Department of Mechanical Engineering

Graduate Seminar Series

presents

Design and Development of the Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle represents NASA’s first attempt toward making space easily accessible and more affordable. It is unlike any of NASA’s previous space projects. The Space Shuttle places into low earth orbit a manned spacecraft, called an Orbiter. The Orbiter then returns to Earth and lands on a runway like an ordinary airplane, and is recycled to return to space another day. The Orbiter is the first reusable spacecraft ever designed. It is the size of a medium-sized commercial passenger jet like the Boeing 727. Five operational Orbiters were built, each named after famous exploring ships in American history. Columbia (designated OV-102) was the first Orbiter to fly into space in 1981. How the Shuttle gets into Orbit, its abort modes, and its reentry procedure will be presented. This seminar will describe the unique design of the Space Shuttle, and the requirements that drove those designs. Unfortunately, recent events have focused attention on the Orbiter, so emphasis will be on the Columbia tragedy.

Biographical Sketch of Frederick Peters

Fred Peters has spent most of his professional career in the field of manned spacecraft. He graduated from Parks College of Saint Louis University in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. His first job was at General Dynamics in San Diego as a Systems Engineer on the Atlas ICBM assigned to mass properties determination and propellant loading. In December 1960 he was assigned to the Predesign Group to work on the Apollo feasibility study for NASA. He joined NASA in Houston, Texas in 1962 and was a Project Engineer for the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office through the lifetime of the Apollo Program. As a Project Engineer he was responsible for a specific spacecraft from the time it began final assembly in manufacturing to its delivery to the test site. His assignments included a ground test vehicle for systems testing, a flight configured thermal vacuum test vehicle, an unmanned boilerplate flight spacecraft flown on a Saturn 5, and two manned Apollo spacecraft, Apollo 7 and Apollo 17.

Mr. Peters left NASA for the private sector and was the Director of Program Control for Grumman’s Space Station Support Group for five years during the early development phase of NASA’s Station Program.

He rejoined NASA/Johnson Space Center in 1993 as their Resident Manager for Space Station at the McDonnell Douglas facility in Huntington Beach. His final assignment before retirement in 1997 was as the Johnson Space Center representative to the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego.

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Thursday, February 27, 2003

2:30 pm

Thomas Beam Engineering B-174