Image Above: The bipod fitting that helps attach the External Tank to the orbiter has been redesigned. The reason for the difference in weight is that liquid oxygen is 16 times heavier than liquid hydrogen. The hydrogen tank is 2.5 times larger than the oxygen tank but weighs only one-third as much when filled to capacity. The three main components of the External Tank are an oxygen tank, located in the forward position, an aft-positioned hydrogen tank, and a collar-like intertank, which connects the two propellant tanks, houses instrumentation and processing equipment, and provides the attachment structure for the forward end of the solid rocket boosters ( + View Graphic Showing Parts of ET ). The now nearly empty tank separates and falls in a preplanned trajectory with the majority of it disintegrating in the atmosphere and the rest falling into the ocean. When the Solid Rocket Boosters separate at an altitude of approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles), the orbiter, with the main engines still burning, carries the external tank piggyback to near orbital velocity, approximately 113 kilometers (70 miles) above the Earth. Learn more about the changes which have made the External Tank safer for Return to Flight: Approximately 8.5 minutes into the flight, with its propellant used, the tank is jettisoned.Īt liftoff, the External Tank absorbs the total (7.8 million pounds) thrust loads of the three main engines and the two solid rocket motors. The tank is the only component of the Space Shuttle that is not reused. The tank is also the "backbone" of the Shuttle during the launch, providing structural support for attachment with the solid rocket boosters and orbiter. Click image to play video of External Tank separation (no audio) Photo credit: NASA. Image left: An External Tank falls back to Earth after being jettisoned from the Shuttle. The External Tank, or ET, is the "gas tank" for the Orbiter it contains the propellants used by the Space Shuttle Main Engines. + NASA Home > Mission Sections > Space Shuttle > Return to Flight > Space Shuttle System * Liquid oxygen is 16 times heavier than liquid hydrogen. NASA - The External Tank The site requires that JavaScripts be enabled in your browser. You can follow Staff Writer Denise Chow onTwitter. Space Shuttle Discovery's Retirement Plan in Limbo.Video ? Space Shuttle Discovery: A Retrospective, Part 2, Part 3.11 Things Americans Will Be Doing in Space in 2011.NASA is hoping to launch one additional shuttle flightaround June, but it is still awaiting approval for funding from a congressionalappropriations committee. The agency is retiringthe space shuttle program in order to shift its focus toward future missions toan asteroid and Mars. Two spacewalks are also planned forthe 11-day mission.ĭiscovery's STS-133 flight is one two final scheduledmissions before NASA's orbiter fleet is retired in 2011. On its 39th and final flight, the shuttle Discovery willcarry supplies to the International Space Station, including a storage room andhumanoid robot helper, called Robonaut 2. The sensors also monitored the tank's performance into thenext day as it warmed to ambient temperature. Sensors that were installed on the tankrecorded data as hundreds of thousands of gallons of cryogenic propellant waspumped into, and then drained from, the external tank. 17, in which the shuttle's fuel tank was filled as it normally would be upuntil the final seconds before liftoff. NASA also conducted a so-called "tanking test" onDec. While those previous cracks have since been repaired,shuttle program managers opted to postpone Discovery's final launch untilFebruary to give engineers more time to understand how the cracks developed,and whether they could pose future concerns. 5 ? prompting a string of delays forcloser analysis to determine the root cause. Other small cracks had been found on two of these ribs ?after Discovery's launch countdown on Nov. They took digital X-ray images of each of the 108supports ? known in NASA parlance as "stringers" ? on the exteriorof the intertank section. last week so technicians could take a closer look at theorbiter's external tank. It also houses much of the tank's wiring andinstrumentation.ĭiscovery rolledback to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center inCape Canaveral, Fla. The intertank portion of the tank, like its name suggests,is in between the vessel's liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellantreservoirs. Attempts to launch Discovery on its final voyage in earlyNovember were delayed by weather, a gas leak and ? ultimately ? due to smallcracks found in some of the 108 aluminum ribs in the so-called intertank partof Discovery's 15-story external tank.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |