View allAll Photos Tagged SpaceShuttle
Discovery's liftoff from as seen from USF, Tampa.
I missed the first several seconds thanks to me goofing the camera setup. Argh.
Science Museum of Virginia
When a spacecraft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere from space, friction is generated between the surface of the craft and the atmosphere's air molecules. This results in heat. To protect the Space Shuttle, approximately 33,000 white and black tiles, made of silica fiber compound, cover its undersurface, the leading edge of the vertical tail, and the area around the crew windows. These protective tiles allow the Space Shuttle to be flown again and again.
Pima Air and Space Museum
Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment Assembly (TMG)
The TMG is part of the extravehicular spacesuit worn by astronauts during spacewalks. It protects the wearer against solar radiation, extreme temperatures, micrometeoroids, and other orbital debris. Small flecks of paint or millimeter-sized micrometeoroids traveling at thousands of miles per hour can depressurize a suit or vehicle, potentially killing an astronaut.
8.) Restraint Assembly Phase VI Glove
The second layer of the TMG spacesuit glove is the restraint assembly. This layer provides internal protection, with standing human induced pressure loads incurred during operational use.
Pima Air and Space Museum
International Space Station Model
The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative effort between five different space agencies including NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), CSA (Canada), and ESA (European Union). The ISS serves as a microgravity research facility, conducting scientific research relating to astronomy, physics, meteorology, astrobiology, and various other fields. The first component of the ISS was launched in 1998 and has been inhabited continuously since 2000.
Pima Air and Space Museum
Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment Assembly (TMG)
The TMG is part of the extravehicular spacesuit worn by astronauts during spacewalks. It protects the wearer against solar radiation, extreme temperatures, micrometeoroids, and other orbital debris. Small flecks of paint or millimeter-sized micrometeoroids traveling at thousands of miles per hour can depressurize a suit or vehicle, potentially killing an astronaut.
8.) Restraint Assembly Phase VI Glove
The second layer of the TMG spacesuit glove is the restraint assembly. This layer provides internal protection, with standing human induced pressure loads incurred during operational use.
Pima Air and Space Museum
SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM FIXED BASE GUIDANCE AND NAVIGATION SIMULATOR
One of only three advanced space shuttle orbiter simulators used to train NASA astronauts.
The fixed-base Guidance and Navigation Simulator (GNS) represents one of only three simulators once used to train astronauts for the Space Shuttle Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Along with the motion-base Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) and the Fixed-Base Simulator (FBS), these complex machines were used to create a series of various mission tasks ranging from full mission rehearsals down to recreating specific exercises such as atmosphere entry or launching satellites.
Predating the SMS and FBS, the GNS was built in the late 1970s and operational by 1982. Initially it was primarily used only to test and verify guidance and navigation software that would later be installed in the SMS, FBS, and orbiters. As such it originally did not have visual computer-generated windscreen displays and much of the interior was unfinished, though it did contain the same complex array of cockpit instrumentation, controls, and computer displays operated by five distinct general-purpose computers (GPC) present in actual orbiters.
Following the Challenger accident investigation, the Rogers Commission suggested that NASA invest in additional crew training simulators to provide increased and expanded training and to handle the higher frequency of missions. However, the cost of providing an additional SMS or FBS proved too expensive, so NASA elected to upgrade the GNS into a full fixed-base crew simulator that was essentially identical to the FBS.
The upgraded GNS flight deck was enhanced to provide a more realistic appearance and a full visual computer-generated imagery system for the six forward facing windscreens. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) was a new science in the early 1980s and all the simulators used a first-generation CGI system, rudimentary by today's standards.
For 20 years the upgraded GNS was used interchangeably with the FBS and it is likely that every post-Challenger crew spent time in the GNS practicing launch, ascent, orbit, re-entry, and landing procedures.
With the end of the Space Shuttle Program, the GNS was retired in 2011. In late 2020 the GNS was used on the set of a science fiction movie due to be released in late 2021 [not sure why they’re being cryptic, its Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall]. The filmmakers modified the simulator's external appearance, making the GNS more closely resemble the outer surface of an actual orbiter, along with internal cabin modifications. Following movie shooting, the GNS flight deck was donated to the Pima Air & Space Museum in early 2021.
www.saroy.net/2010/02/sts-130-take-2-success.html
www.saroy.net/2010/02/sts-130-launch-photos.html
Taken with the camera on a tripod and using a remote. Thus I could watch with my own eyes, but still get a few photos. :)
Space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Andy Thomas and Commander Eileen Collins are shown in an image from television during an interview with National Public Radio from the flight deck of the space shuttle Discovery Friday, July 29, 2005. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin says he hopes the shuttle foam problem can be fixed before the end of the year, though he doesn't rule out another mission in the fall. In orbit, astronauts will move equipment from the Discovery to the international space station. (NASA)
Looking much different than it did later, the Space Shuttle appears in this comic-like brochure announcing its development to the general public.