This book tells the story of the Space Shuttle in its many different roles as orbital launch platform, orbital workshop, and science and technology laboratory. It focuses on the technology designed and developed to support the missions of the Space Shuttle program. Each mission is examined, from both the technical and managerial viewpoints. Although outwardly identical, the capabilities of the orbiters in the late years of the program were quite different from those in 1981.
Sivolella traces the various improvements and modifications made to the shuttle over the years as part of each mission story. Technically accurate but with a pleasing narrative style and simple explanations of complex engineering concepts, the book provides details of many lesser known concepts, some developed but never flown, and commemorates the ingenuity of NASA and its partners in making each Space Shuttle mission push the boundaries of what we can accomplish in space.Using press kits, original papers, newspaper and magazine articles, memoirs and interviews, this book provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive account available of the shuttle's many missions and will refocus interest on a remarkable flying machine and space program that is often pushed to the background.

Presents a full, in depth, story of the Space Shuttle's mission technology Easily accessible resource, with bibliographic references, for each shuttle mission in a single volume Commemorates the Space Shuttle's role in orbital research as a precursor to the laboratories developed on the ISS Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Davide Sivolella is an aerospace engineer living and working in the UK as a specialist in the design of aircraft structural repairs of civil airliners. Currently, he is employed by British Airways at London Heathrow Airport. As a child, Davide has developed a fascination with all kinds of flying machines, especially those which travel above the atmosphere. In fact, this passion for astronautics led to a bachelor's and master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin (Italy). Being born in July 1981, just a few months after the Columbia's maiden flight, he developed a fondness for the Space Shuttle program. Eventually, this has resulted in Springer-Praxis publishing in August 2013 his first book, To Orbit and Back Again: How the Space Shuttle Flew in Space. The book has been praised for its content on numerous outlets ever since. A sequel, entitled The Space Shuttle Program: Technologies and Accomplishments is currently scheduled for release at the beginning of July 2017. Davide's interest for space exploration is not limited to the Space Shuttle program. In recent years, he has researched how space exploration can foster a practical solution to help ease some of the most excruciating problems affecting Earth and humankind, such as environmental pollution, overcrowding, resource depletion, conflicts for scarce resource control, economic inequality, social unrest, economic instability, job displacement and unemployment. On a number of occasions, Jeff Bezos, Amazon and Blue Origin's founder, has stated that he envisions a future where the manufacturing industry will be moved into space exploiting the resources of the Solar System. Davide's research has convinced him that this vision is indeed feasible and capable of delivering a large amount of benefits that current plans for exploration of Mars or the Moon cannot match.

Klappentext

Preface.- Chapter 1: A Remarkable Flying Machine.- Chapter 2: Launch Platform.- Chapter 3: EVA Operations.- Chapter 4: Learning to Build a Space Station.- Chapter 5: Satellite Servicing.- Chapter 6: Science Laboratory.- Chapter 7: Spacelab Stories.- chapter 8: Space Industries.- Chapter 9: Space Shuttle in Uniform.- Chapter 10: Something That Nobody Had Ever Done Before.- Chapter 11: More Power and Time Needed.- Chapter 12: Adding New Capabilities.- Chapter 13:The Legacy of the Shuttle Program.- Index.

Inhalt
Preface.- Chapter 1: A Remarkable Flying Machine.- Chapter 2: Launch Platform.- Chapter 3: EVA Operations.- Chapter 4: Learning to Build a Space Station.- Chapter 5: Satellite Servicing.- Chapter 6: Science Laboratory.- Chapter 7: Spacelab Stories.- chapter 8: Space Industries.- Chapter 9: Space Shuttle in Uniform.- Chapter 10: Something That Nobody Had Ever Done Before.- Chapter 11: More Power and Time Needed.- Chapter 12: Adding New Capabilities.- Chapter 13:The Legacy of the Shuttle Program.- Index.