ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION PROFILE

[Music] we are on the threshold of a new era in manned spaceflight the era of the space shuttle launched like a rocket orbiting like a satellite and landing on a runway like a plane to fly again the shuttle represents the commitment to use the resources of space for the benefit of mankind each shuttle will be used a hundred times or more it is the first spacecraft built to be reusable the first designed to return payloads and the first to be planned for cost-effective routine space operations space shuttle 101 the enterprise has successfully completed subsonic approach and landing tests space shuttle 102 shares its name with the Apollo 11 command and service module for Columbia Rockwell International is proud to built both of the Columbia's for NASA the Shuttle Orbiter Columbia will be launched from Kennedy Space Center and another launch landing site is being readied at Benin Burgh Air Force Base after the shuttle reaches some twenty four miles in altitude the solid rocket boosters are jettison to be recovered and reused just prior to orbit the external tank is jettisoned the Space Shuttle Orbiter can stay in space one orbit up to 30 days depending upon the mission to be flown a variety of payloads will be loaded in the huge cargo bay the shuttle can carry up to 65,000 pounds and return up to 32,000 pounds to earth cargo bay is 60 feet long and 15 feet in diameter a typical flight might have a satellite to be launched from orbit as well as complex scientific equipment that never leaves the cargo bay simultaneously a shuttle can carry scientists and of course the flight crew the flight crews will be comprised of veteran astronauts as well as new pilots and mission and payload specialists at the end of a mission the shuttle returns to earth bringing back payloads that might include satellites in need of repair products manufactured in space or scientific equipment the capability to reuse the orbiters and to return cargo and a launch every two weeks is the capability to use space routinely and busts economically the early missions will be devoted to continued learning how to best utilize the unique environment of space the emphasis is on how to solve earth problems in areas like energy clock prediction communications and medicine already under consideration or programs that have enormous implications for mankind manufacturing in a zero gravity environment offers unique opportunities and the production of ultra light alloys large crystals for electronic circuits and new medicines the ability to service satellites in space or return them to earth for service will encourage the development of new global systems of electronic communications for business personal and public service applications large scale space structures such as solar power satellites assembled in space by shuttle crews will help us meet our future energy needs the possibilities are limited only by the imagination these are only a few of the foreseeable benefits of the space shuttle era like the manned space flights before it we can expect the Space Shuttle to change our technologies and profoundly affect the way we view life itself