AbstractGiven the diversity of missions it has accomplished and the myriad of adaptations it has undergone, the US Space Shuttle is widely regarded as a highly flexible space vehicle. With the Shuttle’s upcoming 2011 retirement, it is instructive to survey the history of this vehicle’s flexibility for the insights it can provide to the design and characterization of flexibility in future space systems. Data are presented on the evolution of mission requirements over time for 120 missions performed by the Space Shuttle over a period of some 27 years. Distinct trends in the time domain – as well as their causes – are identified and discussed, and early manifest plans from 1982 serve as a confirmation that these trends were not originally anticipated. Eight examples are then presented of engineering modifications that allowed the Shuttle to adapt and accommodate these requirement changes. Several additional instances of Shuttle flexibility are explored, such as post-Columbia disaster modification, upgrade programs and derived vehicles, and one case in which flexibility was inhibited by an early design decision.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff prüfen

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Survey of mission evolution and flexibility in the Space Shuttle program


    Beteiligte:

    Erschienen in:

    Space Policy ; 26 , 4 ; 236-245


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2010-08-27


    Format / Umfang :

    10 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch






    A Series of Unforeseen Events: The Space Shuttle, Mission Evolution, and Flexibility

    Lafleur, J. / Saleh, J. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2008


    Space Shuttle Mission Extension Capability

    Fraser, Wilson M. | SAE Technical Papers | 1984