Table of Contents
Why is there no space shuttle replacement?
“The bottom line answer is that it was too expensive. Way too expensive,” former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory system engineer Mark Adler wrote in 2015. “The shuttle and the space station completely dominated NASA’s budget for human space flight, to the point that no significant new developments were possible.
Did they ever find Challenger bodies?
In March 1986, the remains of the astronauts were found in the debris of the crew cabin. Though all of the important pieces of the shuttle were retrieved by the time NASA closed its Challenger investigation in 1986, most of the spacecraft remained in the Atlantic Ocean.
Where is the 747 that carried the space shuttle?
The following year, it was dismantled and then transported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for preservation. Since 2016, it has been on display in an area of the center called ‘Independence Plaza,’ with a replica Space Shuttle attached to it.
Did space shuttle independence ever fly?
Today, the Space Shuttle Independence is on permanent display at the Space Center Houston in Houston, Texas. The Independence now sits atop a modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, just as the space shuttles did when they flew back to Florida after each successful flight, in Independence Plaza.
What would it take to rebuild the Saturn V rocket?
A different approach might be to rebuild the Saturn V, with modern techniques, not as a one for one rebuild, but rather take the good parts, and make them better. For example, the F-1 engine of the first stage, (5 used, 1.5 million lbs thrust) is being reconsidered as a more modern version with higher thrust.
Why don’t we make rockets like Saturn and Apollo anymore?
The tools needed to make the tools to make the rockets no longer exist. To rebuild Saturn/Apollo, we’d first have to rebuild a substantial slice of the US aerospace industry as it existed circa 1965, and all that just to be able to carry out the same kind of missions we lost interest in 40 years ago. There are several reasons:
Why do solid rocket boosters have to be built in segments?
As a result, the SRBs have to be built in segments, adding a weak point to the design. Nevertheless, ATK solid boosters appear on every new design because of political factors. Performance. This applies more to the spacecraft than the launcher: Apollo was designed for short trips to the Moon, and would have to be redesigned to support longer trips.