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On returning to earth and landing on the runway the space shuttle releases a parachute at the back of the spacecraft. What is the purpose of this parachute?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
The space shuttle is a pretty heavy critter. It weighs a couple of thousand tons! And it has no wings to speak of. Just some little "projections" on the sides of the vehicle to help flair it out at the end of its "fall" to earth. (It flies like a brick, if that helps.) It's rate of descent in normal operation is pretty darn high. Anyway, there are no "reverse thrusters" on the rockets to slow it down like on jet airplanes. And there are no flaps on the "wings" to increase the chord of that wing (giving it more lift) to allow it to land at a slower speed. The result is that it comes in really "hot" when it lands; it's really ripping along.
The shuttle is moving at between 600 and 700 miles per hour when it begins final approach (at perhaps 3,000 feet). It deploys some aerodynamic brakes, which are some panels that are hinged in the front and are pushed out at the rear by hydraulics. These slow the vehicle more, and it is moving at between 300 and 400 miles per hour as it nears the ground. After touchdown, the drag chute is deployed to further slow the vehicle, which is still moving at a bit over 200 miles per hour. There are brakes on the shuttle, and they are used in the final run to bring the vehicle to a stop. But the brakes would take all day to slow the craft without the drag chute. And there may not be enough runway (the dry lake bed in California, or the runway in Florida) to get this thing completely stopped without the help of the chute.
The drag chute is a simple and elegant solution to the problem of dragging the shuttle down into a moderate roll from the 200+ mile per hour speed it is moving at as it puts its wheels on the ground. Just so you know, drag chutes were used on several types of aircraft, including a couple of the century series fighters, and the X-15 rocket plane. We also saw them on the SR-71 and the B-52, among other aircraft. They work like a champ, and have been proved in long service (though these chutes weren't as large as the shuttle's drag chute. A link can be found below for more information.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
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Eagle
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What are the names of the 3 stages of Apollo 11?
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Which spacecraft made the first soft landing on the moon?
The first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon was the surveyor 1 spacecraft in 1966.
Landing a spacecraft on the seas is?
mooning the space end?
What was the name of the first moon landing spacecraft?
Eagle
Landing a spacecraft in the seas was called a?
It is called a splashdown.
What spacecraft had the first soft landing on the moon?
The spacecraft with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Micheal Collins on it.
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he was the first person to set foot on the moon. He was also the first person to land a spacecraft on the moon. When returning to earth, he had to make a crash landing in the pacific ocean.
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It proved that it was possible to make a soft landing on the moon.
Which other scientists did Newton get ideas from?
the landing of a spacecraft on the Moon
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There's no air
One reason why landing a spacecraft on the moon takes careful planning is that the moon does what?
One reason why landing a spacecraft on the moon takes careful planning is that the moon move along its own path (its own orbit).One reason why landing a spacecraft on the moon takes careful planning is that the moon always moves along its own orbit.
Why does a space shuttle use a parachute after landing?
To brake and lower it's speed.
