How did the Space Shuttle roll?

The roll program tells the engine nozzles how much to gimbal, or swivel, to aim the shuttle properly, Mr. Herring said. It goes straight up for only a short time, then rolls to take advantage of Earth’s rotation under it to get into orbit.

Why did the shuttle roll after launch?

Because the launch pad can’t pivot to the needed angle before liftoff, a shuttle must rotate after launch to adjust. Then the vehicle, which initially moves slightly faster than ISS because it starts off in a lower orbit, can “catch up” to the station and dock with it.

How did the Space Shuttle control pitch?

In the upper reaches of the atmosphere the vehicle’s motions of yaw, pitch and roll are controlled by the RCS engines. As the atmosphere thickens, the airplane control surfaces become usable. The orbiter re-enters the atmosphere at a high angle of attack (about 30 degrees).

Why did the shuttle fly upside down?

When the Shuttle prepares to depart it’s position orbiting the Earth, the first thing it must do is slow down. The Shuttle is slowed by firing the two smallest of the five nozzles on the back of the craft. The deceleration provided ‘flips’ the Space Shuttle over by standing it on end, which puts the belly down.

How fast is the space shuttle going when it clears the tower?

100 mph
Reaching 100 mph as it clears the tower, the shuttle is a study in thunderous vibration, and this only builds in intensity for the first two minutes until the solid boosters tail off and drop away with a pyrotechnic clatter.

Does space shuttle glide to earth?

The Space Shuttle flies as a glider during reentry and landing. The shuttle was designed with a low L/D ratio (~ 1) because during the descent the spacecraft must be slowed from about 17,300 mph to about 250 mph at landing.

Why did the space shuttle fly upside down and backwards while orbiting the Earth?

What atmosphere do space shuttles fly?

thermosphere
Above: The space shuttle orbits in the thermosphere, a tenuous layer of our atmosphere that gets hotter and expands during solar maximum. The puffed-up thermosphere increases drag on Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.

How much fuel does a space shuttle use?

At liftoff, the two Solid Rocket Boosters consume 11,000 pounds of fuel per second. That’s two million times the rate at which fuel is burned by the average family car.

How many roll maneuvers did the Space Shuttle perform?

Towards the end of the program, the Shuttle performed two roll maneuvers during powered flight. The first, performed throughout the Shuttle program, and known as the “roll program” or “Single Axis Rotation”, was actually a multi axis maneuver that mainly served to set the launch azimuth.

Why do space shuttles roll to the top?

The antennas on the “top” of the shuttle needed to point down for local ground receivers to get the data. Also read that the Soviet Shuttle, Buran, did the same roll because they didn’t know why we did it, but they assumed something important required it and didn’t want to discover it the hard way.

Why did the orbiter roll to heads up?

This roll was driven by budget reasons – the desire to close a ground tracking and communication site. Rolling to heads up allowed the Orbiter to communicate through a TDRSS satellite instead of the ground station formerly used.