Space Shuttle Anecdotes
Discussion
The Saturn V was majestic - if not a bit ponderous - off the pad.
The Shuttle took off like a scalded cat.
They both developed around 7.5 million pounds of thrust on lift off. However, the Shuttle stack was lighter tahn the Saturn V so had a better power to weight ratio which enabled a quick getaway off the pad.
The Shuttle took off like a scalded cat.
They both developed around 7.5 million pounds of thrust on lift off. However, the Shuttle stack was lighter tahn the Saturn V so had a better power to weight ratio which enabled a quick getaway off the pad.
Visited Kennedy Space Center a couple of days ago and was blown away by the size of Atlantis. Also got the chance to meet Terry Wilcutt who went on 4 shuttle missions. A very humble and intelligent man who answered all our questions. One thing he said was how violent take offs were. The first couple of minutes were done automatically as it is so difficult for any of the crew to press or use any of the controls. On a side note he looked amazing for 75!
Eric Mc said:
The Saturn V was majestic - if not a bit ponderous - off the pad.
The Shuttle took off like a scalded cat.
They both developed around 7.5 million pounds of thrust on lift off. However, the Shuttle stack was lighter tahn the Saturn V so had a better power to weight ratio which enabled a quick getaway off the pad.
Saturn's payload to orbit was 5 times that of the Shuttle though. It could have delivered the ISS in just 4 trips.The Shuttle took off like a scalded cat.
They both developed around 7.5 million pounds of thrust on lift off. However, the Shuttle stack was lighter tahn the Saturn V so had a better power to weight ratio which enabled a quick getaway off the pad.
CLK-GTR said:
Saturn's payload to orbit was 5 times that of the Shuttle though. It could have delivered the ISS in just 4 trips.
Unfortunately for the Shuttle, most of that 7.5 million pounds of thrust was needed to put the Orbiter itself into orbit. This meant that the actual available payload was not that great.The Shuttle system could put a massive amout of weight into space. The problem was that most of that weight was made up by the actual vehicle and not its payload.
I’ve just finished reading ‘Into The Black’. Thank you to whoever suggested it, on another thread I believe.
Fascinating to read about the background of not only the shuttle program but also the men and the politics with the Air Force.
Stand out for me was (is) the ability of the people involved to stay calm, analyse problems and develop solutions when the smelly stuff hits the fan. Certainly all are of the right stuff.
Fascinating to read about the background of not only the shuttle program but also the men and the politics with the Air Force.
Stand out for me was (is) the ability of the people involved to stay calm, analyse problems and develop solutions when the smelly stuff hits the fan. Certainly all are of the right stuff.
For those who listened to Kevin Fong on his BBC show 13 Minutes to the moon (apollo 11) series 1 & 2 (Apollo 13) and see that S3 on the shuttle appears to have been promised by the BBC for over a year... and still saying coming soon. I was checking and just noticed Kevin has just started releasing 16 Sunsets the story of the shuttle well and its well worth listening to. It may be a private release but production is worthy of the 13 Minutes tag and the BBC seem to have lucked out and shot themselves in the foot. It seems to be on a few platforms (x, apple etc) and its on episode 3 currently
Ozzie Dave said:
For those who listened to Kevin Fong on his BBC show 13 Minutes to the moon (apollo 11) series 1 & 2 (Apollo 13) and see that S3 on the shuttle appears to have been promised by the BBC for over a year... and still saying coming soon. I was checking and just noticed Kevin has just started releasing 16 Sunsets the story of the shuttle well and its well worth listening to. It may be a private release but production is worthy of the 13 Minutes tag and the BBC seem to have lucked out and shot themselves in the foot. It seems to be on a few platforms (x, apple etc) and its on episode 3 currently
This had passed me by, so thanks for taking the time to post here about it 
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