This Is Rocket Science by Gloria Skurzynski

Author:Gloria Skurzynski [Skurzynski, Gloria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4263-0717-1
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2010-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

EVERY SHUTTLE LAUNCH HAS FOLLOWED THESE STEPS FROM LIFTOFF TO TOUCHDOWN. (Illustration Credit 5.5)

After the solid rocket boosters have used up all their propellant, they are jettisoned, or forced away from the orbiter, by exploding separation bolts. By then the shuttle is about 30 miles above Earth. As the solid rocket boosters fall away from the orbiter, one on each side, they begin their descent, first curving gracefully and then tumbling end over end until parachutes pop open to lower them safely into the Atlantic, where divers fish them out and return them to Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After thorough cleaning, they’re sent back to the manufacturer in Utah, where they are refilled with solid rocket fuel and used again for later space flights.

As the flight continues the shuttle’s main engines are fueled by LOX and LH2 flowing through ducts from the ET at the rate of 62,000 gallons a minute. This creates a thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds to propel the orbiter into orbit at 17,500 miles per hour. This speed, called orbital velocity, is needed for the shuttle to reach and remain in low-Earth orbit. Then the ET is pushed away from the orbiter and somersaults very slowly into the atmosphere, where the heat of reentry burns off the foam that coats the outside of the tank. In spite of the ET’s huge size, its aluminum skin beneath the foam insulation is only about an eighth of an inch thick. There will still be some LOX and LH2 left in the ET. When the heat of reentry raises the pressure of this remaining propellant, the thin-skinned tank explodes. Its pieces rain down into the Indian Ocean, rarely to be seen again except by undersea creatures. That part of the shuttle is not reusable.

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