Space shuttle solid rocket booster

Modern composite solid propellant is a mechanical mixture of the powder-like chemicals and a binding resin. The propellant used for the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters (SRBs) is a typical example of such mixture ... 

The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. Student Space Awareness — National Web Team, University of Arizona Chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, http //seds.lpl.arizona.edu/ssa/docs/Space.Shuttle/srb.shtml... 

The solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle are appropriately named for the solid propellant loaded within them. The ignition provided by the reaction of the solid aluminum powder and ammonium perchlorate powder generates a finely divided white powder known as alumina, various gases, and an extensive amount of heat. The dispersal of the white powder in the gases streaming from the boosters creates the billowy white appearance. 

The propellant mixture in each solid rocket booster of the Space Shuttle contains ammonium perchlorate ( the oxidizer, 69.6% by weight), aluminum ( the fuel, 16% by weight), an iron oxide catalyst (0.4% by weight), a polymeric binder that... 

Solid Rocket Boosters. NASA Space Shuttle Reference Manual,... 

The U.S. Space Shuttle, for example, has two large solid-rocket boosters for its launch stage. The booster propellant has the following composition ... 

It takes a lot of force to get a space shuttle out of the grip of Earth s gravity. Two solid rocket boosters filled with a solid mixture of ammonium perchlorate and aluminum metal, called the propellant, produce most of that force. The rockets also contain a catalyst made of iron oxide, which speeds up the burning of the propellant. Another material called the binder holds everything together. All together, the propellant, the catalyst, and the binder make up the solid material inside the rocket boosters. 

Pyrotechnic device—On a spacecraft, an explosive device used for quick release of some mechanism or object. Explosive bolts used to separate rocket stages or the solid rocket boosters used during a space shuttle launch are examples of pyrotechnic devices. 

Using Numbers The space shuttle gains nearly 72% of its lift from its solid rocket boosters (SRBs) during the first two minutes of launch. The two pencil-shaped SRB tanks are attached to both sides of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel tank. Each SRB contains 495 000 kg of an explosive mixture of ammonium perchlorate and aluminum. The unbalanced equation for the reaction is given below. 

The space shuttle s solid rocket boosters get their thrust from the reaction of aluminum metal with ammonium perchlorate, NH4CIO4, which generates a lot of gas and heat. The billowy white smoke is due to the formation of very finely divided solid aluminum oxide. One of the reactions that takes place is... 

Challenge The ionic compound NH4CIO4 is a key reactant used in solid rocket boosters, such as those that power the Space Shuttle into orbit. Name this compound. 

Facts On January 28, 1986, at 11 38 a.m. EST, the US Space Shuttle Challenger took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Mission 51L. Seventy-three seconds after takeoff, a fire that had broken out on the right solid rocket booster led to an explosion of the adjacent external fuel tank. The shuttle system disintegrated and the orbiter plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean. All seven crew members (Figure 4.6) perished. 

Anyone who has visited the Kennedy Space Center and seen the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)—originally built to process the Saturn V and currently used to assemble the Space Shuttle and its external tanks and solid rocket boosters—and the crawler-transporter— used to move the final assembled vehicle and mobile launch platform from the VAB to the launch pad—has an appreciation for the massive infrastructure requirements of a major space project. The ISS program has benefited substantially from the existence of the Apollo-era... 

Space transportation system An integrated sytem consisting of the Space Shuttle (Orbiter, External Tank [ET], Solid Rocket Booster [SRB], and flight kits), upper stages, Spacelab, and any associated flight hardware and... 

And this is not yet the endl The US space shuttle has two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters (SRBs) made in a factory in Utah. It has been alleged that the engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tuimel. The tunnel is only slightly wider than the railroad track, and we now know the story behind the width of the track ... 

Thiokol Corporation, which is the exclusive producer of polysulfide elastomers in the free world, is now a major producer of solid rocket engines and has annual sales of many millions of dollam. TTiiokol (now Morton-Thiokol) is the sole supplier of solid rocket boosters for the space shuttle mission and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 

The Space Transportation System (STS) - the space shuttle - consists of an airplanelike orbiter, two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) on either side, and a large cylindrical external tank that holds ciyogenic fuel for the orbiter s main engines. The SRBs detach from the orbiter 2.5 minutes after launch, fall into the ocean, and are recovered for reuse. The external tank is not reused. It is jettisoned as the orbiter reaches Earth orbit, and disintegrates as it falls into the Indian Ocean (Smith, 2003). 

Hoover, K., and Fowler, W.T. 1995. Doomed fiom the Beginning The Solid Rocket Boosters for the Space Shuttle. University of Texas at Austin Studies in Ethics, Safety, and Liability for Engineers, www.ae.utexas.edu/ lehmanj7ethics/srb.htm and www.tsgc.utexas.edu/archive/ general/ ethics/shuttle.html. 

A further and key decision was made in that SIAT, in light of the problems uncovered, had recommended additional external reviews of the space shuttle main engine (SSME), the solid rocket boosters (SRB) and the external fuel tank (ET), mentioned earlier. The SIAT team members felt they did not have the required expertise or time to perform these reviews The need to end the SIAT investigation arose simply because we had exceeded the time commitments of the team members. Of the recommended external reviews only the review of the SSME was performed. It was argued that the shuttle program had been reviewed to death and the recommended reviews would be performed in due course by the ASAP. 

Wingard, C. D., Use of Several Thermal Analysis Techniques on a Hypalon Paint Coating for the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) of the Space Shuttle, Proc. 27 Conf. N. A. Thermal Analysis Soc., Savannah, GA, p. 357-365 (Sept. 20-22, 1999)... 

There were no alarms sounded in the cockpit. The crew apparently had no indication of a problem before the rapid break-up of the space shuttle system. The first evidence of an accident came from live video coverage. Radar then began to track multiple objects. The flight dynamics officer in Houston confirmed to the flight director that RSO [range safety officer] reports vehicle exploded, and 30 seconds later he added that the range safety officer had sent the destruct signal to the solid rocket boosters. 

Flight of the space shuttle Challenger on mission 51-L began at 11 38 a.m. (EST) on January 28, 1986. It ended 73 seconds later in an explosive burn of hydrogen and oxygen propellants that destroyed the external tank and exposed the orbiter to severe aerod5mamic loads that caused complete structural breakup. All seven crew members perished. The two solid rocket boosters flew out of the fireball and were destroyed by the Air Force range safety officer 110 seconds after launch. 

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