Lecture 4

NASA image STS111-708-093 (15 June 2002) - International Space Station in orbit.

History - Shuttle, Mir, Space Station

After landing on the Moon, what do you do for an encore? NASA does not choose its own goals - they are set by the President and funded by Congress. After Apollo, The USA moved on to the Space Shuttle and Space Station. The Soviet Union began a series of space station flights culminating in its own large space station, 'Mir', and post-Soviet Russia joined the US to create the International Space Station.

Skylab

During Apollo, US proposals for future exploration included Mars missions, lunar bases, and orbiting space stations. None were funded except a scaled-back space station test project called Skylab. Skylab itself was an Apollo/Saturn upper stage rocket fitted out as a laboratory, with a telescope attached to it in a modified Lunar Module left over from Apollo. During launch in 1973 it was damaged, losing a solar panel and meteorite shield. The first crew saved the mission by repairing the station. Two more crews also visited Skylab, setting up a US long duration record in space (84 days) and performing medical and other experiments. Skylab eventually burned up over Australia in 1979.
Skylab flights
Skylab

Soyuz and Salyut

The Soviet Union abandoned its plans to put people on the Moon when it became clear that Apollo would succeed, and turned its attention to Earth-orbiting space stations. The lunar Zond spacecraft was modified for Earth orbit use under the name Soyuz ('Union'), and has been used ever since. Soyuz is launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan like the Vostok spacecraft before it. It was the only way to get to the station when the Shuttle was grounded after the Columbia accident, and now the shuttle has retired it is the only way for people to get to and from the station. NASA pays over $70 million for every astronaut to fly on a Soyuz. Also, Soyuz acts as a lifeboat, always ready to bring the crew back if a problem occurs. The Soviet Union had an early, experimental military station program which was named 'Salyut' (= salute) and was adopted for civilian use when it become obvious that there was no military advantage to having people in space. Seven Salyut stations with increasing capabilities were flown between 1971 and 1986. Long duration flights explored the effects of weightlessness on the body, with possible applications to flights to Mars. Experience was gained with space walks, life support, large spacecraft construction and maintenance, science experiments, emergency repairs, psychological effects of long missions etc. Four cosmonauts died in flight accidents on Soyuz, all during re-entry.
Salyut
Salyut missions
Soyuz
Soyuz 1 accident
Soyuz 11 accident

Mir

The long experience with Salyut, including world record long stays in space, culminated with the Mir space station. It was built up, module by module, over 10 years, into a complex orbital laboratory. Mir was supplied by Progress vehicles which made automated approach and docking maneuvers, carrying a load of cargo and fuel. Progress was a Soyuz modified to fly without a crew. It was visited by 28 crews made up of 104 people including citizens of many different countries (including Canada). Several space shuttle flights also visited Mir as NASA learned how to operate space stations. Its longest crew stay was 438 days. It survived a collision with a Progress, and an on-board fire. Near the end of its life it was considered as a goal for space tourists or a reality TV show. It was intentionally deorbited in 2001, falling into the South Pacific Ocean. Russia could not manage or afford the ISS assembly and its own space station at the same time.
Mir assembly and support missions (click 'missions' at left, then link to Mir near bottom of page)
Progress
Mir
Mir de-orbit

Shuttle

The Space Shuttle program (officially, the Space Transportation System, STS) was initiated by President Richard Nixon in 1972. The goal was a reusable transportation system which would greatly reduce the costs of reaching orbit. Note that the name 'Space Shuttle' refers to this specific vehicle, not to other human-carrying spacecraft like Mercury, Gemini, Vostok or Soyuz, which are called capsules. The Space Shuttle was a reuseable space plane which launched like a rocket but flew down to a runway landing like an aircraft. Although most parts were re-used, this still required enormous effort and cost for maintenance after every launch. At launch the vehicle consisted of a 100 ton space plane, the shuttle orbiter, mounted on the side of an enormous tank of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen which fed the engines on the back end of the orbiter. For extra lift, two enormous solid rocket boosters were strapped to the sides of the tank. They burned solid fuel and operated for only two minutes before dropping off and falling into the ocean, where they were recovered and re-used. Eight minutes after launch the empty fuel tank was discarded and burned up in the atmosphere. The orbiter now used small rocket engines to put itself in its final orbit. After its mission it used rockets again to slow down and drop out of orbit. Friction in the atmosphere slowed it down, and eventually it transitioned from orbital to aerodynamic flight and glided to a runway landing. The shuttle was an engineering marvel but it was fragile and costly. It never achieved its cost reduction goals - each launch cost at least $500 million. Of its 135 flights two were lost, one at launch (Challenger in 1986), one at re-entry (Columbia in 2003). Seven crew died in each of those accidents. Despite these problems the results are impressive: the shuttle launched many satellites including two planetary probes (Magellan to Venus, Galileo to Jupiter) and the Hubble Space Telescope. It retrieved several satellites for repair, including the Hubble Space Telescope, and it was the main vehicle for Space Station construction. On one flight a large radar antenna produced the most detailed topographic map ever made of most of our planet's land surface. It was out of commission for several years awaiting recertification to fly after each accident, and after its last flight in 2011 it was retired. A new NASA human space vehicle called Orionis being designed to take its place, but it will be a capsule like Apollo, not a winged space plane.
Space Shuttle website
Shuttle description
Shuttle missions
astronaut photos of Earth
Shuttle missions
Shuttle Challenger accident, 1986
Shuttle Columbia accident, 2003
first US space tragedy - Apollo 1 accident, 1967

Buran - the Russian shuttle

The US Shuttle was a great engineering accomplishment. The Soviet Union decided it needed to learn this new technology despite having no clear need for such a vehicle. They designed a shuttle called 'Buran' (= snowstorm), similar in appearance to the US Shuttle but different in important ways. For instance, its main engines were on the attached 'Energia' rocket booster rather than on the Orbiter, and the descent and landing were assisted by jet engines (the US Shuttle landed like a glider without any power). Buran flew only once, in 1988, and orbited the Earth without a crew (another difference from the US version, which could not even be test-flown without a crew, a very risky way to do human space flight). The technology was proved but no further flights were ever made. The flight vehicle was destroyed in a building collapse at Baikonur in 2002, but a test vehicle is on display in Moscow.
Buran
Energia rocket
Buran

International Space Station (ISS)

President Reagan initiated the Space Station in 1984, as the next step after the Shuttle. In effect it gave the Shuttle somewhere to go. The station went through many redesigns and cost over-runs. Its final version was international in scope, involving Europe, Canada and Japan, and in a final change, Russia as well after the fall of the Soviet Union. Construction began with the launch of the Russian Zarya (= dawn) module in 2000, and was completed in 2011. The Station is seen as a science laboratory for earth observation and scientific experiments. It also includes European and Japanese laboratories and a Canadian robotic arm. It was visited by the Space Shuttle several times a year for major construction and maintenance, and by Russian Progress cargo ships and Soyuz crew transport vehicles. When the Shuttle was grounded after the Columbia accident, Russia provided all crew and cargo access. When the Shuttle retired in 2011 Russia was again the only nation able to deliver crew to the Station. Japan and the European Space Agency have also built their own cargo supply vehicles which are used for additional cargo. The European ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) is being adapted for use with the shuttle replacement vehicle, Orion. Two private companies, Orbital Sciences and Space-X, are now delivering cargo under contract with NASA, and Space-X and Boeing have contracts to develop crew transfer vehicles for the Station. The Orbital Sciences rocket is called Antares, and its cargo vehicle is called Cygnus. SpaceX's rocket is the Falcon 9, and its cargo vehicle is the Dragon capsule. Progress, Cygnus, and the Japanese and European cargo vehicles all burn up in the atmosphere after use, but Dragon can land safely on Earth, bringing cargo from the ISS back to Earth. Progress, Cygnus and Dragon all had failed launches in 2014/2015, showing that the space business is still difficult and dangerous. The ISS is widely criticized for being too expensive for the limited scientific results it offers, and for holding back other science missions. Nevertheless, it will be operated with a six-person crew until at least 2024. Its ultimate fate will be to fall into the Pacific Ocean like its predecessor, Mir. For political reasons, China is forbidden by US law from access to the ISS.
ISS construction etc.
ISS news
Orbital Science's Cygnus
Space-X Dragon

Space is a busy place

Rocket launches, even human launches, don't make the news very often these days, mainly because they are so common. Space has become a very busy place. These links show what's going on around the world.
all human space flights (no longer updated)
all human space flights
all human space flights
all satellite launches

China in space

China has developed its own launch vehicles and spacecraft despite strict international technology transfer limitations. It designs and launches its own communications, weather, remote sensing and scientific satellites. A lunar orbiter (Chang'E 1) mapped the Moon in 2008 and a second one in 2010. The second lunar orbiter (Chang'E 2) left the Moon and flew past an asteroid in 2012. China's first lunar lander (Chang'E 3) and rover (Yutu) followed in 2013. A lunar sample return mission is planned for 2017, and the first landing by any nation on the far side of the Moon is expected in about 2018. China is planning a Mars mission with an orbiter, lander and rover in 2020, after a small spacecraft it wanted to send to Mars was lost in a Russian launch failure.

The country's most ambitious space development has been human space flight: China is only the third nation in the world with its own capability to put people in space. Its Shenzhou spacecraft is an extensively redesigned version of the Russian Soyuz. Its first flight was in 2003 with astronaut ('taikonaut', or 'yuhangyuan') Yang Liwei. The second flight was in 2005, with two people. In September 2008 the third flight carried three people and included a spacewalk. China launched a small experimental space station called Tiangong ('Heavenly Palace') in September 2011 and has flown two crews to it, both including women. A second station has just been launched in 2016 to test equipment and procedures for a larger station in about 2020. Talk of human lunar missions is increasing and they may happen after 2025.
Chinese Space Agency
China in space
Tiangong
Chinese space posters
Chinese space program

Japan in space

Japan has developed its own satellite launchers, though small budgets have limited the number of successful flights. Numerous Japanese satellites have been launched for communications, meteorology, remote sensing and space science satellites. Japan has also conducted planetary exploration missions, with mixed success. Japanese spacecraft have flown past Comet Halley (1986) and Mars (2003, but that spacecraft called 'Nozomi' failed before it arrived). A Japanese spacecraft called Hiten orbited and impacted on the Moon in 1993. A very successful lunar orbiter called Kaguya was launched in 2007 and mapped the Moon in great detail. Other than that, the most successful Japanese planetary mission was Hayabusa, an asteroid sample return mission which encountered the asteroid Itokawa in 2005. It returned to Earth in 2010 with a very small soil sample, the first material collected from the surface of another world since Apollo and the Soviet Luna spacecraft. A Venus orbiter called Akatsuki arrived at that planet in late 2010 and failed to go into orbit, but after orbiting the Sun for 5 years it encountered Venus and succeeded in getting into orbit in 2015, and its companion spacecraft 'Ikaros' was the first major test of a solar sail spacecraft. A second asteroid sample return mission is now on its way to an asteroid. A Mercury orbiter will be launched with a European mission in 2017. Ambitious future plans include a lunar lander in about 2020. Plans for a mini-shuttle and indigenous human spaceflight were cancelled several years ago but might be revived. As a partner in the International Space Station, Japan has developed substantial expertise in space engineering and operations
Japanese space agency
Hayabusa asteroid mission
Hayabusa 2 asteroid mission
Akatsuki Venus orbiter
Kaguya (Selene) lunar orbiter
Ikaros solar sail

India in space

India has also developed its own launch vehicles and satellites, again despite restricted budgets and international technology transfer limitations. Communication and Earth Observation satellites are very important parts of this program. A lunar orbiter (Chandrayaan) and impact probe were launched together in 2008 and a lander and rover (Chandrayaan 2) will follow in about 2018. A Mars orbiter (MOM, Mars Orbiter Mission) was launched in 2013 and entered Mars orbit in September 2014. A space observatory was launched in September 2015. India is in the early stages of developing its own human space flight capability, and if this happens the first launch may come in the 2020s.
Indian Space Research Organization
Chandrayaan mission
Chandrayaan images
MOM Mars images

Canada in space

Canada has built numerous satellites, including communications and remote sensing satellites. Canadian robotic arms flew on the Space Shuttle and still fly on the Space Station. Canadian astronauts have flown on the Shuttle and Station, and one visited Mir. A Canadian weather instrument operated on Mars as part of the Phoenix mission in 2008, and Canadian instruments are on both functioning Mars rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity. Now Canada is looking ahead to operations on the Moon, and is likely to supply rovers, drills and astronauts to future lunar exploration. Another important role for Canada is 'analog sites' - places which resemble the geology or conditions of other worlds, such as the Mistastin impact crater in Labrador (Moon-like geology) or the Haughton impact crater on Devon Island in Nunavut (Mars-like geology and conditions).
Canada on Mars
Canadian robotic arms in space
Mistastin analog site (PDF file)
Haughton analog site (PDF file)
Canadian analog sites

A new direction?

After the Columbia accident in 2003 NASA's goals were scrutinized carefully. A new 'Vision for Space Exploration' was proposed by President George Bush. It would have taken people back to the Moon and eventually on to Mars. This was revised by the Obama administration, and Mars has emerged as the next goal instead of the Moon. We will cover that more at the end of this term.

NASA image STS111-708-093 (15 June 2002) - International Space Station in orbit.