plans to develop a supersonic passenger aircraft akin to the Anglo-French Concorde.Īs the Thompson Board continued its deliberations, the Space Shuttle design was undergoing rapid and profound changes. in the early 1970s concern at the time over possible injury to people on the ground and damage to structures helped to kill U.S. Sonic booms, which the Board wrote had "the startling audibility and dynamic characteristics of an explosion," were a bone of contention in the U.S. In its efforts to cull unsuitable sites, the Thompson Board focused most of its attention on the effects of sonic booms, the sudden waves of air pressure produced when an aircraft or spacecraft exceeds the speed of sound (that is, "breaks the sound barrier"). The east coast states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey rounded out the list of no-shows. West Virginia alone among states east of the Mississippi River and south of the Ohio River lacked a candidate site. The Midwestern states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota contained no sites, though candidates existed in neighboring states Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan. Alaska and Hawaii were disqualified because they were located too far from established U.S. The 10 states that contained no candidate Space Shuttle launch and landing sites lacked obvious disqualifying features (or, at least, appeared no more or less qualified than most of the states that included candidate sites). Image: NASA/North American Rockwell/General Dynamics The reusable Booster lands on a runway less than an hour after launch from a nearby launch pad. As in the case of the Booster, the Orbiter would need minimal refurbishment before it was launched again. After accomplishing its mission, it would fire its motors to slow down and reenter Earth's atmosphere, where it would deploy jet engines and fly under power to a runway landing. After achieving a safe separation distance, it would ignite its rocket motors to place itself into Earth orbit. The Space Shuttle Orbiter, meanwhile, would arc up and away from the Booster. Because it would return to its launch site, NASA dubbed it the "Flyback Booster." It would then taxi or be towed to a hanger for minimal refurbishment and preparation for its next launch. It then would turn around, reenter the dense part of Earth's atmosphere, deploy air-breathing jet engines, and fly under power to a runway at its launch site. At the edge of space, its propellants depleted, the Booster would release the Orbiter. The Booster's rocket motors would ignite on the launch pad, drawing liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen propellants from integral internal tanks. The typical fully reusable Shuttle design in play in 1971 included a large Booster and a smaller Orbiter (image at top of post), each of which would carry a crew. NASA's ambition in 1971 was to build a fully reusable Space Shuttle which it could operate much as an airline operates its airplanes.
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