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The Shuttle Revisited

I have not always been a fan of NASA projects, and was happy when they cancelled development of the SST. When the space shuttle concept was first suggested, many people argued that manned flight was unnecessary. They said that the shuttle could carry on its experiments without having to risk human life onboard. I sort of agreed with that.

Boy was I wrong. Next year will be twenty years since the launch of the Columbia (April 14, 1981). On September 21, 2000, the shuttle Discovery will fly the one-hundredth shuttle flight! During that period the shuttle has proven the usefulness of manned space flight without a doubt. We have witnessed astronauts launching satellites, repairing satellites, put a corrective lens on the Hubble telescope, make maintenance stops to replace its aging gyros, and now just last week, the shuttle saved the International Space Station.

It seems that the space station was in trouble. It has been orbiting for a long time, while waiting for the Russian service module, Zvezda, which is long overdue.

The Russians launched the first section, Zarya, in November 1998. NASA followed with the second component, Unity, in December 1998. The service module, Zvezda, was to follow but budget constraints and other problems have delayed it. Meanwhile, two other problems arose. The first was due to cockpit error on the Russian side. The controllers there overcharged four of the six batteries onboard. The second was that the entire space station was about to enter the atmosphere and disintegrate. As a matter of fact it had already started to slow down a bit. Come the Rescue Heroes in their space shuttle. Last week the shuttle Atlantis went up, replaced the batteries, cooled down the module, and then towed it up an additional thirty miles in space. To add to the show, the return landing was at night. See it at: http://www.space.com/news/spaceshuttles/atlantis_landing_000529.html

In its lifetime, the shuttle had just one major mishap, the Challenger, which crashed right after launching on January 28, 1986. I happened to be in Soest, Germany, the day after the mishap and read about it in the International Herald Tribune.

One of the stories told of Donald Regan, the White House Chief of Staff, calling top NASA officials and pressuring them to launch. The temperature was 30 degrees on the launching pad, fully 23 degrees lower than the 53 degrees minimum that the contractor recommended in a letter. The platform itself was full of ice (it had gone down to 21 degrees that night). NASA top brass caved to the White House, and over the objections of the engineers ordered lift off. The reason for the pressure was that the President, Ronald Reagan, was to deliver the State of The Union address that night, and part of the speech was to involve talking to Christa McCauliffe, a science teacher, who had been invited to ride on the shuttle as a PR stunt. Later that day as I drove toward Duseldorf, I heard the same story on the car radio. I was listening to the US Armed Forces Network. In Duseldorf, I boarded a plane to New York. When I arrived in New York, I expected to hear the media asking questions. Apparently the media had killed the story. I suspect that the tragedy of the crash made any partisan politics seem petty. In any case it was the first time I have seen the press and politicians back off. I wonder if that would happen today? For the commission report click below. It of course whitewashes the whole thing.
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/table-of-contents.html

Today the United States is the only country in the world that has the luxury of having its own space shuttle. Russia also had a shuttle, which looked identical to the US version. It was a technologically advanced space ship and the Soviet Union flew twenty-five missions between 1985 and 1988 with it. Unfortunately, funding ran out and the program was halted in 1989. Today one of the Soviet shuttles has been sold to an Australian firm as a tourist exhibit. See: http://www.space.com/news/spaceshuttles/buran_bought_000303.html

After considering all the accomplishments of the last century, I have to give the Space Shuttle Program my choice for greatness in engineering programs. It has provided us with a handy means of keeping our "birds" flying while also being the key to all future research to be performed on the space station. The reliability has been so good that we sometimes forget that this is not a 747 taking off. Lets hope our luck continues right into and through the space station era.

If you are interested in future flights or past flights, it is available with the click of a mouse. Both NASA and Space.com provide wonderful coverage of this information. Check below.

http://www.spaceline.org/shuttlechron.html

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/schedule/schedule.htm

http://www.nasm.edu/ceps/rpif/SSPR.html

Frank Greenhalgh
May 31, 2000 Have a comment or a question? Join the discussion of this column in Discussion Center, ChipCenter's gathering spot for EE professionals to talk about work, the industry, trends, and best practices.

Have a comment or a question? Join the discussion of this column in Discussion Center, ChipCenter's gathering spot for EE professionals to talk about work, the industry, trends, and best practices.

About the Author

Frank Greenhalgh has been working in power supplies and systems for 38 years. He has many impressive accomplishments and patents. Over the years he has made significant contributions to Trio Laboratories where he held the position of Chief Design Engineer and was then promoted to Vice President.

He co-founded CEAG Electric Corporation (now ABB CEAG) and developed the first mainframe power system using the droop paralleling concept. He has written numerous articles and columns, presented papers at the milestone PowerCon convention and consulted for ABB CEAG and other companies. Recently his accomplishments include the development of two Web sites, www.fgl.com with the Power Corner and www.amityville.com. Frank is presently functioning as "Director of Technical Sales" for Toritsu Tsushin Kogoyo Corp.