How Fast Is A Space Shuttle
The total thrust at launch is about 7 8 million pounds.
How fast is a space shuttle. The engines can start and stop 1 000 times and have a total of 15 h burn time. This acceleration can change the shuttle s velocity by as much as 1 000 ft s 305 m s. While in orbit the space shuttle travels around earth at a speed of about 17 500 miles 28 000 kilometers per hour.
Nasa s parker solar probe will become the fastest spacecraft ever hitting speeds of 430 000 mph 692 000 km h. October 12 14 2012 the endeavour is transported approximately 12 miles at a top speed of 2 mph from the los angeles international airport through the streets of inglewood and los angeles to. At this speed the crew can see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes.
To achieve orbit the shuttle must accelerate from zero to a speed of almost 28 968 kilometers per hour 18 000 miles per hour a speed nine times as fast as the average rifle bullet. After the solid rockets are jettisoned the main engines provide thrust which accelerates the shuttle from 4 828 kilometers per hour 3 000 mph to over 27 358 kilometers per hour 17 000 mph in just six minutes to reach orbit. To place into orbit or to de orbit takes about 100 500 ft s 31 153 m s change in velocity.
The aircraft is said to be hypersonic. They create a combined maximum thrust of more than 1 2 million pounds. Typical low earth orbit re entry speeds are near 17 500 mph and the mach number m is nearly twenty five m 25.
The chief characteristic of re entry aerodynamics is that the temperature of the flow is so great that the chemical bonds of the diatomic molecules of the air are broken.