NASA PHOTOS
Left: Before building flight demonstrators, Langley engineers spent years studying “lifting body” spacecraft concepts. They tested this design in the Langley Full-Scale Tunnel in 1964. Right: A variety of space shuttle designs went through more than 60,000 hours of testing in Langley’s wind tunnels, including this model in the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel in 1972.
“an entirely new type of space transportation system,” would be the world’s first reusable spacecraft, capable of leaving the atmosphere, returning, and landing like an airplane, allowing “routine access to space.” Langley Research Center’s long history of experimentation with winged “spaceplanes” and, during the 1950s and 1960s, “lifting body” spacecraft that allowed for some maneuverability on reentry, ensured that its spaceflight experts played an important role in the design of the new spacecraft. The shuttle’s final shape, in fact, resembled the HL-10 lifting body demonstrator designed by Langley, built by Northrop, and at the time still flying technology demonstrations at the (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center in California.
Early space shuttle concepts included deployable jet engines that could, upon atmospheric reentry, power its descent and maneuvers. Langley engineers, however, pointed out that the shuttle didn’t need to fly – it just needed to glide to a safe landing, as the HL-10 was doing in the desert. The “dead stick” landing, argued Langley’s engineers, would be much simpler and reduce weight. Jet engines were omitted from the final shuttle design, which also featured the modified delta wing recommended by Langley. Before the Space Shuttle Enterprise’s 1977 test flight, scale models endured more than 60,000 hours of testing in Langley’s wind tunnels, verifying the spacecraft’s aerodynamic soundness. Langley’s expertise in entry/descent/landing (EDL) came into play as the agency investigated new heat-shielding technologies. An ablative heat shield, which essentially burned away upon reentry, was a poor choice for a spacecraft that was to be considered “reusable,” so the shuttle design featured a thermal protection system comprised of thick ceramic tiles that would protect the orbiter and its astronauts from the 3,000 degree F heat of atmospheric reentry. After resolving a serious problem with the thermal protection system – the failure of an adhesive to keep tiles bonded to the shuttle’s aluminum skin – Langley researchers investigated and certified the thermal protection system. As they had for the Gemini and Apollo programs, Langley’s researchers
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