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12 - The Final Frontier(Part 1)
Leaving the Cradle
In the 19th Century, even while Professor Lowe was trying to convince the Union Army to allow him to use hydrogen-filled
balloons to observe Confederate troop movements, French author Jules Verne was writing about voyages to the Moon,
describing with amazing detail and accuracy events that would come true in December 1968 when Apollo 8 carried
three American astronauts on man's first trip to the Moon.
In 1903, an obscure Russian teacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky began publishing articles in which he described the
design of vehicles to fly in the vacuum of space. Tsiolkovsky is attributed with making the statement that, "The Earth
is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot live forever in a cradle."75 The following year,
American Robert Goddard told his high school graduating class that, "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the
dream of yesterday is the hope of today -- and the reality of tomorrow."76 Fourteen years
later, Goddard published a pamphlet which discussed the possibility of sending rockets to the Moon, and in 1926, he
launched the world's first liquid-fuel rocket. In 1929, German scientist Hermann Oberth constructed a rocket for a
science fiction film which later inspired, among others, a young schoolboy named Werhner von Braun. With the dreams,
writings, and actions of these three men, the quest for the "final frontier" was begun in earnest.
However, the quest was side-tracked by World War II, during which the young scientist Werhner von Braun was directed
to build Germany's V-2 rocket. Although Adolph Hitler used this vehicle to bring destruction to England, von Braun and
many of his fellow scientists and engineers never lost sight of the fact that this weapon was also a step on the road
to space. After the war, von Braun and some members of his team were brought to the United States, where they continued
their scientific experiments with rockets. Other members of von Braun's team were taken to the Soviet Union, where they
conducted their own experiments. These parallel efforts culminated on October 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet
Union's Sputnik 1, followed, on January 31, 1958, by the launch of America's Explorer 1.
The United States chose to operate its scientific space effort as a civilian program and in October 1958 established
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA and its counterpart in the Soviet Union launched the
first humans into space in 1961 and began a rivalry, based on political "one-upmanship," to try to be the first to land
men on the Moon. On July 19, 1969, the message, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The `Eagle' has landed." proclaimed
that Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were on the Moon.
Even before Yuri Gagarin was launched atop a Soviet rocket in 1961 to become the first man in space, some in the United
States realized that there was a better way than strapping a man to a ballistic missile and shooting him off with tons
of high explosives. These men were the test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in California who were pushing their winged
rocket-plane, the X-15, nearer and nearer to the edge of space. Between June 1959 and October 1968, the
X-15 took eight pilots to the edge of space under completely controlled flight and brought them back to a landing on
a conventional runway. The X-15 was the precursor of the American space shuttle.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise
The prototype space shuttle was rolled out of the Rockwell International assembly plant at Palmdale, California on
September 17, 1976, and christened Enterprise (OV-101), thus becoming the first space-related vehicle to carry the name.
She was 122 feet long and had a wingspan of 78 feet.
Although she was never intended for actual flight into space, the Enterprise conducted a series of unpowered
approach and landing tests during 1977. During these tests, she was carried atop a specially-modified Boeing 747
airliner and released to glide to unpowered, but piloted landings at Edwards Air Force Base. The test flights proved
the aerodynamic stability of the space shuttle design and the ability of the astronaut crew to guide the space shuttle
to a safe landing.
During the test flight program, the Enterprise was flown by two astronaut crews who alternated missions. The
first crew consisted of commander Fred Haise, who had survived the 1970 lunar mission of Apollo 13 that had to
be aborted because of an explosion in the spacecraft, and pilot Gordon Fullerton, who would later fly aboard the
operational space shuttles. The second test crew consisted of commander Joseph Engle and pilot Richard Truly, both of
whom later flew on operational space shuttle missions. Some years later, Truly would become NASA's Administrator and
help the agency recover from one of the most tragic accidents in spaceflight history.
The Enterprise was first flown in a "captive" mode, attached to the 747 carrier aircraft to test her basic
aerodynamics and control surfaces. After five unmanned and three manned captive flights, the first free flight was made
on August 12, 1977, with astronauts Haise and Fullerton on board. As later recounted, this first flight of the
Enterprise was a grand success.
At 18,300 ft. above ground level, the [747 carrier aircraft] was in the correct `high drag' configuration necessary to prevent Enterprise from creeping backwards relative to the 747 after separation and crashing into the latter's tail fin.... As the countdown reached zero Fred Haise, after receiving the `launch ready' call from the pilot of the [747], reached forward and pressed a button on Enterprise's control panel that detonated the explosive bolts holding the two craft together. On the ground, the announcement was greeted by tumultuous applause as eyes strained into the heat haze for the first glimpse of the Shuttle.... Two minutes after separation Enterprise entered its landing approach phase.... At over 245 mph Enterprise flew over the pre-determined touchdown point on the runway with a roar of slipstream until its speed fell below the 210 mph safety limit of the tyres [sic] and undercarriage. Eventually the main wheels touched down in front of a trail of dust, followed seconds later by the nosewheel. Rolling 9,000 ft. along the 13 mile long runway Enterprise came to a halt as the [747] and chase planes flew overhead in formation; a salute to the Orbiter's maiden flight.... The total free flight duration was 5 minutes 21 seconds. Fred Haise was delighted, describing the flight as `super slick'. Pilot [Gordon] Fullerton said Enterprise was, `a very stable airplane'.77
Each of the succeeding free flights of the Enterprise added a new element: special maneuvers to test the flight
controls, a test of the automatic landing system, a test of the shuttle's aerodynamics with the streamlined tail fairing
removed from her engine nozzles, and a landing on a concrete runway. All of the planned tests were completed
successfully, and NASA knew it could proceed in confidence with construction of its fleet of operational space
shuttles.
In later years, the Enterprise continued to be used as a test bed for the flight-worthy space shuttle fleet.
She was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in December 1985, and now resides at the Dulles Airport Annex of the
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
NASA eventually built four operational space shuttles: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and
Atlantis. The first flight into space occurred on April 12, 1981, when astronauts John Young, Jr. and Robert
Crippen piloted Columbia on a 2-day mission. The shuttles and their crews quickly demonstrated their versatility,
deploying a variety of Earth-orbiting and interplanetary spacecraft, serving as laboratories in space, and retrieving
and repairing broken satellites. Through January 12, 1986, 24 successful space shuttle missions were flown, then
disaster struck on January 26.
Mission STS-51L, the tenth planned flight of the shuttle Challenger, was to be an ambitious mission, with a
civilian teacher on board to beam science lessons to school children around the world. But 72 seconds after lift-off,
the Challenger exploded, killing her seven-person crew: commander Francis Scobee; pilot Michael Smith; crew
members Judith Resnick, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, and Gregory Jarvis; and teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe. Later
investigations concluded that a flaw in the design of the shuttle's solid rocket booster and the unsound decision to
launch the Challenger in unusually cold weather conditions combined to cause hot gases to leak from a joint in
one of the two booster engines. This in turn caused the booster to twist and puncture the Challenger's external
fuel tank.
The Challenger accident was not the first, nor will it be the last time that the quest for the "final frontier"
claims the lives of courageous men and women who are part of that quest. As President Ronald Reagan remarked at memorial
services for the Challenger's crew:
The future is not free: the story of all human progress is one of a struggle against all odds. We learned that this America, which Abraham Lincoln called the last, best hope of man on Earth, was built on heroism and noble sacrifice. It was built by men and women like our seven star voyagers, who answered a call beyond duty, who gave more than was expected or required and who gave it little thought of worldly reward.78
NASA redesigned the solid rocket booster and on September 29, 1988, resumed shuttle flights. The Challenger was
replaced in 1992 by the space shuttle Endeavour, and the space shuttle fleet is expected to continue in service
through the early 21st Century. But tragedy struck again in February 2003, when the space shuttle Columbia was
destroyed during re-entry after a successful mission, again killing a sever-person crew. The space shuttle Enterprise
was again pressed into service, as NASA technicians used the wings from the Enterprise during tests of the
kind of damage to the wing leading edge that ice falling from the Columbia's external fuel tank could have
caused during launch. Despite this tragedy, by that time, the International Space Station should be in orbit, providing mankind
with an orbital platform from which to mount the long-term exploration of the Moon and the first manned mission to
Mars. Interestingly, in December 1999, Spacehab, Inc. (U.S.) and its business partner, RSC Energia (Russia), announced that they
were jointly building a module for the International Space Station that will include crew quarters and experimental space.
The name of this space station module will be Enterprise!
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| Intro
| Dedication
| Foreword
| Preface
| Spanish Armada
| European Fleets
| Independence
| Copyright ©
1996-2008 Arnold E.
van Beverhoudt, Jr.
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