines (at full power), while the accelerators are working at the same time, creating about 80% of the lift. Upon reaching an altitude of 45 km, after about 126 seconds, the solid-fuel boosters detach and parachute into the ocean. The outer tank is dropped at an altitude of approximately 105 km. It, in most cases, burns out upon entering the atmosphere. After completing the flight, the Shuttle will independently land on the runway like a normal glider. The orbiter's crew consists of two people (commander and pilot), but is capable of taking on board up to eight astronauts. The estimated time spent in orbit is about two weeks.

Production of NPP RUSMET offers services for plasma cutting of metal and the production of metal structures.

In total, within the framework of the Space Shuttle project, six ships of this class were manufactured:
Enterprise - built in the late 70s (used to practice landing techniques). Colombia (1979) - completed 28 space flights.
Challenger (July 1982) - 10 flights.
Discovery (November 1982) - 39 flights.
Atlantis (1985) - 33 flights.
Endeavor (1991) - 25 flights.

The program was completed in 2011, in thirty years, 335 astronauts visited space (there were no unmanned launches), 1.6 thousand tons of various cargoes were lifted into orbit.

Photos of the future "Shuttle", complete with drawings and descriptions, were received by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the USSR by the beginning of 1975. Two independent experts very quickly came to the conclusion that the new system could be used for military purposes.

And the confrontation began - "Shuttle" against "Buran".
The technical information obtained by the reconnaissance became serious reasons for concern: the launch of payloads into orbit in the United States never exceeded 150 tons / year, while nothing went back down at all. The Space Shuttle system provided the ability to lift 12 times more cargo (and lower 820 tons / year!). Since there was no civilian department (like NASA) in the USSR, all rocket and space programs were carried out either through the Ministry of Defense or with the approval of the top party leadership. "Good" for the implementation of the project was received in 1976. And already on November 10, 1985, the full-size analogue of Buran, BTS-002 (GLI), made its first flight as part of atmospheric horizontal flight tests. In the cockpit of the spacecraft were two test pilots R. A. A. Stankevichus and I. P. Volk.

The first (and only) flight of the Energia-Buran reusable complex took place on November 15, 1988 in unmanned mode. After a successful launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome, the spacecraft, having completed two full orbits around the Earth, landed on its own at the Yubileiny airfield. The entire flight took 205 minutes. It never came to a "full-fledged" launch (with a crew), the Energia-Buran program was first suspended (1990), and then finally closed in 1993.

The only "Buran" that ascended into space ingloriously ended its existence under the rubble of the roof of the assembly and test building in 2002. Along with it, ready-made copies of the Energia launch vehicle were destroyed. Despite the external similarity of the Shuttle and Buran, the latter had a number of fundamental structural differences. The Soviet complex had four side blocks with oxygen - four-chamber four-chamber engines of the first stage (RD-170) and four oxygen - hydrogen engines (RD-0120) of the second stage, which put Buran into orbit.

By and large, the resemblance between the Shuttle and Buran ends with the outer outline of spaceplanes. Creation is based on completely different principles. If "Space Shuttle" was designed exclusively as a system for launching a shuttle into orbit, and could not be used in any other way (this is a single block system), then the rocket-space system "Energia" was a universal development capable of delivering any large object into space. The undoubted advantage of the Energia carrier rocket can be considered the sequential launch of the first and second stages, while the Space Shuttle is triggered immediately and simultaneously. Delivery to the launch site was carried out in different ways - Buran was transported horizontally, and the Shuttle - vertically. And finally, the main difference. could perform unmanned flights, unlike its American counterpart.

Finally, our "Buran" was capable of unmanned flight. Under the control of a computer, he even made a landing. For the Americans, this task was beyond their power, which is most surprising. It is difficult to recall a case when our technology turned out to be "wiser" than the American one. The creator of "Buran" Yu. Semenov mentioned one more difference: one ship flew, the other did not. But this difference was only a matter of time.

So, speaking about the confrontation between the Shuttle and Buran, we can only talk about rivalry in the field of technology, since the long history of successful (and not too much) launches of the American spaceplane is difficult to compare with a single flight (albeit one entered in the Guinness Book of Records) its Soviet counterpart.

May 3rd, 2016

One of the highlights of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Udvar Hazy Center) is the space shuttle Discovery. Actually, this hangar was primarily built to receive a NASA spacecraft after the completion of the Space Shuttle program. During the period of active use of shuttles, the Enterprise training ship was exhibited in the center of Udvar Hazy, which was used for tests in the atmosphere and as a weight-dimensional model, before the creation of the first truly space shuttle "Columbia".

Space shuttle Discovery. In 27 years of service, this shuttle has visited space 39 times.

Ships built under the Space Transportation System program
Ship layout

Unfortunately, most of the agency's ambitious plans never came true. Landing on the moon solved all the political problems of the United States in space at that time, and flights into deep space were of no practical interest. And public interest began to fade. Who will immediately remember the name of the third person on the moon? At the time of the last flight of the Apollo spacecraft under the Soyuz-Apollo program in 1975, funding for the American space agency was drastically reduced by the decision of President Richard Nixon.

The US had more pressing concerns and interests on Earth. As a result, further manned flights of the Americans were generally called into question. Lack of funding and increased solar activity also led to the fact that NASA lost the Skylab station, a project that was far ahead of its time and had advantages even over today's ISS. The agency simply did not have ships and carriers to raise its orbit in time, and the station burned up in the atmosphere.

Space Shuttle "Discovery" - bow
The visibility from the cockpit is rather limited. The nose jets of the attitude control engines are also visible.

All that NASA managed to do at that time was to present the space shuttle program as economically viable. The Space Shuttle was supposed to take over both the provision of manned flights, the launch of satellites, as well as their repair and maintenance. NASA promised to take over all spacecraft launches, including military and commercial, which, through the use of a reusable spacecraft, could bring the project to self-sufficiency, provided that there are several dozen launches per year.

Space Shuttle Discovery - wing and power panel
At the rear of the shuttle, near the engines, a power panel is visible, through which the ship was connected to the launch pad, at the time of launch the panel was separated from the shuttle.

Looking ahead, I will say that the project never came to self-sufficiency, but on paper everything looked quite smooth (perhaps it was conceived), so money was allocated for the construction and maintenance of the ships. Unfortunately, NASA did not have the opportunity to build a new station, all the heavy Saturn rockets were spent in the lunar program (the latter launched Skylab), and there were no funds for the construction of new ones. Without a space station, the Space Shuttle had a fairly limited stay in orbit (no more than 2 weeks).

In addition, the reusable ship's dV supplies were much less than disposable Soviet Unions or American Apollo. As a result, the Space Shuttle had the ability to enter only low orbits (up to 643 km), in many respects it was this fact that predetermined that today, 42 years later, the Apollo 17 mission was and remains the last manned flight into deep space.

The fastenings of the cargo compartment doors are clearly visible. They are quite small and relatively fragile, since the cargo compartment opened only in zero gravity.

Space Shuttle Endeavor with open cargo hold. Immediately behind the cockpit, the ISS docking station is visible.

Space shuttles were able to lift a crew of up to 8 people into orbit and, depending on the inclination of the orbit, from 12 to 24.4 tons of cargo. And, importantly, to lower cargoes weighing up to 14.4 tons and more from orbit, provided that they fit into the cargo compartment of the ship. Soviet and Russian spacecraft still do not have such capabilities. When NASA published data on the carrying capacity of the Space Shuttle's cargo bay, the Soviet Union seriously considered the idea of stealing Soviet orbital stations and spacecraft by Space Shuttle ships. It was even proposed to equip Soviet manned stations with weapons to protect against a possible attack by a shuttle.

Vehicle attitude control nozzles. The traces of the last entry of the ship into the atmosphere are clearly visible on the thermal casing.

Space Shuttle ships were actively used for orbital launches of unmanned vehicles, in particular, the Hubble Space Telescope. The presence of a crew and the possibility of repair work in orbit made it possible to avoid embarrassing situations in the spirit of Phobos-Grunt. The Space Shuttle also worked with space stations under the Mir-Space Shuttle program in the early 90s and, until recently, delivered modules for the ISS, which did not need to be equipped with its own propulsion system. Due to the high cost of flights, the spacecraft could not fully ensure the rotation of the crews and the supply of the ISS (as conceived by the developers - its main task).

Space Shuttle "Discovery" - ceramic cladding.
Each cladding tile has its own serial number and designation. Unlike the USSR, where ceramic cladding tiles were made with a margin for the Buran program, NASA built a workshop where a special machine, according to the serial number, produced tiles of the required sizes automatically. Several hundred of these tiles had to be replaced after each flight.

Flight scheme of the ship

1. Start - ignition of the propulsion systems of the I and II stages, flight control is carried out by deflection of the thrust vector of the shuttle engines, and up to an altitude of about 30 kilometers, control is additionally provided by deflection of the rudder. There is no manual control during the take-off phase, the ship is controlled by a computer, similar to a conventional rocket.

2. The separation of solid propellant boosters occurs at 125 seconds of flight upon reaching a speed of 1390 m / s and a flight altitude of about 50 km. To avoid damaging the shuttle, they are separated by eight small solid-propellant rocket motors. At an altitude of 7.6 km, the boosters deploy the braking parachute, and at an altitude of 4.8 km, the main parachutes. At 463 seconds from the moment of launch and at a distance of 256 km from the launch site, solid-propellant boosters splash down, after which they are towed to the shore. In most cases, boosters could be refueled and reused.

Video recording of a flight into space from cameras of solid fuel accelerators.

3. At 480 seconds of flight, the outboard fuel tank (orange) is separated, taking into account the speed and height of the compartment, rescue and reuse of the fuel tank would require equipping it with the same thermal protection as the shuttle itself, which, ultimately, was considered inappropriate ... On a ballistic trajectory, the tank falls into the Pacific or Indian Ocean, collapsing in the dense layers of the atmosphere.
4. Entry of the orbital vehicle into low-earth orbit, using the engines of the attitude control system.
5. Execution of the orbital flight program.
6. Retrograde impulse by hydrazine attitude thrusters, deorbiting.
7. Planning in the earth's atmosphere. Unlike Buran, landing is carried out only manually, so the ship could not fly without a crew.
8. Landing at the cosmodrome, the ship lands at a speed of about 300 kilometers per hour, which is much higher than the landing speed of conventional aircraft. To reduce the braking distance and load on the landing gear, the braking parachutes are deployed immediately after touching.

Propulsion system. The tail of the shuttle is able to bifurcate, acting as an air brake in the final stages of landing.

Despite the outward resemblance, the spaceplane has very little in common with an airplane; it is rather a very heavy glider. The shuttle does not have its own reserves of fuel for the main engines, so the engines only work while the ship is connected to the orange fuel tank (for the same reason, the engines are mounted asymmetrically). In space and during landing, the spacecraft uses only low-power attitude control engines and two hydrazine-fueled propulsion engines (small engines on the sides of the main engines).

There were plans to supply the Space Shuttles with jet engines, but due to the high cost and the reduced payload of the ship by the weight of engines and fuel, they decided to abandon jet engines. The lift of the ship's wings is small, and the landing itself is carried out exclusively through the use of the kinetic energy of de-orbiting. In fact, the ship was gliding from orbit directly to the cosmodrome. For this reason, the ship has only one approach for landing; the shuttle will no longer be able to turn around and go around. Therefore, NASA has built several reserve lanes around the world for the landing of shuttles.

Space Shuttle Discovery - crew hatch.
This door is used for boarding and disembarking crew members. The hatch is not equipped with an air lock and is blocked in space. The crew performed spacewalks, docking with Mir and the ISS through an airlock in the cargo compartment on the “back” of the spacecraft.

Sealed suit for takeoff and landing of the space shuttle.

The first test flights of the shuttles were equipped with catapult seats, which made it possible to escape the ship in an emergency, then the catapult was removed. There was also one of the emergency landing scenarios when the crew left the ship by parachute at the last stage of the descent. The suit's distinctive orange color was chosen to facilitate rescue operations in the event of an emergency landing. Unlike a space suit, this suit does not have a heat distribution system and is not intended for spacewalk. In the event of a complete depressurization of the ship, even with a pressurized suit, there is little chance of surviving at least a few hours.

Space Shuttle Discovery - landing gear and ceramic underbody and fenders.

Space suit for work in outer space of the Space Shuttle program.

Catastrophes
Of the 5 built ships, 2 died along with the entire crew.

Disaster of the Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51L

On January 28, 1986, the Challenger shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launch due to the failure of the O-ring of the solid propellant booster, breaking through the gap, a jet of fire melted the fuel tank and led to an explosion of a supply of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The crew apparently survived the explosion directly, but the cockpit was not equipped with parachutes or other means of rescue and crashed into the water.

In the aftermath of the Challenger disaster, NASA developed several procedures for rescuing the crew during takeoff and landing, but none of these scenarios would still be able to save the Challenger crew, even if it was provided.

Space shuttle Columbia crash mission STS-107
The wreckage of the shuttle Columbia burns up in the atmosphere.

The wing-edge heat skin section was damaged during launch two weeks earlier by a piece of thermal insulation foam falling off that covered the fuel tank (the tank is filled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen, so the insulation foam avoids ice formation and reduces fuel evaporation). This fact was noticed, but not given due importance on the assumption that in any case, there is little that astronauts can do. As a result, the flyover proceeded normally until the stage of re-entry into the atmosphere on February 1, 2003.

Here it is clearly visible that the heat shield covers only the wing edge. (This is where Columbia was damaged.)

Under the influence of high temperatures, the thermal sheathing tile collapsed and at an altitude of about 60 kilometers, high-temperature plasma broke through into the aluminum structures of the wing. A few seconds later, the wing collapsed, at a speed of about 10 mach, the ship lost stability and was destroyed by aerodynamic forces. Before Discovery appeared in the museum's exposition, the Enterprise (a training shuttle that performed only atmospheric flights) was exhibited at the same place.

The Incident Investigation Committee cut out a fragment of the wing of the museum exhibit for examination. Chunks of foam were fired at the edge of the wing with a special cannon and the damage was assessed. It was this experiment that helped to come to an unambiguous conclusion about the causes of the disaster. The human factor also played an important role in the tragedy; NASA employees underestimated the damage sustained by the ship during the launch phase.

A simple survey of the wing in outer space could reveal damage, but the MCC did not give the crew such a command, believing that the problem could be solved upon returning to Earth, and even if the damage is irreversible, the crew will still be unable to do anything and there is no point in unnecessarily worrying the astronauts. Although this was not the case, the shuttle Atlantis was being prepared for launch, which could be used for a rescue operation. An emergency protocol that will be adopted on all subsequent flights.

Among the wreckage of the ship, it was possible to find a video that the astronauts were recording during the entry into the atmosphere. Officially, the recording ends a few minutes before the start of the disaster, but I strongly suspect that NASA decided not to publish the last seconds of the astronauts' lives for ethical reasons. The crew did not know about their impending death, looking at the plasma raging behind the ship's windows, one of the astronauts joked “I would not like to be outside now”, not knowing that this is exactly what the entire crew was expecting in just a few minutes. Life is full of dark irony.

Termination of the program

Space Shuttle program end logo (left) and commemorative coin (right). Coins are made of metal that traveled to space in the first mission of the space shuttle Columbia STS-1

The sinking of the space shuttle Columbia raised a serious question about the safety of the remaining 3 spacecraft, which by that time had been in operation for over 25 years. As a result, subsequent flights began to take place with a reduced crew, and another shuttle was always kept in reserve, ready for launch, which could carry out a rescue operation. Combined with the US government's shift in emphasis to commercial space exploration, these factors led to the program's termination in 2011. The last shuttle flight was the launch of Atlantis to the ISS on July 8, 2011.

The Space Shuttle program has made a huge contribution to space exploration and the development of knowledge and experience about working in orbit. Without the Space Shuttle, the construction of the ISS would be completely different and would hardly be close to completion today. On the other hand, it is believed that the Space Shuttle program has held back NASA for the last 35 years, requiring large costs for servicing shuttles: the cost of one flight was about $ 500 million, for comparison, the launch of each Soyuz cost only 75-100.

The ships consumed funds that could go to the development of interplanetary programs and more promising directions in the exploration and development of space. For example, building a more compact and cheaper reusable or disposable ship, for those missions where the 100 ton Space Shuttle was simply not needed. If NASA had abandoned the Space Shuttle, the development of the US space industry could have gone completely differently.

How exactly, now it is already difficult to say, perhaps NASA simply did not have a choice and if there were no shuttles, America's civil space exploration could have stopped altogether. One thing can be confidently asserted, today the Space Shuttle ships were and remain the only example of a successful reusable space system. The Soviet "Buran", although it was built as a reusable ship, has visited space only once, however, this is a completely different story.

Taken from lennikov in a Virtual Tour of the Smithsonian National Aerospace Museum: Part Two

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One of the highlights of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Udvar Hazy Center) is the space shuttle Discovery. Actually, this hangar was first of all built to accept the NASA spacecraft after the completion of the Space Shuttle program. Columbia's first truly space shuttle.

Ships built under the Space Transportation System program

Ship layout

Enterprise OV-101 - 0 flights. (Test ship for atmospheric testing)
Columbia OV-102 - 28 flights.
Challenger OV-099 - 10 flights.
Discovery OV-103 - 39 flights.
Atlantis OV-104 - 33 flights.
Endeavor OV-105 - 25 flights.
Total: 135 space flights.

History of creation

The Apollo program was a national US project and at that time the agency enjoyed an almost unlimited budget. Therefore, NASA had grandiose plans: the Freedom Space Station, designed for 50 crew members, a permanent base on the Moon by 1981, a manned flyby of Venus, the Orion nuclear interplanetary spacecraft for missions to Mars and into deep space based on the NERVA engine. To maintain and supply this entire space economy, the reusable Space Shuttle was conceived. Its planning and development began back in 1971 at North American Rockwell.

Space Shuttle "Discovery" - bow
The visibility from the cockpit is rather limited. The nose jets of the attitude control engines are also visible.

The fastenings of the cargo compartment doors are clearly visible. They are quite small and relatively fragile, since the cargo compartment opened only in zero gravity.

Space Shuttle Endeavor with open cargo hold. Immediately behind the cockpit, the ISS docking station is visible.

Vehicle attitude control nozzles. The traces of the last entry of the ship into the atmosphere are clearly visible on the thermal casing.

Space Shuttle Discovery - ceramic cladding.
Each cladding tile has its own serial number and designation. Unlike the USSR, where ceramic cladding tiles were made with a margin for the Buran program, NASA built a workshop where a special machine, according to the serial number, produced tiles of the required sizes automatically. Several hundred of these tiles had to be replaced after each flight.

Video recording of a flight into space from cameras of solid fuel accelerators.

3. At 480 seconds of flight, the outboard fuel tank (orange) is separated, taking into account the speed and height of the compartment, rescue and reuse of the fuel tank would require equipping it with the same thermal protection as the shuttle itself, which, ultimately, was considered inappropriate ... On a ballistic trajectory, the tank falls into the Pacific or Indian Ocean, collapsing in the dense layers of the atmosphere.
4. Entry of the orbital vehicle into low-earth orbit using attitude control engines.
5. Execution of the orbital flight program.
6. Retrograde impulse by hydrazine attitude thrusters, deorbiting.
7. Planning in the earth's atmosphere. Unlike Buran, landing is carried out only manually, so the ship could not fly without a crew.
8. Landing at the cosmodrome, the ship lands at a speed of about 300 kilometers per hour, which is much higher than the landing speed of conventional aircraft. To reduce the braking distance and load on the landing gear, the braking parachutes are deployed immediately after touching.

Propulsion system. The tail of the shuttle is able to bifurcate, acting as an air brake in the final stages of landing.

Sealed suit for takeoff and landing of the space shuttle.

Space Shuttle Discovery - landing gear and ceramic underbody and fenders.

Space suit for work in outer space of the Space Shuttle program.

Disaster of the Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51L

Space shuttle Columbia crash mission STS-107

The wreckage of the shuttle Columbia burns up in the atmosphere.

Here it is clearly visible that the heat shield covers only the wing edge. (This is where Columbia was damaged.)

Termination of the program

Space Shuttle graduation logo and commemorative coin. Coins are made of metal that traveled to space in the first mission of the space shuttle Columbia STS-1

The Space Shuttle program has made a huge contribution to space exploration and the development of knowledge and experience about working in orbit. Without the Space Shuttle, the construction of the ISS would be completely different and would hardly be close to completion today. On the other hand, there is an opinion that the Space Shuttle program has held back NASA for the last 35 years, requiring large costs for servicing shuttles: the cost of one flight was about $ 500 million, for comparison - the launch of each Soyuz cost only 75-100.

How exactly, now it is already difficult to say, perhaps NASA simply did not have a choice and if there were no shuttles, America's civil space exploration could have stopped altogether. One thing can be confidently asserted, today the Space Shuttle ships were and remain the only example of a successful reusable space system. The Soviet "Buran", although it was built as a reusable ship, has been in space only once, however, this is a completely different story.

On July 21, 2011 at 09:57 UTC, the space shuttle Atlantis landed on runway 15 of the Kennedy Space Center. This was the 33rd flight of Atlantis and the 135th space expedition as part of the Space Shuttle project.

This flight was the last in the history of one of the most ambitious space programs. The project, on which the United States relied on in space exploration, did not end at all the way its developers had once envisioned.

The idea of reusable spaceships appeared both in the USSR and in the USA at the dawn of the space age, in the 1960s. The United States moved to its practical implementation in 1971, when North American Rockwell received an order from NASA to design and build an entire fleet of reusable ships.

According to the idea of the authors of the program, the reusable ships were to become an effective and reliable means of delivering astronauts and cargo from Earth to low-Earth orbit. The devices were supposed to scurry along the route "Earth - Space - Earth", like shuttles, which is why the program was named "Space Shuttle" - "Space Shuttle".

Initially, the "shuttles" were only part of a larger project involving the creation of a large orbital station for 50 people, a base on the moon and a small orbital station in orbit of an Earth satellite. Given the complexity of the concept, NASA was ready at the initial stage to limit itself to only a large orbital station.

When these plans were submitted to the White House for approval, US President Richard Nixon darkened in the eyes of the number of zeros in the estimated project estimate. The United States spent a huge amount to get ahead of the USSR in the manned "lunar race", but it was impossible to continue funding space programs in truly astronomical amounts.

First start on Cosmonautics Day

After Nixon rejected these projects, NASA went for a trick. Hiding away plans to create a large orbital station, the president was presented with a project to create a reusable spacecraft as a system capable of generating profit and recouping investments by launching satellites into orbit on a commercial basis.

The new project was sent to economists for examination, who made a conclusion - the program will pay off if at least 30 launches of reusable ships are carried out per year, and launches of disposable ships will be stopped altogether.

NASA was convinced that these parameters are quite achievable, and the Space Shuttle project received the approval of the President and the US Congress.

Indeed, in the name of the Space Shuttle project, the United States has abandoned disposable spacecraft. Moreover, by the beginning of the 1980s, it was decided to transfer the program of launches of military and reconnaissance vehicles to "shuttles". The developers assured that their perfect miracle devices would open a new page in space exploration, make them abandon huge costs and even allow them to make a profit.

The very first reusable ship, dubbed the Enterprise by popular demand from Star Trek fans, never went into space - it only served to perfect landing techniques.

Construction of the first full-fledged reusable spacecraft began in 1975 and was completed in 1979. He received the name "Columbia" - after the name of the sailboat on which captain Robert Gray in May 1792 explored the inland waters of British Columbia.

April 12, 1981 "Columbia" with a crew of John Young and Robert Crippen successfully launched from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral. The launch was not planned to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the launch Yuri Gagarin, but fate decreed that way. The start, originally scheduled for March 17, was postponed several times due to various problems and was eventually carried out on April 12.

Start of "Columbia". Photo: wikipedia.org

Takeoff disaster

The flotilla of reusable ships in 1982 was replenished with the Challenger and Discovery, and in 1985 with the Atlantis.

The Space Shuttle project has become the pride and hallmark of the United States. Only specialists knew about its reverse side. The shuttles, for the sake of which the US manned program was interrupted for six whole years, were far from being as reliable as the creators had assumed. Almost every launch was accompanied by troubleshooting before launch and during the flight. In addition, it turned out that the costs of operating the shuttles are in reality several times higher than those envisaged by the project.

NASA reassured critics - yes, there are drawbacks, but they are insignificant. The resource of each of the ships is designed for 100 flights, by 1990 there will be 24 launches per year, and the shuttles will not devour funds, but will make a profit.

On January 28, 1986, the 25th expedition under the Space Shuttle program was to start from Cape Canaveral. The Challenger spacecraft was sent into space, for which it was the 10th mission. In addition to professional astronauts, the crew included teacher Christa McAuliffe, winner of the Teacher in Space competition, who was supposed to teach some lessons from orbit for American schoolchildren.

The attention of all America was riveted to this launch, the relatives and friends of the Christa were present at the cosmodrome.

But on the 73rd second of the flight, in front of those present at the cosmodrome and millions of TV viewers, the Challenger exploded. Seven astronauts on board were killed.

The death of the Challenger. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

"Maybe" in American style

Never before in the history of astronautics has a catastrophe claimed so many lives at once. The US manned flight program was interrupted for 32 months.

Investigation showed that the cause of the crash was damage to the O-ring of the right solid fuel booster at launch. Damage to the ring caused a hole in the side of the accelerator to burn out, from which a jet stream was beating towards the external fuel tank.

In the course of clarifying all the circumstances, very unsightly details about the internal "kitchen" of NASA were revealed. In particular, NASA leaders knew about the defects of the O-rings since 1977 - that is, since the construction of Columbia. However, they gave up on the potential threat, relying on the American "maybe". In the end, it all ended in a monstrous tragedy.

After the death of the Challenger, measures were taken and conclusions were drawn. Completion of the "shuttles" did not stop all subsequent years, and by the end of the project, they were already, in fact, completely different ships.

The Endeavor was built to replace the deceased Challenger and was commissioned in 1991.

Shuttle Endeavor. Photo: Public Domain

From Hubble to ISS

It is impossible to talk only about the shortcomings of the "shuttles". Thanks to them, for the first time, work was carried out in space that had not been carried out before, for example, the repair of out-of-order spacecraft and even their return from orbit.

It was the "shuttle" "Discovery" that delivered the now famous Hubble telescope into orbit. Thanks to the shuttles, the telescope was repaired four times in orbit, which made it possible to extend its operation.

On the "shuttles" crews of up to 8 people were put into orbit, while the disposable Soviet "Soyuz" could lift into space and return to Earth no more than 3 people.

In the 1990s, after the project of the Soviet space shuttle Buran was closed, American shuttles began to fly to the Mir orbital station. These ships played an important role in the construction of the International Space Station, delivering modules that do not have their own propulsion system into orbit. The shuttles also delivered crews, food and scientific equipment to the ISS.

Expensive and deadly

But, despite all the advantages, over the years it became obvious that the "shuttle traders" will never get rid of the shortcomings of their own. Literally on every flight, astronauts had to do repairs, fixing problems of varying severity.

By the mid-1990s, there was no talk of any 25-30 flights a year. The record year for the program was 1985 with nine flights. In 1992 and 1997, they managed to make 8 flights. NASA has long preferred to remain silent about the payback and profitability of the project.

On February 1, 2003, the Columbia spacecraft completed the 28th expedition in its history. This mission was carried out without docking with the ISS. The 16-day flight was attended by a crew of seven people, including the first Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramona... During the return of "Columbia" from orbit, communication with her was lost. Soon, video cameras recorded in the sky the wreckage of the ship rushing to Earth. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

In the course of the investigation, it was established that at the start of the Columbia, a piece of the oxygen tank's insulation hit the left plane of the shuttle's wing. During the descent from orbit, this led to the penetration of gases with a temperature of several thousand degrees inside the spacecraft's structures. This led to the destruction of the wing structures and further death of the ship.

Thus, the two shuttle disasters claimed the lives of 14 astronauts. Faith in the project was finally undermined.

The last crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Photo: Public Domain

Exhibits for the museum

The shuttle flights were interrupted for two and a half years, and after their resumption, it was decided in principle that the program would be finally completed in the coming years.

It was not only a matter of human sacrifice. The Space Shuttle project never reached the parameters that were originally planned.

By 2005, the cost of one shuttle flight was equal to $ 450 million, but with additional costs this amount reached $ 1.3 billion.

By 2006, the total cost of the Space Shuttle project was $ 160 billion.

Hardly anyone in the US could have believed this in 1981, but the Soviet disposable Soyuz spacecraft, the modest workhorses of the Russian manned space program, won the space shuttle competition in price and reliability.

On July 21, 2011, the space odyssey of the shuttles finally came to an end. For 30 years, they made 135 flights, making a total of 21,152 orbits around the Earth and flying 872.7 million kilometers, lifting 355 cosmonauts and astronauts into orbit and 1.6 thousand tons of payloads.

All the shuttles took their place in the museums. The Enterprise is on display at the Maritime and Aerospace Museum in New York, the Smithsonian Institution Museum in Washington houses Discovery, Endeavor has found shelter at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and Atlantis is permanently docked at the Space Center named after Kennedy in Florida.

The ship "Atlantis" in the center of them. Kennedy. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

After the termination of the shuttle flights, the United States for four years now has not been able to deliver astronauts into orbit other than with the help of the Soyuz.

American politicians, considering this state of affairs unacceptable for the United States, are calling for accelerating work on the creation of a new ship.

Hopefully, despite the rush, the lessons learned from the Space Shuttle program will be learned and a repetition of the tragedies of Challenger and Columbia will be avoided.

Details Category: Meeting with space Published on 12/10/2012 10:54 Hits: 7341

Only three countries have manned spaceships: Russia, the United States and China.

First generation spaceships

"Mercury"

This was the name of the first manned space program of the United States and the series of spaceships used in this program (1959-1963). The general designer of the ship is Max Faget. The first NASA astronaut corps was created for flights under the Mercury program. A total of 6 manned flights were performed under this program.

This is a single-seat orbital manned spacecraft, made according to the capsule scheme. The cab is made of titanium-nickel alloy. The volume of the cabin is 1.7m 3. The astronaut is located in the lodgement and is in the spacesuit during the entire flight. The cockpit is equipped with information tools on the dashboard and controls. The ship's attitude control stick is on the pilot's right hand. Visual overview is provided by a porthole on the cockpit entrance hatch and a wide-angle survey periscope with variable magnification.

The ship is not designed for maneuvering with a change in orbit parameters; it is equipped with a reactive control system for turning along three axes and a braking propulsion system. The attitude control of the spacecraft in orbit is automatic and manual. The entry into the atmosphere is carried out along a ballistic trajectory. The braking parachute is deployed at an altitude of 7 km, the main parachute at an altitude of 3 km. Flooding occurs with a vertical speed of about 9 m / s. After splashdown, the capsule remains upright.

A feature of the "Mercury" spacecraft is the widespread use of reserve manual control. The "Mercury" spacecraft was launched into orbit by the "Redstone" and "Atlas" rockets with a very small payload. Because of this, the weight and dimensions of the cabin of the manned capsule "Mercury" were extremely limited and significantly inferior in technical perfection to the Soviet ships "Vostok."

The missions of the Mercury spacecraft were different: testing an emergency rescue system, testing an ablative heat shield, shooting it, telemetry and communications along the entire flight path, suborbital manned flight, orbital manned flight.

Chimpanzees Ham and Enos flew to the United States as part of the Mercury program.

Gemini

The Gemini series spacecraft (1964-1966) continued the Mercury series, but surpassed them in capabilities (2 crew members, longer autonomous flight time, the ability to change orbital parameters, etc.). In the course of the program, methods of rendezvous and docking were worked out; for the first time in history, docking of spacecraft was carried out. Several spacewalks were carried out, records of flight duration were set. In total, 12 flights were made under this program.

The Gemini ship consists of two main parts - the descent vehicle, in which the crew is accommodated, and the leaky instrument-assembly compartment, where the engines and other equipment are located. The shape of the descent vehicle is similar to the ships of the "Mercury" series. Despite some external similarities between the two ships, the Gemini is significantly superior to the Mercury in capabilities. The length of the ship is 5.8 meters, the maximum outer diameter is 3 meters, and the mass is on average 3810 kilograms. The ship was launched into orbit by the Titan II launch vehicle. At the time of its appearance, the Gemini was the largest spacecraft.

The first launch of the spacecraft took place on April 8, 1964, and the first manned launch on March 23, 1965.

Second generation spaceships

"Apollo"

"Apollo"- a series of American 3-seater spaceships that were used in the Apollo missions to the Moon, the Skylab orbital station and the Soviet-American ASTP docking. In total, 21 flights were made under this program. The main purpose - the delivery of astronauts to the moon, but the spaceships of this series performed other tasks as well. 12 astronauts landed on the moon. Apollo 11 made the first moon landing (N. Armstrong and B. Aldrin in 1969)

Apollo is the only series of spaceships in history to date that have allowed humans to escape low Earth orbit and overcome the gravity of the Earth, and also the only one that has allowed astronauts to successfully land on the moon and return to Earth.

The Apollo spacecraft consists of a command and service compartments, a lunar module and an emergency rescue system.

Command module is the flight control center. All crew members are in the command compartment during the flight, except for the stage of landing on the moon. It has a cone shape with a spherical base.

The command compartment has a pressurized cabin with a crew life support system, a control and navigation system, a radio communication system, an emergency rescue system and a heat shield. In the front unpressurized part of the command compartment there are a docking mechanism and a parachute landing system, in the middle part there are 3 astronaut seats, a flight control panel and a life support system and radio equipment; In the space between the rear screen and the pressurized cabin, the equipment of the reactive control system (DCS) is located.

The docking mechanism and part of the lunar module with internal threading together provide a rigid docking of the command compartment with the lunar ship and form a tunnel for the crew to move from the command compartment to the lunar module and back.

The life support system of the crew ensures that the temperature in the spacecraft's cabin is maintained within the range of 21-27 ° C, humidity from 40 to 70%, and pressure of 0.35 kg / cm². The system is designed for a 4-day increase in flight duration beyond the estimated time required for an expedition to the moon. Therefore, it provides for the possibility of adjustment and repair by the crew, dressed in spacesuits.

Service compartment carries the main propulsion system and support systems for the Apollo spacecraft.

Emergency rescue system. If an emergency occurs during the launch of the Apollo launch vehicle or it is necessary to terminate the flight while the Apollo spacecraft is injected into Earth orbit, the crew is rescued by separating the command compartment from the launch vehicle and then landing on Earth by parachutes.

Lunar module has two stages: landing and takeoff. The landing stage, equipped with an independent propulsion system and landing gear, is used to lower the lunar ship from the orbit of the Moon and soft landing on the lunar surface, and also serves as a launch pad for the takeoff stage. The take-off stage with a pressurized cockpit for the crew and an independent propulsion system, after completion of research, starts from the surface of the Moon and in orbit docks with the command compartment. The separation of the steps is carried out using pyrotechnic devices.

Shenzhou

China's manned space flight program. Work on the program began in 1992. The first manned flight of the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft made China in 2003 the third country in the world to independently send a man into space. The Shenzhou spacecraft in many respects repeats the Russian Soyuz spacecraft: it has exactly the same module layout as the Soyuz - the instrument and assembly compartment, the descent vehicle and the utility compartment; about the same size as the Soyuz. The entire structure of the spacecraft and all its systems are approximately identical to Soviet spacecraft of the Soyuz series, and the orbital module is built using technologies used in the Salyut series of Soviet space stations.

The Shenzhou program included three stages:

launching unmanned and manned spacecraft into low-earth orbit while ensuring the guaranteed return of the descent vehicles to the Earth;
exit of taykunauts into open space, creation of an autonomous space station for short-term stay of expeditions;
creation of large space stations for long-term stay of expeditions.

The mission is successfully completed (4 manned flights have been completed) and is currently open.

Reusable transport spaceships

Space shuttle, or simply shuttle ("space shuttle") - American reusable transport spacecraft. The shuttles were used as part of the State Space Transportation System program. The shuttles were meant to "scurry about like shuttles" between Earth orbit and Earth, delivering payloads in both directions. The program ran from 1981 to 2011. A total of five shuttles were built: "Colombia"(burned out during landing in 2003), Challenger(exploded during launch in 1986), "Discovery", Atlantis and Endeavor... In 1975 a prototype ship was built Enterprise but it has never been launched into space.

The shuttle was launched into space using two solid-propellant rocket boosters and three of its own propulsion engines, which received fuel from a huge external tank. In orbit, the shuttle performed maneuvers using the engines of the orbital maneuvering system and returned to Earth as a glider. During the development, it was envisaged that each of the shuttles had to take off into space up to 100 times. In practice, they were used much less; by the end of the program in July 2011, most of the flights were made by the shuttle "Discovery" - 39.

"Colombia"

"Colombia"- the first instance of the Space Shuttle system, which flew into space. The previously built prototype Enterprise flew, but only within the atmosphere to test the landing. Construction on Columbia began in 1975, and on March 25, 1979, Columbia was commissioned by NASA. The first manned flight of the reusable transport spacecraft Columbia STS-1 took place on April 12, 1981. The crew commander was a veteran of American astronautics John Young, and the pilot was Robert Crippen. The flight was (and remains) unique: the very first, in fact, a test launch of a spacecraft, was carried out with a crew on board.

Columbia was heavier than the shuttles built later, so it did not have a docking module. Columbia could not dock with either the Mir station or the ISS.

The last flight of the Columbia, STS-107, took place from January 16 to February 1, 2003. On the morning of February 1, when entering the dense layers of the atmosphere, the ship collapsed. All seven crew members were killed. A commission to investigate the causes of the disaster came to the conclusion that the cause was the destruction of the outer heat-shielding layer on the left plane of the shuttle wing. At the start on January 16, this section of the thermal protection was damaged by a piece of thermal insulation from the oxygen tank falling onto it.

Challenger

Challenger- NASA reusable transport spacecraft. Initially, it was intended only for test purposes, but then it was converted and prepared for launches into space. The first time "Challenger" was launched on April 4, 1983. In total, it made 9 successful flights. Crashed during the tenth launch on January 28, 1986, all 7 crew members were killed. The shuttle's last start was scheduled for the morning of January 28, 1986, and the launch of the Challenger was watched by millions of spectators around the world. At the 73rd second of the flight, at an altitude of 14 km, the left solid-fuel booster detached from one of the two mountings. Turning around the second, the accelerator pierced the main fuel tank. Due to the violation of the symmetry of thrust and air resistance, the ship deviated from the axis and was destroyed by aerodynamic forces.

"Discovery"

NASA reusable transport spacecraft, third shuttle. The first flight took place on August 30, 1984. Shuttle Discovery delivered the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit and participated in two expeditions to maintain it.

Discovery launched the Ulysses probe and three relay satellites.

The Russian cosmonaut also made a flight on the shuttle "Discovery" Sergey Krikalev February 3, 1994 During eight days, the crew of the Discovery spacecraft performed many different scientific experiments in the field of materials science, biological experiments and observations of the Earth's surface. Krikalev performed a significant part of the work with the remote manipulator. After completing 130 orbits and flying 5486215 kilometers, on February 11, 1994, the shuttle landed at the Kennedy Space Center (Florida). Thus, Krikalev became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on an American shuttle. In total, from 1994 to 2002, 18 orbital flights of Space Shuttle reusable spacecraft were performed, the crews of which included 18 Russian cosmonauts.

On the shuttle "Discovery" (STS-95) on October 29, 1998, astronaut John Glenn, who at that time was 77 years old, went on his second flight.

Shuttle Discovery ended its 27-year career with its last landing on March 9, 2011. It deorbited, glided to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and landed safely. The shuttle was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

Atlantis

Atlantis- NASA reusable transport spacecraft, the fourth space shuttle. During the construction of Atlantis, many improvements were made over its predecessors. It is 3.2 tons lighter than the Columbia shuttle and took half the time to build.

Atlantis made its first flight in October 1985, one of five flights for the US Department of Defense. Since 1995, Atlantis has completed seven flights to the Russian space station Mir. An additional docking module for the Mir station was delivered and the crews of the Mir station were replaced.

From November 1997 to July 1999, Atlantis was modified with about 165 improvements. From October 1985 to July 2011, the Atlantis shuttle made 33 space flights, with 189 crew members. The last 33rd launch was carried out on July 8, 2011.

Endeavor

Endeavor- NASA's reusable transport spacecraft, the fifth and final space shuttle. The Endeavor made its first flight on May 7, 1992. In 1993, the first expedition to service the Hubble Space Telescope was made on board the Endeavor. In December 1998, Endeavor delivered the first American Unity module for the ISS into orbit.

From May 1992 to June 2011, the space shuttle Endeavor made 25 space flights. June 1, 2011 the shuttle last landed at the Cape Canaveral Cosmodrome in Florida.

The Space Transportation System program was completed in 2011. All operating shuttles were decommissioned after their last flight and sent to museums.

For 30 years of operation, five shuttles have made 135 flights. The shuttles lifted 1.6 thousand tons of payloads into space. 355 astronauts and cosmonauts flew shuttles into space.