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92-456: CIRA is developing spaceplane technology using its facilities for numerical simulation and ground tests, and has flown its first transonic flight test of a "flying test-bed" (FTB) vehicle dropped from a high-altitude balloon. CIRA intends to develop FTB vehicles by 2012 that can perform atmospheric reentry from low Earth orbit , launched using the Vega space launch system. This is consistent with

184-531: A TAL abort would have been declared between roughly T+2:30 (two minutes 30 seconds after liftoff) and about T+5:00 (five minutes after liftoff), after which the abort mode changed to Abort Once Around (AOA) followed by Abort To Orbit (ATO). However, in the event of a time-critical failure, or one that would jeopardize crew safety such as a cabin leak or cooling failure, TAL could be called until shortly before main engine cutoff (MECO) or even after MECO for severe underspeed conditions. The shuttle would then have landed at

276-580: 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

368-459: A full maintenance overhaul at Palmdale and the ejection seats (along with the explosive hatches) had been fully removed. Ejection seats were not further developed for the shuttle for several reasons: ...in truth, if you had to use them while the solids were there, I don’t believe you would [survive]—if you popped out and then went down through the fire trail that’s behind the solids, that you would have ever survived, or if you did, you wouldn't have

460-641: A greater chance of reaching an emergency runway for various SSME failure scenarios. An ejection escape system, sometimes called a " launch escape system ", had been discussed many times for the shuttle. After the Challenger and Columbia losses, great interest was expressed in this. All previous and subsequent U.S. crewed space vehicles have launch escape systems, although as of 2024 none have ever been used for an American crewed flight. The first two shuttles, Enterprise and Columbia , were built with ejection seats . These two vehicles were intended to be part of

552-569: 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

644-544: A normal landing about 25 minutes after liftoff. If a second main engine failed at any point during PPA, the shuttle would not be able to reach the runway at KSC, and the crew would have to bail out. A failure of a third engine during PPA would lead to loss of control and subsequent loss of crew and vehicle (LOCV). Failure of all three engines as horizontal velocity approached zero or just before external tank jettison would also result in LOCV. The capsule communicator would call out

736-435: A parachute, because it would have been burned up in the process. But by the time the solids had burned out, you were up to too high an altitude to use it. ... So I personally didn't feel that the ejection seats were really going to help us out if we really ran into a contingency. The Soviet shuttle Buran was planned to be fitted with the crew emergency escape system, which would have included K-36RB (K-36M-11F35) seats and

828-661: 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 )

920-771: A predesignated airstrip across the Atlantic. The last four TAL sites were Istres Air Base in France, Zaragoza and Morón air bases in Spain, and RAF Fairford in England. Prior to a shuttle launch, two sites would be selected based on the flight plan and were staffed with standby personnel in case they were used. The list of TAL sites changed over time because of geopolitical factors. The exact sites were determined from launch to launch depending on orbital inclination. Preparations of TAL sites took four to five days and began one week before launch, with

1012-607: A predetermined location in Africa, Western Europe or the Atlantic Ocean (at Lajes Field in the Azores ) about 25 to 30 minutes after liftoff. It was to be used when velocity, altitude, and distance downrange did not allow return to the launch point by Return To Launch Site (RTLS). It was also to be used when a less time-critical failure did not require the faster but more dangerous RTLS abort. For performance issues such as engine failure(s),

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1104-536: A purpose-built runway at the Chitradurga Aeronautical Test Range , Karnataka. Space Shuttle abort modes Space Shuttle abort modes were procedures by which the nominal launch of the NASA Space Shuttle could be terminated. A pad abort occurred after ignition of the shuttle's main engines but prior to liftoff. An abort during ascent that would result in the orbiter returning to

1196-520: A runway or to an orbit lower than planned was called an "intact abort", while an abort in which the orbiter would be unable to reach a runway, or any abort involving the failure of more than one main engine, was called a "contingency abort". Crew bailout was still possible in some situations in which the orbiter could not land on a runway. The three Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were ignited roughly 6.6 seconds before liftoff, and computers monitored their performance as they increased thrust. If an anomaly

1288-427: A safe return of the orbiter to a planned landing site or to a lower orbit than that which had been planned for the mission. Return to launch site (RTLS) was the first abort mode available and could be selected just after SRB jettison. The shuttle would continue downrange to burn excess propellant, as well as pitch up to maintain vertical speed in aborts with a main-engine failure. After burning sufficient propellant,

1380-760: 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

1472-736: 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

1564-639: 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,

1656-455: A technical malfunction (such as an engine failure) was very unlikely, although a medical emergency on board could have necessitated an AOA abort. This abort mode was never needed during the entire history of the Space Shuttle program. An abort to orbit (ATO) was available when the intended orbit could not be reached but a lower stable orbit above 120 miles (190 km) above Earth's surface

1748-692: 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

1840-568: 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

1932-566: 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

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2024-654: 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 :

2116-424: 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

2208-597: 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

2300-678: 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

2392-445: 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

2484-706: 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

2576-506: The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) plan of the European Space Agency . Since 2005, CIRA is a partner of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change (CMCC) . 41°07′16″N 14°10′50″E  /  41.12111°N 14.18056°E  / 41.12111; 14.18056 This space - or spaceflight -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Spaceplane A spaceplane

2668-455: The Strizh full-pressure suit, qualified for altitudes up to 30,000 metres (98,000 ft) and speeds up to Mach three. Buran flew only once in fully automated mode without a crew, thus the seats were never installed and were never tested in real human space flight. An alternative to ejection seats was an escape crew capsule or cabin escape system where the crew ejected in protective capsules, or

2760-533: 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

2852-454: 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

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2944-422: 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

3036-470: 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

3128-518: 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

3220-506: 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

3312-525: 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

3404-582: 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

3496-664: 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

3588-427: 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

3680-426: 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

3772-462: The burn time of the remaining engine), as would a triple SSME failure at any point during an RTLS abort. After the loss of Challenger in STS-51-L, numerous abort enhancements were added. With those enhancements, the loss of two SSMEs was now survivable for the crew throughout the entire ascent, and the vehicle could survive and land for large portions of the ascent. The struts attaching the orbiter to

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3864-487: 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

3956-623: The earlier abort options. There was an order of preference for abort modes: Unlike with all other United States orbit-capable crewed vehicles (both previous and subsequent, as of 2024), the shuttle was never flown without astronauts aboard. To provide an incremental non-orbital test, NASA considered making the first mission an RTLS abort. However, STS-1 commander John Young declined, saying, "let's not practice Russian roulette " and "RTLS requires continuous miracles interspersed with acts of God to be successful." Contingency aborts involved failure of more than one SSME and would generally have left

4048-539: The entire cabin is ejected. Such systems have been used on several military aircraft. The B-58 Hustler and XB-70 Valkyrie used capsule ejection, while the General Dynamics F-111 and early prototypes of the Rockwell B-1 Lancer used cabin ejection. Like ejection seats, capsule ejection for the shuttle would have been difficult because no easy way existed to exit the vehicle. Several crewmembers sat in

4140-501: The event of a loss of communication, the spacecraft commander could have made the abort decision and taken action independently. A hydrogen fuel leak in one of the SSMEs during the STS-93 mission resulted in a slight underspeed at main engine cutoff (MECO) but did not necessitate an ATO, and Columbia achieved its planned orbit; if the leak had been more severe, it might have necessitated one of

4232-445: The event of an abort with a TALCOM , or astronaut flight controller aboard for communications with the shuttle pilot and commander. This abort mode was never used during the entire history of the Space Shuttle program. An abort once around (AOA) was available if the shuttle was unable to reach a stable orbit but had sufficient velocity to circle Earth once and land at around 90 minutes after liftoff. Around five minutes after liftoff,

4324-489: The external tank were strengthened to better endure a multiple SSME failure during SRB flight. Loss of three SSMEs was survivable for the crew for most of the ascent, although survival in the event of three failed SSMEs before T+90 seconds was unlikely because of design loads that would be exceeded on the forward orbiter/ET and SRB/ET attach points, and still problematic at any time during SRB flight because of controllability during staging. A particularly significant enhancement

4416-468: The first four flights of Columbia had this as a crew abort option as well. With STS-5 marking the end of Columbia's test flight program, and as an operational mission with four crew members, the two cockpit ejection seats had their rocket motors removed for the flight. Columbia' s next flight ( STS-9 ) was likewise flown with the seats disabled in this manner. By the time Columbia flew again ( STS-61-C , launched on January 12, 1986), it had been through

4508-637: The first, there would have been insufficient energy to cross the Atlantic. Without bailout capability, the entire crew would have been killed. After the loss of Challenger , those types of failures were made survivable. To facilitate high-altitude bailouts, the crew began wearing the Launch Entry Suit and later the Advanced Crew Escape Suit during ascent and descent. Before the Challenger disaster, crews for operational missions wore only fabric flight suits. Another post- Challenger enhancement

4600-411: 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

4692-615: The majority of personnel from NASA, the Department of Defense and contractors arriving 48 hours before launch. Additionally, two C-130 aircraft from the space flight support office from the adjacent Patrick Space Force Base (then known as Patrick Air Force Base) would deliver eight crew members, nine pararescuemen , two flight surgeons , a nurse and medical technician, and 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) of medical equipment to Zaragoza, Istres, or both. One or more C-21S or C-12S aircraft would also be deployed to provide weather reconnaissance in

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4784-403: The middeck, surrounded by substantial vehicle structure. Cabin ejection would work for a much larger portion of the flight envelope than ejection seats, as the crew would be protected from temperature, wind blast, and lack of oxygen or vacuum. In theory an ejection cabin could have been designed to withstand reentry, although that would entail additional cost, weight and complexity. Cabin ejection

4876-449: The most commonly expected problem was a main engine failure, causing the vehicle to have insufficient thrust to achieve its planned orbit. Other possible failures not involving the engines but necessitating an abort included a multiple auxiliary power unit (APU) failure, a progressive hydraulic failure, a cabin leak, and an external tank leak. There were four intact abort modes for the Space Shuttle. Intact aborts were designed to provide

4968-486: The most unlikely to occur as only a very narrow range of probable failures existed that were survivable but nevertheless so time-critical as to rule out more time-consuming abort modes. Astronaut Mike Mullane referred to the RTLS abort as an "unnatural act of physics", and many pilot astronauts hoped that they would not have to perform such an abort because of its difficulty. A transoceanic abort landing (TAL) involved landing at

5060-407: The orbiter unable to reach a runway. These aborts were intended to ensure the survival of the orbiter long enough for the crew to bail out. Loss of two engines would have generally been survivable by using the remaining engine to optimize the orbiter's trajectory so as to not exceed structural limits during reentry. Loss of three engines could have been survivable outside of certain "black zones" where

5152-458: The orbiter would have failed before bailout was possible. These contingency aborts were added after the destruction of Challenger . Before the Challenger disaster during STS-51-L , ascent abort options involving failure of more than one SSME were very limited. While failure of a single SSME was survivable throughout ascent, failure of a second SSME prior to about 350 seconds (the point at which

5244-405: The orbiter would have sufficient downrange velocity to reach a TAL site on just one engine) would mean an LOCV, since no bailout option existed. Studies showed that an ocean ditching was not survivable. Furthermore, the loss of a second SSME during an RTLS abort would have caused an LOCV except for the period of time just prior to MECO (during which the orbiter would be able to reach KSC by prolonging

5336-433: The orbiter's center of gravity. Just before main engine cutoff, the orbiter would be commanded to pitch nose-down to ensure proper orientation for external tank jettison, since aerodynamic forces would otherwise cause the tank to collide with the orbiter. The main engines would cut off, and the tank would be jettisoned, as the orbiter used its RCS to increase separation. Cutoff and separation would occur effectively inside

5428-475: The orbiter's nose up to level off the orbiter once it reached thicker air, while at the same time ensuring that the structural limits of the vehicle were not exceeded (the operational load limit was set to 2.5 Gs, and at 4.4 Gs the OMS pods were expected to be torn off the orbiter). Once this phase was complete, the orbiter would be about 150 nmi (278 km) from the landing site and in a stable glide, proceeding to make

5520-617: 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

5612-441: The point in the ascent at which an RTLS was no longer possible as "negative return", approximately four minutes after liftoff, at which point the vehicle would be unable to safely bleed off the velocity that it had gained in the distance between its position downrange and the launch site. The RTLS abort mode was never needed in the history of the shuttle program. It was considered the most difficult and dangerous abort, but also among

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5704-531: 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 ,

5796-469: 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

5888-441: 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,

5980-515: The shuttle reaches a velocity and altitude sufficient for a single orbit around Earth. The orbiter would then proceed into re-entry; NASA could choose to have the orbiter land at Edwards Air Force Base , White Sands Space Harbor , or Kennedy Space Center . The time window for using the AOA abort was very short, just a few seconds between the TAL and ATO abort opportunities. Therefore, taking this option because of

6072-564: The shuttle test program and would fly with a crew of two test pilots or astronauts. Subsequent shuttles Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour were built for operational missions with a crew of more than two, including seats in the lower deck, and ejection seat options were deemed to be infeasible. The type used on the first two shuttles were modified versions of the Lockheed SR-71 seat. The approach and landing tests flown by Enterprise had these as an escape option, and

6164-518: The south of Bermuda). An ECAL/BDA abort was similar to RTLS, but instead of landing at the Kennedy Space Center , the orbiter would attempt to land at another site along the east coast of North America (in the case of ECAL) or Bermuda (in the case of BDA). Various potential ECAL landing sites extended from South Carolina into Newfoundland, Canada. The designated landing site in Bermuda was Naval Air Station Bermuda (a United States Navy facility). ECAL/BDA

6256-411: 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

6348-455: The staff working there were given no special training to handle a shuttle landing. If they were ever needed, the shuttle pilots would have had to rely on regular air traffic control personnel using procedures similar to those used to land a gliding aircraft that has suffered complete engine failure. Numerous other abort refinements were added, mainly involving improved software for managing vehicle energy in various abort scenarios. These enabled

6440-511: The upper atmosphere at an altitude of about 230,000 ft (70,000 m), high enough to avoid subjecting the external tank to excessive aerodynamic stress and heating. The cutoff velocity would depend on the distance still to be traveled to reach the landing site and would increase based on the distance of the orbiter at cutoff. In any case, the orbiter would be flying too slowly to glide gently at such high altitude, and would start descending rapidly. A series of maneuvers in quick succession would pitch

6532-608: 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

6624-450: 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,

6716-492: The vehicle would be pitched all the way around and begin thrusting back towards the launch site. This maneuver was called the "powered pitcharound" (PPA) and was timed to ensure that less than 2% propellant remained in the external tank by the time the shuttle's trajectory brought it back to the Kennedy Space Center . Additionally, the shuttle's OMS and reaction control system (RCS) motors would continuously thrust to burn off excess OMS propellant to reduce landing weight and adjust

6808-488: 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

6900-512: 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

6992-563: 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

7084-418: 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

7176-468: Was a contingency abort that was less desirable than an intact abort, primarily because there was so little time to choose the landing site and prepare for the orbiter's arrival. All of the pre-designated sites were either military airfields or joint civil/military facilities. ECAL emergency sites were not as well equipped to accommodate an orbiter landing as those prepared for RTLS and TAL aborts. The sites were not staffed with NASA employees or contractors and

7268-421: 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)

7360-505: 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

7452-506: 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

7544-445: Was bailout capability. Unlike the ejection seat in a fighter plane, the shuttle had an inflight crew escape system (ICES). The vehicle was put in a stable glide on autopilot, the hatch was blown, and the crew slid out on a pole to clear the orbiter's left wing. They would then parachute to earth or the sea. While this at first appeared only usable under rare conditions, there were many failure modes where reaching an emergency landing site

7636-620: 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

7728-449: Was detected, the engines would be shut down automatically and the countdown terminated before ignition of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) at T = 0 seconds. This was called a "redundant set launch sequencer (RSLS) abort", and occurred five times: STS-41-D , STS-51-F , STS-55 , STS-51 , and STS-68 . Once the shuttle's SRBs were ignited, the vehicle was committed to liftoff. If an event requiring an abort happened after SRB ignition, it

7820-453: Was later determined to be an inadvertent engine shutdown caused by faulty temperature sensors. The moment at which an ATO became possible was referred to as the "press to ATO" moment. In an ATO situation, the spacecraft commander rotated the cockpit abort mode switch to the ATO position and depressed the abort push button. This initiated the flight-control software routines that handled the abort. In

7912-412: Was not possible to begin the abort until after SRB burnout and separation, about two minutes after launch. There were five abort modes available during ascent, divided into the categories of intact aborts and contingency aborts. The choice of abort mode depended on how urgent the situation was and what emergency landing site could be reached. The abort modes covered a wide range of potential problems, but

8004-446: Was not possible yet the vehicle was still intact and under control. Before the Challenger disaster, this almost happened on STS-51-F , when a single SSME failed at about T+345 seconds. The orbiter in that case was also Challenger . A second SSME almost failed because of a spurious temperature reading; however, the engine shutdown was inhibited by a quick-thinking flight controller. If the second SSME had failed within about 69 seconds of

8096-478: Was not pursued for several reasons: Source: Predetermined emergency landing sites for the orbiter were chosen on a mission-by-mission basis according to the mission profile, weather and regional political situations. Emergency landing sites during the shuttle program included: An orbiter has landed at three sites that are also designated as emergency landing sites: Edwards Air Force Base , Kennedy Space Center , and White Sands Space Harbor . However, none of

8188-404: Was possible. This occurred during mission STS-51-F , when Challenger 's center engine failed five minutes and 46 seconds after liftoff. An orbit near the craft's planned orbit was established, and the mission continued despite the abort to a lower orbit. The Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center observed an SSME failure and called " Challenger -Houston, abort ATO." The engine failure

8280-522: Was the addition of East Coast/Bermuda abort landings (ECAL/BDA). High-inclination launches (including all ISS missions) would have been able to reach an emergency runway on the East Coast of North America under certain conditions. Most lower-inclination launches would have landed in Bermuda (although this option was not available for the very lowest-inclination launches—those to an orbital inclination of 28.5°—which launched due east from KSC and passed far to

8372-574: 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

8464-456: 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

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