Space Shuttle

No, in addition to landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttles also landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. This alternate landing site was used when weather conditions in Florida were unfavorable for landing.

Even though free fall causes objects on the International Space Station to appear to be weightless, there actually is gravity. Gravity gets weaker as you move away from the Earth, although it still exists. The change in gravity can be calculated with the equation: 1/(Radius^2). The Earth is about 4000 miles in radius, so in the equation, 4000 miles would be R=1. At 4000 miles in altitude, the distance to the center of the Earth would be 8000 miles so it would use R=2 (twice the radius of the Earth). At the space station's altitude of 200 miles, the equation would use R=1.05. 1/(1.05^2) equals about .91, so gravity on the space station is about 91% of the gravity on the Earth.

The first space rocket to hit the moon was the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2, which impacted the moon on September 14, 1959. It was part of the Luna program aimed at studying the moon's properties and environment.

Yes, the Space Shuttle was designed to be reusable, with the orbiter being the only part that was meant to return to Earth and be reused for multiple missions. The solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank were not reusable.

Space is infinite and ever-expanding. There is no clear boundary or end to space, as it continues to expand in all directions. The observable universe is estimated to be about 93 billion light-years in diameter, but beyond that lies even more uncharted territory.

No, Orrin Hatch did not ride in the space shuttle. He is a former U.S. Senator from Utah who did not participate in any space missions.

The Canadarm, also known as the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, was a robotic arm developed by the Canadian Space Agency and used on NASA's space shuttles. It was used for various tasks, including deploying and retrieving payloads and assisting astronauts during spacewalks.

A space shuttle is not designed with the capability to travel beyond Earth's orbit due to limitations in propulsion and fuel capacity. Additionally, the primary purpose of a space shuttle is to transport astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station and other low Earth orbit destinations, rather than deep space exploration.

In order to achieve the velocity required to attain low earth orbit the space shuttle is accelerated to approx 17,500 mph by the solid fuel rocket boosters.

The space shuttle is designed to go up into orbit and return to earth and therefore does not ever escape from Earth's gravity.

To answer the question and to make sure everyone understands, let's go back to basics. No matter where in the universe there is always gravity:

F = G ((m1*m2)/r^2)

F: is the gravitational force felt.

G: is the gravitational constant

m1 and m2: are the masses of the two objects

r: the distance between the two objects.

We can see with this equation that the further away from the Earth you get (r gets bigger) the weaker the force of gravity will be (F gets closer and closer to zero but never reaches it).

This may sound weird but the space shuttle stays in orbit because of gravity. iif you let go of an object, the object will fall straight down. However if you through it the object with a certain force, the object will fall further away and if we could give it enough force to reach a speed of 8 m/s then the object would constantly continue to fall around the Earth.

take a look at the image on this page and you should understand:

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newtongrav.html

The space shuttle used a combination of solid rocket boosters and liquid fuel. The solid rocket boosters were powered by a mixture of powdered aluminum and ammonium perchlorate, while the main engines used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuel.

When a shuttle takes off, clouds of steam are produced due to the rapid condensation of water vapor in the surrounding air caused by the intense heat generated by the rocket engines. As the hot exhaust gases come into contact with the cooler air, water vapor in the air condenses into droplets, forming the visible clouds of steam.

The Space Shuttle throttled up to 104 percent to provide more power during critical phases of the ascent, like passing through Max-Q ("maximum dynamic pressure") and reaching orbit. This extra thrust helped overcome atmospheric drag and gravitational forces, ensuring the shuttle safely reached space.

NASA has plans to launch 5 space Huttles in 2010, after that they will rely only on the Russian Soyuz rocket. Here is a list of the future mission (Please note that date are subject to chage).

STS-130; Febuary 4th

STS-131; March 18th

STS-132; May 14th

STS-134; July 29th

STS-133; September 16th

5 different space shuttles have been launched on 129 missions.

The Orbiter Maneuvering System or OMS are two small engines (smaller then the Space Shuttle Main Engines) that allow the orbiter to lower or raise its orbit during a mission. It is also used to slow the orbiter down for re-entry.

The normal amount of G-force an astronaut inside the space shuttle should experience during lift off is around two to three Gs.

At launch the gravity that they experience is about 1.7 g's and by the time the solid rocket boosters are separated which is two minutes into the launch the g-force will be over 2 g's. At the separation of the solid rocket booster, the g-force will decrease to just over 1 g. During the last one minute of the ascent, which is for 8.5 minutes, when the main engines ignited the last full minute, we will experience about 3 g's, and when the main engines cut off around 8 minutes, 30 seconds, you go right into zero-g and everything starts to float around.

As a spacecraft enters the atmosphere, it will travel at a tremendously high speed. The friction from the air rubbing against the spacecraft causes lots of heat. To protect against this heat, spacecraft use heat shields. Most spacecraft use blunt, spherical, or conic heat shields which help slow the vehicle down, and dissipate the heat in the surrounding air. These heat shields are also usually made out of abalative material. Abalative materials sublimate into gas at high temperature. As a result, they absorb thermal energy but erode away as the vehicle enters the atmosphere. However modern spacecraft are being developed to have re-usable heat shields. The Space Shuttle, in particular, uses a series of thermal insulating tiles that absorb and radiate heat while preventing conduction to the shuttle's aluminum skin. These tiles can be re-used many times.

The flying shuttle, an innovation in weaving technology, is not widely used today in its original form. However, modern weaving machines have evolved to incorporate similar principles for increased efficiency and productivity in textile production.

The commander of the first space shuttle flight was John Young and the pilot was Robert Crippen. Young was a veteran of 5 space flights were as Crippen was a rookie. the mission lasted only two days. The flight was performed with the space shuttle Columbia and past with flying colours, even though certain anomalies could have been life threatening.

The sonic boom was first discovered by John William Strutt, also known as Lord Rayleigh, a British scientist, in the late 19th century. He studied the phenomenon of sound waves traveling at or faster than the speed of sound and their effects on air pressure, leading to the understanding of the sonic boom.

The Space Shuttle was used by NASA for human spaceflight missions, such as deploying satellites, conducting research in microgravity, and servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. It served as a reusable spacecraft for launching missions into space and returning them safely back to Earth.

The limit of outer space is only 100 km high. Flying with the space shuttle, the trips takes roughly about 8 and a half minutes. but that doesn't include orbit insertion. To reach the International Space Station (ISS) it takes 2 full days!

The moon is at an estimated distance of 320 000 km from the Earth. The shuttle is on average 350 km form the surface of the earth... that means that the moon is about 915 times further away from the Earth then the space shuttle!

A rocket is set on fire when coming back to Earth to slow down its speed and enable a controlled descent. This process is known as a reentry burn, and it helps prevent the rocket from burning up or losing control as it reenters the earth's atmosphere at high speeds.

It has to overcome its' own weight and obtain a speed of 17,500 miles an hour to escape the Earths' gravitational pull. That is 3.38 x 1012 Joules. 3,380,000,000,000 joules.