Aircraft flight control surfaces are aerodynamic devices allowing a pilot to adjust and control the aircraft's flight attitude .
130-461: The Space Shuttle orbiter is the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle , a partially reusable orbital spacecraft system that was part of the discontinued Space Shuttle program . Operated from 1981 to 2011 by NASA , the U.S. space agency, this vehicle could carry astronauts and payloads into low Earth orbit , perform in-space operations, then re-enter the atmosphere and land as
260-617: A glider , returning its crew and any on-board payload to the Earth. Six orbiters were built for flight: Enterprise , Columbia , Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour . All were built in Palmdale, California , by the Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania -based Rockwell International company's North American Aircraft Operations branch. The first orbiter, Enterprise , made its maiden flight in 1977. An unpowered glider, it
390-407: A liquid state to a gas state , powering a hydraulic pump which supplied pressure for all of the hydraulic system, including the hydraulic sub-system that pointed the three main liquid-fueled rocket engines, under computerized flight control . The hydraulic pressure generated was also used to control all of the orbiter's flight control surfaces (the elevons, rudder, speed brake, etc.), to deploy
520-457: A 1.3-inch-thick (33 mm) optical pane, and an external thermal pane. The windows were tinted with the same ink used to make American banknotes . The Space Shuttle orbiter had three sets of landing gear which emerged downwards through doors in the heat shield. As a weight-saving measure, the gear could not be retracted once deployed. Since any premature extension of the landing gear would very likely have been catastrophic (as it opened through
650-594: A carrier aircraft. On 7 December 2009, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo , along with its atmospheric mothership "Eve". On 13 December 2018, SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity successfully crossed the US-defined boundary of space (although it has not reached space using the internationally recognised definition of this boundary, which lies at a higher altitude than the US boundary). SpaceShipThree
780-589: A hydrogen-fueled scramjet. The NASP program became the Hypersonic Systems Technology Program (HySTP) in late 1994. HySTP was designed to transfer the accomplishments made in hypersonic flight into a technology development program. On 27 January 1995 the Air Force terminated participation in (HySTP). In 1994, a USAF captain proposed an F-16 sized single-stage-to-orbit peroxide/kerosene spaceplane called " Black Horse ". It
910-431: A lowered one increases lift, so moving the aileron control in this way causes the left wing to drop and the right wing to rise. This causes the aircraft to roll to the left and begin to turn to the left. Centering the control returns the ailerons to the neutral position, maintaining the bank angle . The aircraft will continue to turn until opposite aileron motion returns the bank angle to zero to fly straight. The elevator
1040-476: A modified marking scheme for the shuttle fleet that would be matched by Discovery , Atlantis and Endeavour . The letters "USA" in black above an American flag were displayed on the left wing, with the NASA "worm" logotype in gray centered above the name of the orbiter in black on the right wing. Also, the name of the orbiter was inscribed not on the payload bay doors, but on the forward fuselage just below and behind
1170-688: A partnership between NASDA and NAL (both now part of JAXA ), started in the 1980s. It was positioned for most of its lifetime as one of the main Japanese contributions to the International Space Station , the other being the Japanese Experiment Module . The project was eventually cancelled in 2003, by which point test flights of a sub-scale testbed had flown successfully. AVATAR (Aerobic Vehicle for Hypersonic Aerospace Transportation; Sanskrit : अवतार )
1300-432: A pilot to balance the lift and drag being produced by the wings and control surfaces over a wide range of load and airspeed. This reduces the effort required to adjust or maintain a desired flight attitude . Elevator trim balances the control force necessary to maintain the correct aerodynamic force on the tail to balance the aircraft. Whilst carrying out certain flight exercises, a lot of trim could be required to maintain
1430-579: A purpose-built runway at the Chitradurga Aeronautical Test Range , Karnataka. Flight control surfaces#Rudder 2 Development of an effective set of flight control surfaces was a critical advance in the development of aircraft. Early efforts at fixed-wing aircraft design succeeded in generating sufficient lift to get the aircraft off the ground, but once aloft, the aircraft proved uncontrollable, often with disastrous results. The development of effective flight controls
SECTION 10
#17327719147561560-402: A short period of time and the aircraft will return to its level flight trimmed airspeed. Except for very light aircraft, trim tabs on the elevators are unable to provide the force and range of motion desired. To provide the appropriate trim force the entire horizontal tail plane is made adjustable in pitch. This allows the pilot to select exactly the right amount of positive or negative lift from
1690-760: A spaceplane must be supplied with power by solar panels and batteries or fuel cells , maneuvered in space , kept in thermal equilibrium, oriented , and communicated with. On-orbit thermal and radiological environments impose additional stresses. This is in addition to accomplishing the task the spaceplane was launched to complete, such as satellite deployment or science experiments. The Space Shuttle used dedicated engines to accomplish orbital maneuvers. These engines used toxic hypergolic propellants that required special handling precautions. Various gases, including helium for pressurization and nitrogen for life support, were stored under high pressure in composite overwrapped pressure vessels . Orbital spacecraft reentering
1820-769: A spaceplane to a runway landing, usually to the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC, Florida, or to Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base , California. If the landing occurred at Edwards, the orbiter was flown back to the KSC atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a specially modified Boeing 747 designed to carry the shuttle above it. Download coordinates as: The Buran programme ( Russian : Буран , IPA: [bʊˈran] , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as
1950-669: A spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office , in collaboration with United States Space Force , for orbital spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies . It is a 120-percent-scaled derivative of the earlier Boeing X-40 . The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the United States Department of Defense in 2004. Until 2019,
2080-722: A total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. They launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida . Operational missions launched numerous satellites , interplanetary probes , and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle- Mir program with Russia, and participated in the construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). The Space Shuttle fleet's total mission time
2210-400: A trimming control surface on the elevator , but larger aircraft also have a trim control for the rudder, and another for the ailerons. The rudder trim is to counter any asymmetric thrust from the engines. Aileron trim is to counter the effects of the centre of gravity being displaced from the aircraft centerline. This can be caused by fuel or an item of payload being loaded more on one side of
2340-571: A twin-engined SSTO spaceplane called Skylon . One NASA analysis showed possible issues with the hot rocket exhaust plumes causing heating of the tail structure at high Mach numbers. although the CEO of Skylon Enterprises Ltd has claimed that reviews by NASA were "quite positive". Bristol Spaceplanes has undertaken design and prototyping of three potential spaceplanes since its founding by David Ashford in 1991. The European Space Agency has endorsed these designs on several occasions. France worked on
2470-614: Is 60 ft (18 m) by 15 ft (4.6 m), and could transport 24,400 kg (53,800 lb) to 204 km (127 mi), or 12,500 kg (27,600 lb) to the ISS at 407 km (253 mi). The most massive payload launched by the Space Shuttle was the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 1999 at 50,162 lb (22,753 kg), including its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) and support equipment. The Shuttle
2600-562: Is a main part of their patent on flying. Unlike modern control surfaces, they used wing warping . In an attempt to circumvent the Wright patent , Glenn Curtiss made hinged control surfaces, the same type of concept first patented some four decades earlier in the United Kingdom . Hinged control surfaces have the advantage of not causing stresses that are a problem of wing warping and are easier to build into structures. An aircraft
2730-455: Is a moveable part of the horizontal stabilizer , hinged to the back of the fixed part of the horizontal tail. The elevators move up and down together. When the pilot pulls the stick backward, the elevators go up. Pushing the stick forward causes the elevators to go down. Raised elevators push down on the tail and cause the nose to pitch up. This makes the wings fly at a higher angle of attack , which generates more lift and more drag . Centering
SECTION 20
#17327719147562860-591: Is a small reusable spaceplane prototype for the ESA Future Launchers Preparatory Programme /FLTP program. SpaceLiner is the most recent project. The Space Rider (Space Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return) is a planned uncrewed orbital lifting body spaceplane aiming to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) with affordable and routine access to space. Contracts for construction of
2990-471: Is counteracted by the pilot using the rudder pedals. Differential ailerons are ailerons which have been rigged such that the downgoing aileron deflects less than the upward-moving one, causing less adverse yaw. The rudder is a fundamental control surface which is typically controlled by pedals rather than at the stick. It is the primary means of controlling yaw—the rotation of an airplane about its vertical axis. The rudder may also be called upon to counter-act
3120-424: Is expected to have air-breathing scramjet engines as well as rocket engines. Tests with miniature spaceplanes and a working scramjet have been conducted by ISRO in 2016. In April 2023, India successfully conducted an autonomous landing mission of a scaled-down prototype of the spaceplane. The RLV prototype was dropped from a Chinook helicopter at an altitude of 4.5 kms and was made to autonomously glide down to
3250-408: Is free to rotate around three axes that are perpendicular to each other and intersect at its center of gravity (CG). To control position and direction a pilot must be able to control rotation about each of them. The transverse axis , also known as lateral axis , passes through an aircraft from wingtip to wingtip. Rotation about this axis is called pitch . Pitch changes the vertical direction that
3380-444: Is lowered which increases lift on the right wing and therefore increases induced drag on the right wing. Using ailerons causes adverse yaw , meaning the nose of the aircraft yaws in a direction opposite to the aileron application. When moving the aileron control to bank the wings to the left, adverse yaw moves the nose of the aircraft to the right . Adverse yaw is most pronounced in low-speed aircraft with long wings, such as gliders. It
3510-605: Is shed as heat during re-entry . Many more spaceplanes have been proposed , but none have reached flight status. At least two suborbital rocket-powered aircraft have been launched horizontally into sub-orbital spaceflight from an airborne carrier aircraft before rocketing beyond the Kármán line : the X-15 and SpaceShipOne . Spaceplanes must operate in space, like traditional spacecraft , but also must be capable of atmospheric flight, like an aircraft . These requirements drive up
3640-694: Is similar to the Boeing X-37 . Only a few images have been released since late 2007. A test project, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), has demonstrated lifting reentry technologies and will be extended under the PRIDE programme . The FAST20XX Future High-Altitude High Speed Transport 20XX aims to establish sound technological foundations for the introduction of advanced concepts in suborbital high-speed transportation with air-launch-to-orbit ALPHA vehicle. The Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace RLV
3770-445: Is the new spacecraft of Virgin Galactic , launched on 30 March 2021. It is also known as VSS Imagine . On 11 July 2021 VSS Unity completed its first fully crewed mission including Sir Richard Branson . The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 was an atmospheric prototype of an intended orbital spaceplane, with the suborbital BOR-4 subscale heat shield test vehicle successfully reentering the atmosphere before program cancellation. HYFLEX
3900-410: Is what allowed stable flight. This article describes the control surfaces used on a fixed-wing aircraft of conventional design. Other fixed-wing aircraft configurations may use different control surfaces but the basic principles remain. The controls (stick and rudder ) for rotary wing aircraft ( helicopter or autogyro ) accomplish the same motions about the three axes of rotation , but manipulate
4030-1064: The Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois but was later transferred to the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma . The Motion Base Simulator was transferred to the Texas A&;M Aerospace Engineering Department in College Station, Texas , and the Guidance and Navigation Simulator went to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum in Starke, Florida . NASA also made approximately 7,000 TPS tiles available to schools and universities. Data from General characteristics Performance The cargo bay
Space Shuttle orbiter - Misplaced Pages Continue
4160-737: The Hermes crewed spaceplane launched by Ariane rocket in the late 20th century, and proposed in January 1985 to go through with Hermes development under the auspices of the ESA. In the 1980s, West Germany funded design work on the MBB Sänger II with the Hypersonic Technology Program. Development continued on MBB/Deutsche Aerospace Sänger II/HORUS until the late 1980s when it was canceled. Germany went on to participate in
4290-420: The canard arrangement , the elevators are hinged to the rear of a foreplane and move in the opposite sense, for example when the pilot pulls the stick back the elevators go down to increase the lift at the front and lift the nose up. The rudder is typically mounted on the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer , part of the empennage . When the pilot pushes the left pedal, the rudder deflects left. Pushing
4420-645: The carbon dioxide scrubbing system. Three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) were mounted on the orbiter's aft fuselage in the pattern of an equilateral triangle . These three liquid-fueled engines could be swiveled 10.5 degrees vertically and 8.5 degrees horizontally during the rocket-powered ascent of the orbiter in order to change the direction of their thrust. Hence, they steered the entire Space Shuttle, as well as providing rocket thrust towards orbit. The aft fuselage also housed three auxiliary power units (APU). The APUs chemically converted hydrazine fuel from
4550-551: The "VKK Space Orbiter programme" ( Russian : ВКК «Воздушно-Космический Корабль» , lit. 'Air and Space Ship'), was a Soviet and later Russian reusable spacecraft project that began in 1974 at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Moscow and was formally suspended in 1993. In addition to being the designation for the whole Soviet/Russian reusable spacecraft project, Buran
4680-458: The "outing" of a highly classified U.S. military two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system with the code name Blackstar . In 2011, Boeing proposed the X-37C, a 165 to 180 percent scale X-37B built to carry up to six passengers to low Earth orbit . The spaceplane was also intended to carry cargo, with both upmass and downmass capacity. The Soviet reusable spacecraft programme has its roots in
4810-422: The 1980s, was an attempt to build a scramjet vehicle capable of operating like an aircraft and achieving orbit like the shuttle. Introduced to the public in 1986, the concept was intended to reach Mach 25, enabling flights between Dulles Airport to Tokyo in two hours, while also being capable of low Earth orbit. Six critical technologies were identified, three relating to the propulsion system, which would consist of
4940-579: The American flag above the orbiter's name, left-justified rather than centered, on the right wing. The three surviving flight vehicles, Discovery , Atlantis and Endeavour , still bear these markings as museum displays. Enterprise became the property of the Smithsonian Institution in 1985 and was no longer under NASA's control when these changes were made, hence the prototype orbiter still has its 1983 markings and still has its name on
5070-474: The Ariane rocket, Columbus space station and Hermes spaceplane of ESA , Spacelab of ESA-NASA and Deutschland missions (non-U.S. funded Space Shuttle flights with Spacelab). The Sänger II had predicted cost savings of up to 30 percent over expendable rockets. Hopper was one of several proposals for a European reusable launch vehicle (RLV) planned to cheaply ferry satellites into orbit by 2015. One of those
5200-521: The ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, while the main engines continued to operate, and the ET was jettisoned after main engine cutoff and just before orbit insertion , which used the orbiter's two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines. At the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to deorbit and reenter the atmosphere . The orbiter was protected during reentry by its thermal protection system tiles, and it glided as
5330-403: The Earth's atmosphere must shed significant velocity , resulting in extreme heating . For example, the Space Shuttle thermal protection system (TPS) protects the orbiter's interior structure from surface temperatures that reach as high as 1,650 °C (3,000 °F), well above the melting point of steel. Suborbital spaceplanes fly lower energy trajectories that do not put as much stress on
Space Shuttle orbiter - Misplaced Pages Continue
5460-483: The Earth's atmosphere – until the air became dense enough that the rudder, elevons and body flap became effective. The orbiter's OMS and RCS fuel is monomethyl hydrazine (CH 3 NHNH 2 ), and the oxidizer is dinitrogen tetroxide (N 2 O 4 ). This particular propellant combination is extremely reactive and spontaneously ignites on contact (hypergolic) with each other. This chemical reaction (4CH 3 NHNH 2 + 5N 2 O 4 → 9N 2 + 4CO 2 + 12H 2 O) occurs within
5590-781: The Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility , Florida, except STS-3 at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Similar special clearances (no-fly zones) were also in effect at potential emergency landing sites, such as in Spain and in West Africa during all launches. When an orbiter landing was carried out at night, the runway was always strongly illuminated with light from floodlights and spotlights on
5720-932: The Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center , replacing Enterprise which was moved to the Intrepid Museum in New York City . Endeavour went to the California Science Center in Los Angeles arriving on October 14, 2012. Atlantis went to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island on November 2, 2012. Hundreds of other shuttle artifacts will be put on display at various other museums and educational institutions around
5850-763: The U.S. One of the Crew Compartment Trainer Flight and mid-deck training hardware is on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force , while the other is on display at the JSC. The Full Fuselage Trainer, which includes the payload bay and aft section but no wings, is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington . The Mission Simulation and Training Facility's Shuttle Mission Simulator Fixed Base Simulator originally went to
5980-525: The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program . Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from the 1969 plan led by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. The first ( STS-1 ) of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights ( STS-5 ) beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on
6110-590: The U.S. Space Shuttle , Russian Buran , U.S. X-37 , and the Chinese Shenlong . Another, Dream Chaser , is under development in the U.S. As of 2024 all past and current orbital spaceplanes launch vertically ; some are carried as a payload in a conventional fairing, while the Space Shuttle used its own engines with the assistance of boosters and an external tank. Orbital spaceflight takes place at high velocities, with orbital kinetic energies typically greater than suborbital trajectories. This kinetic energy
6240-672: The academic Boris Chertok , recounts how the programme came into being. According to Chertok, after the U.S. developed its Space Shuttle program, the Soviet military became suspicious that it could be used for military purposes, due to its enormous payload, several times that of previous U.S. launch vehicles. Officially, the Buran orbital vehicle was designed for the delivery to orbit and return to Earth of spacecraft, cosmonauts, and supplies. Both Chertok and Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy (General Designer and General Director of NPO Molniya ) suggest that from
6370-402: The adverse yaw produced by the roll-control surfaces. If rudder is continuously applied in level flight the aircraft will yaw initially in the direction of the applied rudder – the primary effect of rudder. After a few seconds the aircraft will tend to bank in the direction of yaw. This arises initially from the increased speed of the wing opposite to the direction of yaw and the reduced speed of
6500-408: The ailerons rather than the rudder. The rudder turns (yaws) the aircraft but has little effect on its direction of travel. With aircraft, the change in direction is caused by the horizontal component of lift, acting on the wings. The pilot tilts the lift force, which is perpendicular to the wings, in the direction of the intended turn by rolling the aircraft into the turn. As the bank angle is increased,
6630-401: The air stream generates an unbalanced force to rotate the plane about the associated axis. Ailerons are mounted on the trailing edge of each wing near the wingtips and move in opposite directions. When the pilot moves the aileron control to the left, or turns the wheel counter-clockwise, the left aileron goes up and the right aileron goes down. A raised aileron reduces lift on that wing and
SECTION 50
#17327719147566760-674: The air, and covered in silicon borides and borosilicate glass , with blacker tiles covering the lower surface, and whiter tiles covering the tail, parts of the upper wing and crew cabin surfaces, and the outsides of the payload bay doors. The nose cap, nose landing gear doors, and leading edges were made of reinforced carbon–carbon , which is rayon impregnated with graphite -filled resins and coated in silicon carbide . The upper, white materials that were not in tiles were mostly made of either Nomex felt coated in silicon -rich elastomer or beta cloth , woven silica fibers covered in Teflon . This
6890-442: The aircraft and change relative to the earth as the aircraft moves. For example, for an aircraft whose left wing is pointing straight down, its "vertical" axis is parallel with the ground, while its "transverse" axis is perpendicular to the ground. The main control surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft are attached to the airframe on hinges or tracks so they may move and thus deflect the air stream passing over them. This redirection of
7020-409: The aircraft's nose is pointing. The elevators are the primary control surfaces for pitch. The longitudinal axis passes through the aircraft from nose to tail. Rotation about this axis is called roll . The angular displacement about this axis is called bank. The pilot changes bank angle by increasing the lift on one wing and decreasing it on the other. This differential lift causes rotation around
7150-452: The airstream. Some designs feature separate anti-flutter weights. (In radio controlled model aircraft, the term "control horn" has a different meaning) In the simplest arrangement, trimming is done by a mechanical spring (or bungee ) which adds appropriate force to augment the pilot's control input. The spring is usually connected to an elevator trim lever to allow the pilot to set the spring force applied. Most fixed-wing aircraft have
7280-427: The atmosphere for an extended period of time. This environment induces high dynamic pressure, high temperature, and high heat flow loads particularly upon the leading edge surfaces of the spaceplane, requiring exterior surfaces to be constructed from advanced materials and/or use active cooling . The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by
7410-451: The back of the wing, which combine the functions of elevators and ailerons. On low drag aircraft such as sailplanes , spoilers are used to disrupt airflow over the wing and greatly reduce lift. This allows a glider pilot to lose altitude without gaining excessive airspeed. Spoilers are sometimes called "lift dumpers". Spoilers that can be used asymmetrically are called spoilerons and can affect an aircraft's roll. Flaps are mounted on
7540-426: The beginning, the programme was military in nature; however, the exact military capabilities, or intended capabilities, of the Buran programme remain classified. The Soviet Union first considered a preliminary design of rocket-launch small spaceplane Lapotok in early 1960s. The Spiral airspace system with small orbital spaceplane and rocket as second stage was developed in the 1960s–1980s. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
7670-456: The cockpit windows. This would make the name visible when the orbiter was photographed in orbit with the doors open. Challenger also had black tiles on the tip of its vertical stabilizer much like Columbia , which the other orbiters lacked. In 1983, Enterprise had its wing markings changed to match Challenger , and the NASA "worm" logotype on the aft end of the payload bay doors was changed from gray to black. Some black markings were added to
7800-495: The complexity, risk, dry mass, and cost of spaceplane designs. The following sections will draw heavily on the US Space Shuttle as the biggest, most complex, most expensive, most flown, and only crewed orbital spaceplane, but other designs have been successfully flown. The flight trajectory required to reach orbit results in significant aerodynamic loads, vibrations, and accelerations, all of which have to be withstood by
7930-493: The desired angle of attack. This mainly applies to slow flight , where a nose-up attitude is required, in turn requiring a lot of trim causing the tailplane to exert a strong downforce. Elevator trim is correlated with the speed of the airflow over the tail, thus airspeed changes to the aircraft require re-trimming. An important design parameter for aircraft is the stability of the aircraft when trimmed for level flight. Any disturbances such as gusts or turbulence will be damped over
SECTION 60
#17327719147568060-417: The end of the mission. The hydrogen and oxygen for the fuel cells was kept in pairs of cryogenic storage tanks in the mid-fuselage underneath the payload bay liner, and a variable number of such tank sets could be installed (up to five pairs) depending on the requirements of the mission. The three fuel cells were capable of generating 21 kilowatts of power continuously (or a 15-minute peak of 36 kilowatts) with
8190-452: The engine's combustion chamber. The reaction products are then expanded and accelerated in the engine bell to provide thrust. Due to their hypergolic characteristics these two chemicals are easily started and restarted without an ignition source, which makes them ideal for spacecraft maneuvering systems. During the early design process of the orbiter, the forward RCS thrusters were to be hidden underneath retractable doors, which would open once
8320-417: The federally owned Plant 42 complex. Each NASA Space Shuttle designation was composed of a prefix and suffix separated by a dash. The prefix for operational shuttles is OV, for Orbiter Vehicle . The suffix is composed of two parts: the series and the vehicle number; "0" was used for non-flight ready orbiters, and "1" was used for flight-ready orbiters. The vehicle number is sequentially assigned within
8450-536: The final Shuttle flight, STS-135 , on July 21, 2011. In addition to their crews and payloads, the reusable orbiter carried most of the Space Shuttle System 's liquid-propellant rocket system, but both the liquid hydrogen fuel and the liquid oxygen oxidizer for its three main rocket engines were fed from an external cryogenic propellant tank . Additionally, two reusable solid rocket boosters (SRBs) provided additional thrust for approximately
8580-523: The first two minutes of launch. The orbiters themselves did carry hypergolic propellants for their Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters and Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines. About the size of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 , the Space Shuttle orbiter resembled an airplane in its design, with a standard-looking fuselage and two double delta wings, both swept wings at an angle of 81 degrees at their inner leading edges and 45 degrees at their outer leading edges. The vertical stabilizer of
8710-899: The flaps are deployed, thus acting as both a flap and a roll-control inboard aileron. Slats , also known as leading edge devices , are extensions to the front of a wing for lift augmentation, and are intended to reduce the stalling speed by altering the airflow over the wing. Slats may be fixed or retractable - fixed slats (e.g. as on the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch ) give excellent slow speed and STOL capabilities, but compromise higher speed performance. Retractable slats, as seen on most airliners, provide reduced stalling speed for take-off and landing, but are retracted for cruising. Air brakes are used to increase drag. Spoilers might act as air brakes, but are not pure air brakes as they also function as lift-dumpers or in some cases as roll control surfaces. Air brakes are usually surfaces that deflect outwards from
8840-429: The flight deck, was normally equipped with up to three additional stowable seats, depending on the crew requirements of the mission. One mission carried four seats ( STS-61-A ) and NASA drew up plans that were never used to carry up to seven seats in the case of an emergency rescue ( STS-400 ). The galley, toilet, sleep locations, storage lockers, and the side hatch for entering and exiting the orbiter were also located on
8970-508: The fuselage (in most cases symmetrically on opposing sides) into the airstream in order to increase form-drag. As they are in most cases located elsewhere on the aircraft, they do not directly affect the lift generated by the wing. Their purpose is to slow down the aircraft. They are particularly useful when a high rate of descent is required. They are common on high performance military aircraft as well as civilian aircraft, especially those lacking reverse thrust capability. Trimming controls allow
9100-535: The ground, making landing lights on the orbiter unnecessary and also an unneeded spaceflight weight load. A total of 26 landings took place at night, the first being STS-8 in September 1983. The typeface used on the Space Shuttle orbiter was Helvetica . The prototype orbiter Enterprise originally had a flag of the United States on the upper surface of the left wing and the letters "USA" in black on
9230-513: The heat shield layers), the landing gear could only be lowered by manual controls, and not by any automatic system. Similarly, since the Shuttle landed at high speed and could not abort its landing attempt, the gear had to deploy reliably on the first try every time. The gear were unlocked and deployed by triple redundant hydraulics, with the gear doors actuated by mechanical linkages to the gear strut. If all three hydraulic systems failed to release
9360-698: The landing gear of the orbiter, and to retract the umbilical hose connection doors located near the rear landing gear, which supplied the orbiter's SSMEs with liquid hydrogen and oxygen from the external tank. Two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) thrusters were mounted in two separate removable pods on the orbiter's aft fuselage, located between the SSMEs and the vertical stabilizer. The OMS engines provided significant thrust for course orbital maneuvers , including insertion, circularization, transfer, rendezvous, deorbit, abort to orbit, and to abort once around . At lift-off, two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) were used to take
9490-472: The landing gear uplocks within one second of the release command, pyrotechnic charges automatically cut the lock hooks and a set of springs deployed the gear. During landing, the Shuttle nose wheel could be steered with the rudder pedals in the cockpit. During the construction of Space Shuttle Endeavour , an improved nose wheel steering system was developed which allowed easier and more effective nose wheel steering. After Endeavour 's roll-out,
9620-411: The late 1950s, at the very beginning of the space age. The idea of Soviet reusable space flight is very old, though it was neither continuous nor consistently organized. Before Buran, no project of the programme reached operational status. The first step toward a reusable Soviet spacecraft was the 1954 Burya , a high-altitude prototype jet aircraft/cruise missile. Several test flights were made before it
9750-402: The lifting force can be split into two components: one acting vertically and one acting horizontally. If the total lift is kept constant, the vertical component of lift will decrease. As the weight of the aircraft is unchanged, this would result in the aircraft descending if not countered. To maintain level flight requires increased positive (up) elevator to increase the angle of attack, increase
9880-423: The longitudinal axis. The ailerons are the primary control of bank. The rudder also has a secondary effect on bank. The vertical axis passes through an aircraft from top to bottom. Rotation about this axis is called yaw . Yaw changes the direction the aircraft's nose is pointing, left or right. The primary control of yaw is with the rudder. Ailerons also have a secondary effect on yaw. These axes move with
10010-498: The mid-deck, as well as the airlock . The airlock had an additional hatch into the payload bay. This airlock allowed two or three astronauts, wearing their Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) space suits, to depressurize before a walk in space ( EVA ), and also to repressurize and re-enter the orbiter at the conclusion of the EVA. The utility area was located under the floor of the mid-deck and contained air and water tanks in addition to
10140-636: The navies of the world (though the test orbiter Enterprise , originally to be named " Constitution ", had its name changed after the Star Trek starship , itself named after a series of US Navy ships ), and they were also numbered using the NASA Orbiter Vehicle designation system. Three of the names had also been given to Apollo spacecraft between 1969 and 1972: Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia , Apollo 15 Command Module Endeavour , and Apollo 17 Lunar Module Challenger . While all of
10270-514: The nose, cockpit windows and vertical tail to more closely resemble the flight vehicles, but the name "Enterprise" remained on the payload bay doors as there was never any need to open them. Columbia had its name moved to the forward fuselage to match the other flight vehicles after STS-61-C , during the 1986–1988 hiatus when the shuttle fleet was grounded following the loss of Challenger , but retained its original wing markings until its last overhaul (after STS-93 ), and its unique black chines for
10400-944: The operational orbiters and test articles produced for use in the Shuttle program, there are also various mockup replicas on display throughout the United States: Spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space . To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft . All spaceplanes as of 2024 have been rocket -powered for takeoff and climb, but have then landed as unpowered gliders . Four types of spaceplanes have successfully launched to orbit, reentered Earth's atmosphere , and landed :
10530-484: The orbit's altitude, orbital plane , and eccentricity . These were all operations that required more thrust and impulse than mere attitude control. The forward rockets of the Reaction Control System, located near the nose of the Space Shuttle orbiter, included 14 primary and two vernier RCS rockets. The aft RCS engines were located in the two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pods at the rear of
10660-565: The orbiter consuming an average of about 14 kilowatts of that power (leaving 7 kilowatts for the payload). Additionally, the fuel cells provided potable water for the crew during the mission. The orbiter's computer system consisted of five identical IBM AP-101 avionics computers, which redundantly controlled the vehicle's on-board systems. The specialized HAL/S programming language was used for orbiter systems. The orbiters were protected by Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials (developed by Rockwell Space Systems ) inside and out, from
10790-422: The orbiter had a leading edge that was swept back at a 45-degree angle. There were four elevons mounted at the trailing edges of the delta wings, and the combination rudder and speed brake was attached at the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer . These, along with a movable body flap located underneath the main engines, controlled the orbiter during later stages of reentry . The prime contractor for
10920-530: The orbiter reached space. These were omitted in favor of flush-mounted thrusters for fear that the RCS doors would remain stuck open and endanger the crew and orbiter during re-entry. The orbiter's flight deck or cockpit originally had 2,214 controls and displays, about three times as many as the Apollo command module . The crew cabin consisted of the flight deck, the mid-deck, and the utility area. The uppermost of these
11050-536: The orbiter was Rockwell International, which built the pressurized cabin, thermal protection, forward attitude control system, and forward and aft fuselage in its Downey, California factory, the payload bay doors in its Tulsa, Oklahoma factory, and the body flap in its Columbus, Ohio factory. Subcontractors included Convair in San Diego for the midsection, Fairchild Aircraft in Farmingdale, New York for
11180-404: The orbiter's outer surface to the payload bay. The TPS protected it from the cold soak of −121 °C (−186 °F) in space to the 1,649 °C (3,000 °F) heat of re-entry. The tile materials comprising much of the orbiter's outermost layer were mostly air held within near-pure silica fibers, which made it efficient at refractory insulation that absorbed and redirected heat back out into
11310-595: The orbiter, and these included 12 primary (PRCS) and two vernier (VRCS) engines in each pod. The PRCS system provided the pointing control of the Orbiter, and the VRCS was used for fine maneuvering during the rendezvous, docking, and undocking maneuvers with the International Space Station , or formerly with the Russian Mir space station . The RCS also controlled the attitude of the orbiter during most of its re-entry into
11440-650: The orbiters were externally practically identical, they had minor differences in their interiors. New equipment for the Orbiters was installed in the same order that they underwent maintenance work, and the newer orbiters were constructed by Rockwell International, under NASA supervision, with some more advanced, lighter in weight, structural elements. Thus, the newer orbiters ( Discovery , Atlantis and Endeavour ) had slightly more cargo capacity than Columbia or Challenger . The Space Shuttle orbiters were assembled at Rockwell's assembly facility in Palmdale, California , at
11570-403: The other wing. The faster wing generates more lift and so rises, while the other wing tends to go down because of generating less lift. Continued application of rudder sustains rolling tendency because the aircraft flying at an angle to the airflow - skidding towards the forward wing. When applying right rudder in an aircraft with dihedral the left hand wing will have increased angle of attack and
11700-570: The paraglider began in 1963. By December 1963, the parachute was ready to undergo full-scale deployment testing, while the paraglider had run into technical difficulties. Though attempts to revive the paraglider concept persisted within NASA and North American Aviation , in 1964 development was definitively discontinued due to the expense of overcoming the technical hurdles. The Space Shuttle underwent many variations during its conceptual design phase. Some early concepts are illustrated. The Rockwell X-30 National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), begun in
11830-403: The payload bay doors. With the end of the Shuttle program, plans were made to place the three remaining Space Shuttle orbiters on permanent display. NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. announced the disposition location of the orbiters on April 12, 2011, the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight and the 30th anniversary of the first flight of Columbia . Discovery went to
11960-426: The pilot attempts to generate enough lift to maintain level flight. Some aircraft configurations have non-standard primary controls. For example, instead of elevators at the back of the stabilizers, the entire tailplane may change angle . Some aircraft have a tail in the shape of a V , and the moving parts at the back of those combine the functions of elevators and rudder. Delta wing aircraft may have " elevons " at
12090-543: The postwar US considered winged versions of the V-2 rocket, and in the 1950s and '60s winged rocket designs inspired science fiction artists, filmmakers, and the general public. The U.S. Air Force invested some effort in a paper study of a variety of spaceplane projects under their Aerospaceplane efforts of the late 1950s, but later reduced the scope of the project. The result, the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar ,
12220-478: The program was managed by Air Force Space Command . Two piloted suborbital rocket-powered aircraft have reached space: the North American X-15 and SpaceShipOne ; a third, SpaceShipTwo , has crossed the US-defined boundary of space but has not reached the higher internationally recognised boundary. None of these crafts were capable of entering orbit, and all were first lifted to high altitude by
12350-469: The remainder of its operational life. Beginning in STS-95 (1998), the flight vehicles' markings were modified to incorporate the NASA "meatball" insignia . The "worm" logotype, which the agency had phased out, was removed from the payload bay doors and the "meatball" insignia was added aft of the "United States" text on the lower aft fuselage. The "meatball" insignia was also displayed on the left wing, with
12480-447: The right hand wing will have decreased angle of attack which will result in a roll to the right. An aircraft with anhedral will show the opposite effect. This effect of the rudder is commonly used in model aircraft where if sufficient dihedral or polyhedral is included in the wing design, primary roll control such as ailerons may be omitted altogether. Unlike turning a boat, changing the direction of an aircraft normally must be done with
12610-406: The right pedal causes the rudder to deflect right. Deflecting the rudder right pushes the tail left and causes the nose to yaw to the right. Centering the rudder pedals returns the rudder to neutral and stops the yaw. The ailerons primarily cause roll. Whenever lift is increased, induced drag is also increased so when the aileron control is moved to roll the aircraft to the left, the right aileron
12740-513: The right wing. The name "Enterprise" in black was painted on the payload bay doors just above the forwardmost hinge and behind the crew module; on the aft end of the payload bay doors was the NASA "worm" logotype in gray. Underneath the rear of the payload bay doors on the side of the fuselage just above the wing was the text "United States" in black with a flag of the United States ahead of it. The first operational orbiter, Columbia , originally had
12870-404: The rotating flight controls ( main rotor disk and tail rotor disk) in a completely different manner. Flight control surfaces are operated by aircraft flight control systems . Considered as a generalized fluid control surface, rudders, in particular, are shared between aircraft and watercraft . The Wright brothers are credited with developing the first practical control surfaces. It
13000-431: The same markings as Enterprise , although the letters "USA" on the right wing were slightly larger and spaced farther apart. Columbia also had black tiles which Enterprise lacked on its forward RCS module, around the cockpit windows, and on its vertical stabilizer. Columbia also had distinctive black chines on the forward part of its upper wing surfaces, which none of the other orbiters had. Challenger established
13130-441: The same name would be used as a service module for the International Space Station . After Zvezda, there was a hiatus in reusable projects until Buran. The Buran orbital vehicle programme was developed in response to the U.S. Space Shuttle program, which raised considerable concerns among the Soviet military and especially Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov . An authoritative chronicler of the Soviet and later Russian space programme,
13260-545: The series, beginning with 1. Therefore, there can never be an OV-100 as it would read "Orbiter Vehicle Series 1 Vehicle 0". Many proposals to build a second generation of orbiters, externally compatible with the current system but internally new, refer to them as "OV-200" or "OV-2xx" in order to differentiate them from the "first generation", the OV-100s. This terminology is informal, and it is unlikely that any Shuttle-derived vehicle built will be given such designation. Challenger
13390-411: The spacecraft thermal protection system. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was the direct result of a TPS failure. Aerodynamic control surfaces must be actuated . Landing gear must be included at the cost of additional mass. An air-breathing orbital spaceplane would have to fly what is known as a 'depressed trajectory,' which places the vehicle in the high-altitude hypersonic flight regime of
13520-415: The stick returns the elevators to neutral and stops the change of pitch. Some aircraft, such as an MD-80 , use a servo tab within the elevator surface to aerodynamically move the main surface into position. The direction of travel of the control tab will thus be in a direction opposite to the main control surface. It is for this reason that an MD-80 tail looks like it has a 'split' elevator system. In
13650-520: The system was installed on the other shuttles during their overhauls in the early 1990s. The Space Shuttle orbiter did not carry anti-collision lights , navigational lights , or landing lights , because the orbiter always landed in areas that had been specially cleared by both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the U.S. Air Force . The orbiter always landed at either Edwards Air Force Base , California or at
13780-400: The tail plane while reducing drag from the elevators. A control horn is a section of control surface which projects ahead of the pivot point. It generates a force which tends to increase the surface's deflection thus reducing the control pressure experienced by the pilot. Control horns may also incorporate a counterweight which helps to balance the control and prevent it from fluttering in
13910-426: The total lift generated and keep the vertical component of lift equal with the weight of the aircraft. This cannot continue indefinitely. The total load factor required to maintain level flight is directly related to the bank angle . This means that for a given airspeed, level flight can only be maintained up to a certain given angle of bank. Beyond this angle of bank, the aircraft will suffer an accelerated stall if
14040-541: The trailing edge on the inboard section of each wing (near the wing roots). They are deflected down to increase the effective curvature of the wing. Flaps raise the maximum lift coefficient of the aircraft and therefore reduce its stalling speed. They are used during low speed, high angle of attack flight including take-off and descent for landing. Some aircraft are equipped with " flaperons ", which are more commonly called "inboard ailerons" . These devices function primarily as ailerons, but on some aircraft, will "droop" when
14170-637: The vehicle and ground infrastructure were signed in December 2020. Its maiden flight is currently scheduled for the third quarter of 2025. As of 2012 , the Indian Space Research Organisation is developing a launch system named the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). It is India's first step towards realizing a two-stage-to-orbit reusable launch system . A space plane serves as the second stage. The plane
14300-508: The vehicle structure. If the launch vehicle suffers a catastrophic malfunction, a conventional capsule spacecraft is propelled to safety by a launch escape system . The Space Shuttle was far too big and heavy for this approach to be viable, resulting in a number of abort modes that may or may not have been survivable. In any case, the Challenger disaster demonstrated that the Space Shuttle lacked survivability on ascent. Once on-orbit,
14430-468: The vehicle to an altitude of roughly 140,000 feet. Electric power for the orbiter's subsystems was provided by a set of three hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells which produced 28 volt DC power and was also converted into 115 volt 400 Hz AC three-phase electric power (for systems that used AC power ). These provided power to the entire Shuttle stack (including the SRBs and ET) from T-minus 3m30s up through
14560-751: The vertical stabilizer, Grumman in Bethpage, New York for the wings, Marquardt Corporation in Van Nuys, California for the attitude control propulsion, Aerojet in Rancho Cordova, California for the orbital insertion and deorbit propulsion, McDonnell Douglas for the surrounding pods, and Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, Los Angeles for the launch and ascent propulsion. Final assembly was carried out at United States Air Force Plant 42 near Palmdale, California . The Reaction Control System (RCS)
14690-411: Was destroyed in a disaster shortly after its 10th launch, killing all seven crew members. Endeavour was built as Challenger ' s successor, and was first launched in 1992. In 2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry , leaving just three remaining orbiters. Discovery completed its final flight on March 9, 2011, and Endeavour completed its final flight on June 1, 2011. Atlantis completed
14820-492: Was 'Phoenix', a German project which is a one-seventh scale model of the Hopper concept vehicle. The suborbital Hopper was a Future European Space Transportation Investigations Programme system study design A test project, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), has demonstrated lifting reentry technologies and will be extended under the PRIDE programme . HOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by
14950-519: Was 1,323 days. Space Shuttle components include the Orbiter Vehicle (OV) with three clustered Rocketdyne RS-25 main engines, a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and the expendable external tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen . The Space Shuttle was launched vertically , like a conventional rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the orbiter's three main engines , which were fueled from
15080-575: Was a concept explored by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) around 1968 for launching payloads weighing as much as 2,300 kg (5,000 lb) into orbit. It was never constructed. In the 1980s, British Aerospace began development of HOTOL , an SSTO spaceplane powered by a revolutionary SABRE air-breathing rocket engine, but the project was canceled due to technical and financial uncertainties. The inventor of SABRE set up Reaction Engines to develop SABRE and proposed
15210-418: Was a concept study for an uncrewed single-stage reusable spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing , presented to India's Defence Research and Development Organisation . The mission concept was for low cost military and commercial satellite launches. Shenlong ( Chinese : 神龙 ; pinyin : shén lóng ; lit. 'divine dragon') is a proposed Chinese robotic spaceplane that
15340-421: Was a crewed test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing. In the early 2000s the orbital 'cosmoplane' ( Russian : космоплан ) was proposed by Russia's Institute of Applied Mechanics as a passenger transport. According to researchers, it could take about 20 minutes to fly from Moscow to Paris , using hydrogen and oxygen-fueled engines. The Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device (MUSTARD)
15470-511: Was a miniaturized suborbital demonstrator launched in 1996, flying to 110 km altitude, achieving hypersonic flight , and successfully reentering the atmosphere . Various types of spaceplanes have been suggested since the early twentieth century. Notable early designs include a spaceplane equipped with wings made of combustible alloys that it would burn during its ascent, and the Silbervogel bomber concept. World War II Germany and
15600-515: Was also the name given to orbiter 1K , which completed one uncrewed spaceflight in 1988 and was the only Soviet reusable spacecraft to be launched into space. The Buran-class orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket as a launch vehicle . The Boeing X-37 , also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft . It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle , then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as
15730-580: Was cancelled by order of the Central Committee . The Burya had the goal of delivering a nuclear payload, presumably to the United States, and then returning to base. The Burya programme was cancelled by the USSR in favor of a decision to develop ICBMs instead. The next iteration of a reusable spacecraft was the Zvezda design, which also reached a prototype stage. Decades later, another project with
15860-402: Was capable of returning approximately 16,000 kg (35,000 lb) of cargo to Earth. The orbiter's maximum glide ratio / lift-to-drag ratio varied considerably with speed, ranging from 1:1 at hypersonic speeds , 2:1 at supersonic speeds , and reaching 4.5:1 at subsonic speeds during approach and landing. Individual Space Shuttle orbiters were named in honor of antique sailing ships of
15990-565: Was carried by a modified Boeing 747 airliner called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and released for a series of atmospheric test flights and landings. Enterprise was partially disassembled and retired after completion of critical testing. The remaining orbiters were fully operational spacecraft, and were launched vertically as part of the Space Shuttle stack. Columbia was the first space-worthy orbiter; it made its inaugural flight in 1981. Challenger , Discovery , and Atlantis followed in 1983, 1984, and 1985 respectively. In 1986, Challenger
16120-444: Was composed of 44 small liquid-fueled rocket thrusters and their very sophisticated fly-by-wire flight control system , which utilized computationally intensive digital Kalman filtering . This control system carried out the usual attitude control along the pitch, roll, and yaw axes during all of the flight phases of launching, orbiting , and re-entry. This system also executed any needed orbital maneuvers, including all changes in
16250-468: Was especially true in the interior of the payload bay. The orbiter's structure was made primarily from aluminum alloy , although the engine thrust structure was made from titanium alloy . The later orbiters ( Discovery , Atlantis and Endeavour ) substituted graphite epoxy for aluminum in some structural elements in order to reduce weight. The windows were made of aluminum silicate glass and fused silica glass, and comprised an internal pressure pane,
16380-505: Was given to the set of structural components manufactured to replace those used in the construction of Endeavour ; however, the contract for these was canceled shortly afterwards, and they were never completed. The "096" and "097" designators were given to structural test articles that were canceled, but while they exist in some NASA records, the NASA History Office has no official record of STA-096 and STA-097. In addition to
16510-429: Was originally intended to be used as a Structural Test Article (STA), rather than a flight-capable orbiter; as such, the numbering was changed when it was rebuilt. Enterprise , on the other hand, was intended to be rebuilt into a flight-capable orbiter; it was found to be cheaper to rebuild STA-099 than OV-101, so it remained unflown. The designations were not altered, despite these changes in plans. An "OV-106" designation
16640-408: Was the flight deck, in which sat the Space Shuttle's commander and pilot in permanently fixed seats with up to two mission specialists seated behind them in stowable seats. The mission specialist in seat four (located behind and between commander and pilot) served as the flight engineer during ascent and landing, tracking information from CAPCOM and calling out milestones. The mid-deck, which was below
16770-589: Was to have been the first orbital spaceplane, but was canceled in the early 1960s in lieu of NASA 's Project Gemini and the U.S. Air Force's crewed spaceflight program. In 1961, NASA originally planned to have the Gemini spacecraft land on a runway with a Rogallo wing airfoil , rather than an ocean landing under parachutes . The test vehicle became known as the Paraglider Research Vehicle . Development work on both parachutes and
16900-460: Was to take off almost empty and undergo aerial refueling before rocketing to orbit. The Lockheed Martin X-33 was a 1/3 scale prototype made as part of an attempt by NASA to build a SSTO hydrogen-fuelled spaceplane VentureStar that failed when the hydrogen tank design could not be constructed as intended. On 5 March 2006, Aviation Week & Space Technology published a story purporting to be
#755244