Space Shuttle Speed
The space shuttle was a partially reusable low earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the national aeronautics and space administration nasa as part of the space shuttle program its official program name was space transportation system sts taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.
Space shuttle speed. On earth that would be the equivalent of traveling from washington d c to tokyo in less than a. At this speed the crew can see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes. The srbs helped take the space shuttle to an altitude of 28 miles 45 km and a speed of 3 094 mph 4 979 km h along with the main engines.
To reach orbit the space shuttle must accelerate from zero to nearly 28 968 kilometers per hour nine times faster than the average bullet. The space shuttle gains more altitude above earth and the speed increases to the nearly 7 850 m s 17 500 mph required to achieve orbit. Shuttle atlantis launches with both the main engines and solid rocket boosters operating.
The speed of a space shuttle in orbit is about 17 580 miles an hour 7860 m s in orbit space shuttle microsoft encarta 98 encyclopedia. Answer key 26 problem 1 graph the speed of the rocket during the first 20 seconds after launch. 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.
The final orbital speed of the space shuttle is approximately 28 000 km hr 17 500 mph. Launch speed versus time 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 5 10 15 20 time sec speed m s problem 2 graph the height of the rocket above the launch pad during the first 20 seconds after launch. The main engines are commanded by the onboard computer to reduce power ensuring that acceleration of the space shuttle does not exceed 29 4 m s 2 3 g.
Although one might intuitively perceive the space shuttle as maintaining a constant acceleration during its climb into orbit it actually experiences varying accelerations during this period.