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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 2053.PDF
FLIGHT Internationa/, 20 June 1981 1967 Young pilots Columbia toward a safe landing at Edwards AFB, California. Columbia landed more than 900m further down the lakebed than planned, mainly because of lower than expected drag and a comparatively fast approach speed compared with the 4,750m of concrete runway at KSC. A plus point for future Shuttle users is that Orbiter power consump tion is less than expected. Columbia used only 23-25kWh during ascent, compared to the 3032kWh antici pated. In-orbit housekeeping also ab sorbed only 18-20kWh, instead of the 23-25kWh predicted. The result is that there will be more power avail- SPACE SHUTTLE TEST FLIGHTS able for payloads. Another user bene fit is that the sound level in the pay- load bay was 5-10dB less than ex pected during launch. The payload bay was almost 30°C cooler during entry. Post-flight inspection revealed about 305 nicks or dents in Colum bia's thermal protection. Analysis of the damaged areas has shown that( about 225 of the nicks and dents A|>il!81 September 31 January 82 May 82 Flight Launch dale Duration (days) Crew size • j>, ...... .-,•.. Circular orbit height (km) Orbit inclination (•) Max surface temp CO Type of landing Major payloari VUMM» Uj /-••'' 1 rj.'-t~ .-.<> .•"*' •.""*('''' O.I r,-'•*•'< Crij U'f C". •!'s"?--< '«" ,--» trfir.'du'-s-d tr.>m •:>• tilth flight, allowing Columbia to bo modified (or operational service, beginning in April 1983 (b) Ali landings are on the lakebed .it Edwards AFB. California (c) All payloads include develop mental (light instrumentation, an aerodynamic coefficient identification package, and an induced environmental containment monitor—except for the first flight, which did not have the monitor (d) The remote manipulator system is included trom lh" second flight onward (e) Abbreviations: :••.".."'-.>' . ,.- .a : ' : op • •':;• .:'•. :i C:> ,.•' •,.- • 2+ 2 27 8 29 7 'Mi 403 1,375 Manual — VV ,?*.''.- ,'.• 2 29 7.? 288 40 3 1 ?.9b Manual on ' iustramuH'te Osta t 8 2 si 'i/se-e 240 33 0 1.395 Automatic to ii'si&'a .'•.'!Os«-%'+ GAS test 'W ' 2 32 637 8 i!40 33-0 . . 1/,','t,. Automatic to stop iVDf*-1 + GAS occurred during ascent. The others are apparently the result of debris thrown up during the lakebed land ing. This damage will be unaccept able once Nasa begins regular flights, but is less than experts had feared. Rockwell, for example, had main tained enough staff at KSC to be able to replace 3,0004,000 of Columbia's silica-foam tiles—roughly 10 per cent of the total. It is only going to repair or replace about 300 tiles—although it will also replace about 500 tiles by densified ones (Flight, May 30, page 1598). In addition to the dents, there was some streaking of Columbia's black, lower-surface tiles, as well 'as dils- colouration of some white, upper- surface ones. Some of the streaks were caused when filler-bar glue oozed out from the gaps between the tiles—probably as a result of higher than expected supersonic cross-flows over and between the tiles. There was also delamination of the CFRP structure at the aft end of the orbital manoeuvring system (OMS) pods. The damage was probably caused by a larger than expected plume from the SSMEs and SRBs— when a spacecraft gets beyond the sensible atmosphere, say about 30km high, the plume blossoms. Nasa plans to replace the low-temperature tiles at the back end of the pod with high- temperature ones to avoid a recur rence. Out of the 170 objectives set for the four Space Shuttle test flights, Columbia has now achieved 135. First flight performance was also better than planned—Columbia could have placed an extra 4 tonnes of payload into low-Earth orbit. Nasa now ex pects to launch its second flight at the end of September, although this could slip slightly. It is now only a question of extending the Shuttle flight envelope, before the real rask of getting down to operational flights begins. i Columbia is prepared for the ferry flight to the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. Left The reinforced car bon-carbon nosecone and wing leading edges were not visibly affected by entry, but there were deposits streaked along Col umbia's lower sur face. Right Col umbia's carbonfibre reinforced plastic structure just below the rear of the orbital manoeuvring system pod also suffered from overheating. The damaged area can be seen just above where the coolant pipes are attached to the Orbiter T VI ..... i *• ........ ~S,„:;r...... :„ Sgg^-jflgi 1 1 3a * \ i US
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