How big is the space shuttle cargo bay?
60 ft by 15 ft
The bay, 18.3 m long and 4.6 m wide (60 ft by 15 ft), has payload attachment points along its full length, and is adaptable enough to accommodate as many as five unmanned spacecraft of various sizes and shapes in one mission.
How many payload bay doors open as soon as the shuttle is in space?
Two payload bay doors hinged on either side of the bay, and provided a relatively airtight seal to protect payloads from heating during launch and reentry. Payloads were secured in the payload bay to the attachment points on the longerons.
What is a payload bay on a space shuttle?
the area inside the space shuttle orbiter where cargo was packed. Sentences: The payload bay doors were opened to help cool the shuttle after it was in orbit. The payload bay held large cargo going to the space station. Return to NASA’s Picture Dictionary.
What are the dimensions of the space shuttle?
How big is the shuttle? The shuttle measures 122.2 feet long, 56.67 feet high, with wingspan of 78.06 feet. The height of the full shuttle stack, including the external fuel tank, is 184.2 feet. Gross weight is 4.5 million pounds at liftoff.
How much payload can the space shuttle carry?
At launch, the Shuttle, external tank, solid rocket boosters and all the fuel combined had a total weight of 4.4 million pounds. The Shuttle could also carry a 65,000 payload.
What is a payload NASA?
‘Payload’ was originally a seafaring term for revenue-producing cargo on a ship. In space terms it refers to those elements of the spacecraft specifically dedicated to producing mission data and then relaying that data back to Earth.
What is a shuttle payload?
The shuttle carried a wide vari- ety of payloads into Earth orbit. Cargo bay payloads were typically large payloads which did not require a pressurized environment, such as interplanetary space probes, earth-orbiting satellites, scientific laboratories and International Space Station trusses and components.
How much does a space shuttle weight in kg?
about 2 million kg
The entire shuttle vehicle, fully loaded, weighed about 2 million kg (4.4 million pounds) and required a combined thrust of about 35 million newtons (7.8 million pounds-force) to reach orbital altitude.
What is stored in the payload bay?
The cargo bay is a space 15 ft (4.5 m) wide by 60 ft (18 m) long in which the shuttle’s payloads—the modules or satellites that it ports to orbit or back to Earth— are stored. The cargo bay can hold up to about 65,000 lb (30,000 kg) during ascent, and about half that amount during descent.
What is the size of ISS?
The space station is 356 feet (109 meters) end-to-end, one yard shy of the full length of an American football field including the end zones. Eight miles of wire connects the electrical power system aboard the space station.
How many pounds of thrust does the space shuttle have?
Each Space Shuttle Main Engine operates at a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen mixture ratio of 6 to 1 to produce a sea level thrust of 179,097 kilograms (375,000 pounds) and a vacuum thrust of 213,188 (470,000 pounds).