#Nasa space shuttle development full#

SLS will launch from LC-39B at the Kennedy Space Center. Artemis is projected to use at most one SLS each year until at least 2030.

The SLS is planned to launch the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis program, making use of the ground operations and launch facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As of August 2019, SLS Block 1 launch vehicles are to launch the first three Artemis missions and five subsequent SLS flights are planned to use Block 1B, after which all flights will use Block 2. The SLS is being developed in three major phases with increasing capabilities: Block 1, Block 1B, and Block 2. Crewed lunar flights are planned as part of the Artemis program, leading to a possible human mission to Mars. The SLS is intended to become the successor to the retired Space Shuttle, and the primary launch vehicle of NASA's deep space exploration plans through the 2020s. It replaces the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, which were cancelled along with the rest of the Constellation program, a previous program aimed to return to the moon. As of June 2022, the first launch is scheduled for no earlier than 23 August 2022. The Space Launch System (abbreviated as SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle under development by NASA since 2011. Second stage (Block 1B, Block 2) – Exploration Upper Stage

#Nasa space shuttle development full#

This would be an interim space station with sections that could be added later to form a full 12-man station by the early 1980s.16 MN (1,600 t f 3,600,000 lbf) vacuum įirst stage (Block 1, 1B, 2) – Core stage Center officials said that the first elements of the space station could be in orbit by about 1978 and could be manned by three or six men. The sections were restricted to 14 feet in diameter and 58 feet in length to be consistent with a shuttle cargo bay size of 15 by 60 feet. The study envisioned a space station composed of cylindrical sections 14 feet in diameter and of varying lengths joined to form any one of a number of possible shapes. In 1970 the Marshall Space Flight Center announced the completion of a study concerning a modular space station that could be launched by the planned-for reusable Space Shuttle. This is an artist’s concept of a modular space station. (NASA/JSC)Įarly on in its development, the construction and maintenance of space stations and other space-based infra structure was studied. The Space Shuttle deploying a space tug in orbit. The MSFC was also responsible for developing the Shuttle’s massive ET and the solid rocket motors and boosters. The MSFC was assigned responsibility for developing the Shuttle orbiter’s high-performance main engines, the most complex rocket engines ever built. Crucially involved with the Space Shuttle program virtually from its inception, the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) played a leading role in the design, development, testing, and fabrication of many major Shuttle propulsion components. The SRB’s provide most of the power for the first two minutes of flight. The Shuttle’s major components are the orbiter spacecraft the three main engines, with a combined thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds the huge external tank (ET) that feeds the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer to the three main engines and the two solid rocket boosters (SRB’s), with their combined thrust of some 5.8 million pounds. Unlike earlier expendable rockets, the Shuttle was designed to be launched over and over again and would serve as a system for ferrying payloads and personnel to and from Earth orbit. The Space Shuttle represented an entirely new generation of space vehicle, the world’s first reusable spacecraft. The caption from this diagram of the Space Shuttle from Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) from 1975 gave a perfect synopsis of the new spacecraft: Presented here is a sample of the paintings I received from NASA as photographs and illustrations in their numerous publications at that time.

While we waited over the 1970s for the first flight of the Space Shuttle, NASA supplied the public with copious artwork of the new spacecraft whetting our appetites of what the future would hold. A newspaper article from the author’s collection dated Januabout the newly authorized Space Shuttle program.