NASA Space Shuttle (1972-2011): Books (1/2)

The Space Shuttle Program : Technologies and Accomplishments

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.

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Assembling and Supplying the ISS : The Space Shuttle Fulfills Its Mission

The creation and utilization of the International Space Station (ISS) is a milestone in space exploration. But without the Space Shuttle, it would have remained an impossible dream.
Assembling and Supplying the ISS is the story of how, between 1998 and 2011, the Shuttle became the platform which enabled the construction and continued operation of the primary scientific research facility in Earth orbit.

Fulfilling an objective it had been designed to complete decades before, 37 Shuttle missions carried the majority of the hardware needed to build the ISS and then acted as a ferry and supply train for early resident crews to the station.

Building upon the decades of development and experience described in the companion volume "Linking the Space Shuttle and Space Stations: Early Docking Technologies from Concept to Implementation", this book explores
- a purpose-built hardware processing facility
- challenging spacewalking objectives
- extensive robotic operations
- undocking a unmanned orbiter.

The experience and expertise gained through these missions allows space planners to improve space construction skills in advance of even more ambitious plans in the future.

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To Orbit and Back Again : How the Space Shuttle Flew in Space

This book looks at the Space Shuttle, and answers one simple question: "How does it work?" The question may be simple, but the answer is not as easy to give.

This work describes the structures and systems used each time the Shuttle was launched, and then follows an imaginary mission, explaining how those structures and systems were used in orbital operations and the return to Earth.
Details of how anomalous events were dealt with on individual missions are also provided, as are the recollections of those who built and flew the Shuttle.

Highly illustrated with many diagrams, photographs and technical drawings, To Orbit and Back Again focuses on the engineering aspects of the Shuttle. It describes the systems and subsystems in clear, non-technical terms brings to the fore the design work behind the Space Shuttle and the mission itself

Table of Contents:

Foreword
1. A brain and mind for the Orbiter: the avionics system
2. A skeleton for the Orbiter: structure and mechanisms
3. Power to the orbit: the main engines
4. Power to the orbit: solid rocket boosters
5. Shuttle propulsion: the external tank
6. Maneuvering in space: the orbital maneuvering system and reaction
7. Heart and lung of the Orbiter: the environmental control life supports system and electrical control system
8. The Orbiter's skin: the thermal protection system
9. Auxiliary power unit and hydraulic system
10. Fundamentals of the Shuttle GNC
11. The art of reaching orbit
12. Orbital dancing
13. Returning home

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