Spaceflight
Spaceflight is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflights operate either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The first spaceflights began in the 1950s with the launches of the Soviet Sputnik satellites and American Explorer and Vanguard missions. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs. Other current spaceflight are conducted to the International Space Station and to China's Tiangong Space Station.
Spaceflights include the launches of Earth observation and telecommunications satellites, interplanetary missions, the rendezvouses and dockings with space stations, and crewed spaceflights on scientific or tourist missions.
Spaceflight can be achieved conventionally via multistage rockets, which provide the thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propel spacecraft onto suborbital trajectories. If the mission is orbital, the spacecraft usually separates the first stage and ignites the second stage, which propels the spacecraft to high enough speeds that it reaches orbit. Once in orbit, spacecraft are at high enough speeds that they fall around the Earth rather than fall back to the surface.
Most spacecraft, and all crewed spacecraft, are designed to deorbit themselves or, in the case of uncrewed spacecraft in high-energy orbits, to boost themselves into graveyard orbits. Used upper stages or failed spacecraft, however, often lack the ability to deorbit themselves. This becomes a major issue when large numbers of uncontrollable spacecraft exist in frequently used orbits, increasing the risk of debris colliding with functional satellites. This problem is exacerbated when large objects, often upper stages, break up in orbit or collide with other objects, creating often hundreds of small, hard to find pieces of debris. This problem of continuous collisions is known as Kessler syndrome.
Terminology
There are several terms that refer to a flight into or through outer space.A space mission refers to a spaceflight intended to achieve an objective. Objectives for space missions may include space exploration, space research, and national firsts in spaceflight.
Space transport is the use of spacecraft to transport people or cargo into or through outer space. This may include human spaceflight and cargo spacecraft flight.
History
The first theoretical proposal of space travel using rockets was published by Scottish astronomer and mathematician William Leitch, in an 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space". More well-known is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's work, "Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами", published in 1903. In his work, Tsiolkovsky describes the fundamental rocket equation:Where:
- is the change in the rocket's velocity
- is the exhaust velocity
- and are the initial and final masses of the rocket
Spaceflight became a practical possibility with the work of Robert H. Goddard's publication in 1919 of his paper A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. His application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid-fuel rockets improved efficiency enough for interplanetary travel to become possible. After further research, Goddard attempted to secure an Army contract for a rocket-propelled weapon in the first World War but his plans were foiled by the November 11, 1918 armistice with Germany. After choosing to work with private financial support, he was the first to launch a liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1880, Peenemünde, Start einer V2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The German V-2 rocket, co-designed by Wernher von Braun, became the first man-made object to reach space.
During World War II, the first guided rocket, the V-2, was developed and employed as a weapon by Nazi Germany. During a test flight in June 1944, one such rocket reached space at an altitude of, becoming the first human-made object to reach space. At the end of World War II, most of the V-2 rocket team, including its head, Wernher von Braun, surrendered to the United States, and were expatriated to work on American missiles at what became the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, producing missiles such as Juno I and Atlas. The Soviet Union, in turn, captured several V2 production facilities and built several replicas, with 5 of their 11 rockets successfully reaching their targets.
The Soviet Union developed intercontinental ballistic missiles to carry nuclear weapons as a counter measure to United States bomber planes in the 1950s. The Tsiolkovsky-influenced Sergey Korolev became the chief rocket designer, and derivatives of his R-7 Semyorka missiles were used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957.
The U.S., after the launch of Sputnik and two embarrassing failures of Vanguard rockets, launched Explorer 1 on February 1, 1958. Three years later, the USSR launched Vostok 1, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit. The US responded with the suborbital launch of Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961, and the orbital launch of John Glenn on February 20, 1962. These events were followed by a pledge from U.S. President John F. Kennedy to go to the moon and the creation of the Gemini and Apollo programs. After successfully performing a rendezvous and docking and an EVA, the Gemini program ended just before the Apollo 1 tragedy. Following multiple uncrewed test flights of the Saturn 1B and the Saturn V, the U.S. launched the crewed Apollo 7 mission into low Earth orbit. Shortly after its successful completion, the U.S. launched Apollo 8, Apollo 9 and Apollo 10. These events culminated with the first crewed Moon landing, Apollo 11, and six subsequent missions, five of which successfully landed on the Moon.
Spaceflight has been widely employed by numerous government and commercial entities for placing satellites into orbit around Earth for a broad range of purposes. Certain government agencies have also sent uncrewed spacecraft exploring space beyond the Moon and developed continuous crewed human presence in space with a series of space stations, ranging from the Salyut program to the International Space Station.
Phases
Launch
Rockets are the only means currently capable of reaching orbit or beyond. Other non-rocket spacelaunch technologies have yet to be built, or remain short of orbital speeds. A rocket launch for a spaceflight usually starts from a spaceport, which may be equipped with launch complexes and launch pads for vertical rocket launches and runways for takeoff and landing of carrier airplanes and winged spacecraft. Spaceports are situated well away from human habitation for noise and safety reasons. ICBMs have various special launching facilities.A launch is often restricted to certain launch windows. These windows depend upon the position of celestial bodies and orbits relative to the launch site. The biggest influence is often the rotation of the Earth. Once launched, orbits are normally located within relatively constant flat planes at a fixed angle to the axis of the Earth, and the Earth rotates within this orbit.
A launch pad is a fixed structure designed to dispatch airborne vehicles. It generally consists of a launch tower and flame trench. It is surrounded by equipment used to erect, fuel, and maintain launch vehicles. Before launch, the rocket can weigh hundreds of tons. The Space Shuttle Columbia, on STS-1, weighed 2030 metric tons at takeoff.
Reaching space
The most commonly used definition of outer space is everything beyond the Kármán line, which is above the Earth's surface.Rocket engines remain the only currently practical means of reaching space, with planes and high-altitude balloons failing due to lack of atmosphere and alternatives such as space elevators not yet being built. Chemical propulsion, or the acceleration of gases at high velocities, is effective mainly because of its ability to sustain thrust even as the atmosphere thins.
Alternatives
Many ways to reach space other than rocket engines have been proposed. Ideas such as the space elevator, and momentum exchange tethers like rotovators or skyhooks require new materials much stronger than any currently known. Electromagnetic launchers such as launch loops might be feasible with current technology. Other ideas include rocket-assisted aircraft/spaceplanes such as Reaction Engines Skylon, scramjet powered spaceplanes, and RBCC powered spaceplanes. Gun launch has been proposed for cargo.Leaving orbit
On some missions beyond Low Earth orbit, spacecraft are inserted into parking orbits, or lower intermediary orbits. The parking orbit approach greatly simplified Apollo mission planning in several important ways. It acted as a "time buffer" and substantially widened the allowable launch windows. The parking orbit gave the crew and controllers time to thoroughly check out the spacecraft after the stresses of launch before committing it for a long journey to the Moon.Image:RIAN archive 510848 Interplanetary station Luna 1 - blacked.jpg|thumb|upright|Launched in 1959, Luna 1 was the first known artificial object to achieve escape velocity from the Earth.Robotic missions do not require an abort capability and require radiation minimalization only for delicate electronics, and because modern launchers routinely meet "instantaneous" launch windows, space probes to the Moon and other planets generally use direct injection to maximize performance by limiting the boil off of cryogenic propellants. Although some might coast briefly during the launch sequence, they do not complete one or more full parking orbits before the burn that injects them onto an Earth escape trajectory.
The escape velocity from a celestial body decreases as the distance from the body increases. However, it is more fuel-efficient for a craft to burn its fuel as close as possible to its periapsis ; see Oberth effect.