The McDonnell Space Hangar is named for aerospace pioneer James S. McDonnell, whose company built a number of pioneering aircraft and both the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, flown by the first American astronauts. A total of 138 large space artifacts are housed in the hangar. Let’s begin the Space Hanger tour by defining the rocket, missile, and launch vehicle.
Space Hanger
- A rocket is a type of power plant, or engine, that is used to propel a payload by the high-velocity ejection of matter, usually exhaust gases. Burning some type of fuel in most types of rockets produces the exhaust gases. Rockets produce their power by the principle expressed in Newton's third law of motion - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This reaction forces the rocket and its payload in the opposite direction.
- A rocket is called a missile when it carries a weapon or warhead as the payload, which may be a nuclear weapon or a simple explosive charge. A rocket is called a launch vehicle when carrying a satellite or spacecraft. There are two basic categories of launch vehicles - expendable and reusable. Rockets that are used only once are considered expendable launch vehicles. The Space Shuttle is a reusable launch vehicle.
Pegasus
• Most rockets sit on a launch pad until they blast off. But one special little rocket needs no launch pad at all. This rocket, called Pegasus, recently put NASA's new space telescope into Earth orbit. Pegasus rockets are very small and can carry only a small spacecraft that weighs less than 1,000 pounds. Pegasus works by hitching a ride (with the spacecraft inside) under the belly of an L-1011 jumbo jet named Stargazer. Stargazer takes the Pegasus up to about 40,000 feet. This is about as high as this plane can fly. Then, the plane lets go of Pegasus. For a few seconds Pegasus falls freely, waiting for the plane to get out of the way. Then Pegasus fires its first stage engine and heads for space. Once separated from the Stargazer, it took Pegasus only about 10 more minutes to boost all the way to orbit. This is fast! From 1990 through 2005, Pegasus had been launched 40 times with 35 successes. Over 70 satellites have been orbited.
Matador Missile
• The Matador was the first U.S. Air Force surface-to-surface, tactical guided missile to enter operational service. Similar in general concept to the German V-1 “Buzz Bomb” of World War II., it could carry either a conventional or a 3,000 pound 40 kiloton W5 nuclear warhead.
• Matadors deployed initially to Germany in March 1954, and the Air Force later sent them to Taiwan as well. Its maximum range was 690 statute miles and its service ceiling was 44,000 feet. Although its maximum speed in level flight was only 600 mph, the Matador could achieve supersonic speed during its final dive.
Poseidon
• The Poseidon missile was the second US Navy ballistic missile system. It succeeded the Polaris missile beginning in 1972, bringing major advances in warheads and accuracy. It was followed by Trident I in 1979 and Trident II in 1990.
• Poseidon represented a major advance in submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It used a two-stage solid fuel rocket and it was the first with Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles (MIRV), thus allowing a single missile to strike many separated targets. Its navigation system allowed far better accuracy, and it also contained penetration aids for countermeasures. This highlights the significant improvement in guidance and propulsion technology that occurred during this time period.
• Lockheed delivered a total of 619 operational missiles to US Navy. The Poseidon had a range of 2,877 miles and could carry a 4,400 lb payload. This translated into10 RVs on a single vehicle. One ballistic missile submarine carried 16 missiles and had about eight times the destructive force of a Polaris submarine.
Homing Overlay Experiment (HOE) Anti-Missile System
• HOE Anti-Missile System was the first successful intercept of an incoming ballistic missile warhead using "hit-to-kill" technology on June 10, 1984. The HOE consisted of a rocket-boosted kill vehicle mounted on a modified 2-stage Minuteman ballistic missile.
• Long-range ground-based radar would first determine the target's course and calculate HOE's initial trajectory to come within 20 miles of the target. An onboard computer controlled HOE autonomously after launch. On the homing stage, an infrared (IR) tracker with a range of more than 1,000 mile was uncovered when the missile rose above the atmosphere. After confirming the object was a missile, the computer locked onto its target, and the rocket engine on the homing stage fine-tuned the course. Near the target, HOE's ribbed array, or "Umbrella," deployed to increase the kill-vehicle's cross-section.
• Closing at a relative speed of more than 4 mile/sec, the homing section hit the warhead at an altitude of more than 100 miles. The kinetic energy generated in the collision would destroy the warhead. HOE demonstrated that a ground-launched interceptor with an on-board guidance system and a kinetic-kill vehicle could destroy a ballistic warhead.
Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Payload
• In year 2000, the Shuttle Endeavour carried the SRTM payload into orbit. SRTM were crucial components of that payload and enabled Shuttle astronauts to create a highly-detailed three-dimensional map of the more than 70% of the Earth's surface.
• To acquire these unique data, the SRTM used a novel hardware system that featured a main antenna located in the Shuttle payload bay, a folding mast that extended 197 ft, and another antenna system that was positioned at the end of the mast. It was this dual antenna system that produced a three-dimensional map through a technique for combining the information obtained from the two separate antennas.
• The mission was a joint undertaking of Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Department of Defense. The military uses the highest resolution data from SRTM for terrain navigation for planes and cruise missiles. A lower resolution data set is available to civilian scientists and other users.
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS)
• The TDRSS is a communication signal relay system which provides tracking and data acquisition services between low earth orbiting spacecraft and NASA data processing facilities. The TDRSS consists of seven on-orbit TDRSs located in geosynchronous orbit. The spacecraft constellation is distributed to provide global coverage and full operational capability was achieved in 1989.
• The TDRS is actually one of the largest, heaviest and most complicated satellites ever launched into geosynchronous orbit. Each satellite weighs over two tons. Although weighing 5,000 lbs., the TDRS is moved by12 one-pound thrusters -- each no bigger than a small human finger. At its highest capacity, TDRSS can transfer in a single second -- the equivalent of a 20-volume encyclopedia containing over 34-million words. The TDRS system can provide service to up to 24 separate spacecraft simultaneously and it supports 1,000 shared user communications events per week with greater than 99.9 percent availability.
• The TDRS umbrella-like antennas are plated in 24K gold. The TDRS solar panel span is equivalent to the height of a five story building and these panels generate more than 17 hundred watts of power. That is approximately what the average house in the Southwest U.S. uses daily. TDRS2 was lost with Challenger on January 28, 1986.
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