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Space Shuttle Columbia

The Space Shuttle Columbia is the oldest orbiter in the shuttle fleet, becoming the first Space Shuttle to fly into Earth orbit in 1981. Four sister ships joined the fleet: Challenger, arriving in 1982 but destroyed four years later; Discovery, 1983; Atlantis, 1985; and Endeavour, built as a replacement for Challenger, 1991. A test vehicle, the Enterprise, was used for suborbital approach and landing tests but did not fly in space. In the day-to-day world of Shuttle operations and processing, Columbia is commonly referred to as OV-102, for Orbiter Vehicle-102. Empty Weight was 158,289 lbs at rollout and 178,000 lbs with main engines installed.

Dave Williams space mission STS-90 was the 25^th orbital flight of Space Shuttle Columbia, continuing more than 17 years of successful missions through more than 3700 orbits of Earth and over 158 million kilometers of flight and 227 days in space.

For STS-90, a Spacelab module was installed in the payload bay of Columbia. Spacelab is a reusable laboratory that consists of the main pressurized module, which contains the laboratory and the tunnel connecting the Shuttle is middeck to the Spacelab module. Spacelab was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of a joint venture with NASA during the early 1980s. The Spacelab measures 7 meters (23 feet) long by 3.9 meters (13 feet) wide.

 

The Spacelab includes 12 racks, 10 of which are available for installation of laboratory equipment. Neurolab was the 25^th and final scheduled Spacelab mission; Spacelab missions have been discontinued in lieu of the International Space Station project.

 

More information on Columbia
Columbia was named after the Boston, Massachusetts based sloop captained by American Robert Gray. On May 11, 1792, Gray and his crew maneuvered the Columbia past the dangerous sandbar at the mouth of a river extending more than 1000 miles through what is today south-eastern British Columbia, Canada, and the Washington-Oregon border. The river was later named after the ship. Gray also led Columbia and its crew on the first American circumnavigation of the globe, carrying a cargo of otter skins to Canton, China, and then returning to Boston.

Other sailing ships have further enhanced the luster of the name Columbia. The first U.S. Navy ship to circle the globe bore that title, as did the command module for Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission. On a more directly patriotic note, "Columbia" is considered to be the feminine personification of the United States. The name is derived from that of another famous explorer, Christopher Columbus.

From the Kennedy Space Center, Columbia, attached to a huge external fuel tank along with the two solid rocket boosters, is launched vertically. After two minutes of flight at an altitude of about 48 kilometers, the two boosters run out of fuel, detach and parachute into the ocean. Two waiting ships recover them for reuse on later missions. The orbiter and external tank continue into space for about eight minutes under the power of Columbia's three main engines until just before orbital altitude, at which point the external tank detaches and falls into a remote area of the Indian Ocean. The Columbia orbiter is about 37 metres (122 ft) in length, 17 metres (57 ft) high, and has a wingspan of about 23.6 metres (78 ft). It weighs over 230 000 lbs. The cargo bay, 18 metres (60 ft) long and 4.5 metres (15 ft) in diameter, is by far the largest section of the orbiter. While Columbia is roughly the overall size of a DC-9 jetliner, the actual crew space on board is relatively small, considering it must accommodate seven astronauts living together for the 16 days of their mission. (The fact they can float around helps to make the living areas seem less cramped!)

The flight deck of Columbia looks similar in size and configuration to the flight deck of a large jetliner, with two permanent pilot seats facing the main controls and narrow front windows. (The entire cockpit is virtually covered with controls and switches, in fact, there are more live switches on the Shuttle's upper deck than there are parts in the average automobile!) The controls for the Canadarm are located along the rear bulkhead of the flight deck, just below a window looking out over the long cargo bay and tail of the orbiter. The flight deck also has two removable seats for other astronauts during take-off and landing.

The middeck of Columbia is located directly beneath the flight deck and provides bathroom facilities, crew accommodations and walls of lockers for storing and cooking food, stowing equipment, clothing and scientific experiments. The entire middeck living area for all of the astronauts is only about 9 square metres, roughly the size of one small bedroom in an ordinary home. The middeck can also hold up to six removable seats for astronauts during take-off and landing. Astronauts move between the flight deck and middeck through an open hatch.