“6_2_11.TXT” (8607 bytes) was created on 02-21-89<\/p>\n
ORIGIN OF THE NAME “SPACE SHUTTLE”<\/p>\n
The name “Space Shuttle” evolved from descriptive references in the
\npress, aerospace industry, and government and gradually came into use
\nas concepts of reusable space transportation developed. As early NASA
\nadvanced studies grew into a full program, the name came into official
\nuse.
\n———————————————————————-
\n In January 1975, NASA’s Project Designation Committee was
\nconsidering suggestions for a new name for the Space Shuttle,
\nsubmitted by Headquarters and Center personnel and others at the
\nrequest of Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator. Rockwell
\nInternational Corporation, Shuttle prime contractor, was reported as
\nreferring to it as “Spaceplane.” (Bernice M. Taylor, Administrative
\nAssistant to Administrator for Public Affairs, NASA, telephone
\ninterview, 12 Feb 1975; and AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 102 [20
\nJan 1975], 10)
\n———————————————————————-
\nFrom its establishment in 1958, NASA studied aspects of reusable
\nlaunch vehicles and spacecraft that could return to the Earth. The
\npredecessor National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and
\nthen NASA cooperated with the Air Force in the X-15 rocket research
\naircraft program in the 1950s and 1960s and in the 1958-1963 Dyna-Soar
\n(“Dynamic-Soaring”) hypersonic boost-glide vehicle program. Beginning
\nin 1963, NASA joined the USAF in research toward the Aerospaceplane, a
\nmanned vehicle to go into orbit and return, taking off and landing
\nhorizontally. Joint flight tests in the 1950s and 1960s of wingless
\nlifting bodies–the M2 series, HL-10, and eventually the X-24–tested
\nprinciples for future spacecraft reentering the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Marshall Space Flight Center sponsored studies of recovery and reuse
\nof the Saturn V launch vehicle. MSFC Director of Future Projects Heinz
\nH. Koelle in 1962 projected a “commercial space line to Earth orbit
\nand the Moon,” for cargo transportation by 1980 or 1990. Leonard M.
\nTinnan of MSFC published a 1963 description of a winged, flyback
\nSaturn V. Other studies of “logistics spacecraft systems,” “orbital
\ncarrier vehicles,” and “reusable orbital transports” followed
\nthroughout the 1960s in NASA, the Department of Defense, and industry.<\/p>\n
As the Apollo program neared its goal, NASA’s space program objectives
\nwidened and the need for a fully reusable, economical space
\ntransportation system for both manned and unmanned missions became
\nmore urgent. In 1966 the NASA budget briefing outlined an FY 1967
\nprogram including advanced studies of “ferry and logistics vehicles.”
\nThe President’s Science Advisory Committee in February 1967
\nrecommended studies of more economical ferry systems with total
\nrecovery and rescue possibilities. Industry studies under NASA
\ncontracts 1969-1971 led to definition of a reusable Space Shuttle
\nsystem and to a 1972 decision to develop the Shuttle.<\/p>\n
The term “shuttle” crept into forecasts of space transportation at
\nleast as early as 1952. In a COLLIER’S article, Dr. Wernher von Braun,
\nthen Director of the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development
\nGroup, Huntsville AL, envisioned space stations supplied by rockets
\nships that would enter orbit and return to Earth to land “like a
\nnormal airplane,” with small, rocket-powered “shuttle-craft,” or
\n“space taxis,” to ferry men and materials between rocket ship and
\nspace station.<\/p>\n
In October 1959 Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and Hughes Aircraft
\nCompany reported plans for space ferry or “commuter express,” for
\n“shuttling” men and materials between Earth and outer space. In
\nDecember, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Correspondent Courtney Shelton
\nwrote of the future possibility of a “man-carrying space shuttle to
\nthe nearest planets.”<\/p>\n
The term reappeared occasionally in studies through the early 1960s. A
\n1963 NASA contract to Douglas Aircraft Company was to produce a
\nconceptual design for Philip Bono’s “Reusable Orbital Module Booster
\nand Utility Shuttle (ROMBUS),” to orbit and return to touch down with
\nlegs like the lunar landing module’s. Jettison of eight strap-on
\nhydrogen tanks for recovery and reuse was part of the concept. The
\npress–in accounts of European discussions of Space Transporter
\nproposals and in articles on the Aerospaceplane, NASA contract
\nstudies, USAF START reentry studies, and the joint lifting-body
\nflights–referred to “shuttle” service, “reusable orbital shuttle
\ntransport.” and “space shuttle” forerunners.
\n———————————————————————-
\n The DEFENSE\/SPACE BUSINESS DAILY newsletter was persistent in
\nreferring to USAF and NASA reentry and lifting-body tests as “Space
\nShuttle” tests. Editor-in-Chief Norman L. Baker said the newsletter
\nhad first tried to reduce the name “Aerospaceplane” to “Spaceplane”
\nfor that project and had moved from that to “Space Shuttle” for
\nreusable, back-and-forth space transport concepts as early as 1963.
\nThe name was suggested to him by the Washington DC to New York airline
\nshuttle flights. (Telephone interview, 22 April 1975.)
\n Application of the word “shuttle” to anything that moved quickly
\nback and forth (from shuttlecock to shuttle train and the verb “to
\nshuttle”) had arisen in the English language from the name of the
\nweaving instruments that passed or “shot” the thread of the woof from
\none edge of the cloth to the other. The English word came from the
\nAnglo-Saxon “scytel” for missile, related to the Danish “skyttel” for
\nshuttle, the Old Norwegian “skutill” for harpoon, and the English
\n“shoot.” (WEBSTER’S INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY, ed 2, unabridged.)
\n———————————————————————-
\nIn 1965 Dr. Walter R. Dorberger, Vice President for Research of
\nTextron Corporation’s Bell Aerosystems Company, published “Space
\nShuttle of the Future: The Aerospaceplane” in Bell’s periodical
\nRENDEZVOUS. In July Dr. Dornberger gave the main address in a
\nUniversity of Tennessee Space Institute short course: “The
\nRecoverable, Reusable Space Shuttle.”<\/p>\n
NASA used the term “shuttle” for its reusable transportation concept
\nofficially in 1968. Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight
\nGeorge E. Mueller briefed the British Interplanetary Society in London
\nin August with charts and drawings of “space shuttle” operations and
\nconcepts. In November, addressing the National Space Club in
\nWashington DC, Dr. Mueller declared the next major thrust in space
\nshould be the space shuttle.<\/p>\n
By 1969 “Space Shuttle” was the standard NASA designation, although
\nsome efforts were made to find another name as studies were pursued.
\nThe “Space Shuttle” was given an agency-wide code number; the Space
\nShuttle Steering Group and Space Shuttle Task Group appointed by
\nPresident Nixon to help define post-Apollo space objectives
\nrecommended the U.S. develop a reusable, economic space transportation
\nsystem including a shuttle. And in October feasibility study results
\nwere presented at a Space Shuttle Conference in Washington. Intensive
\ndesign, technology, and cost studies followed in 1970 and 1971.<\/p>\n
On 5 January 1972 President Nixon announced that the United States
\nwould develop the Space Shuttle.<\/p>\n
The Space Shuttle would be a delta-winged aircraftlike orbiter about
\nthe size of a DC-9 aircraft, mounted at launch on a large, expendable
\nliquid-propellant tank and two recoverable and reusable
\nsolid-propellant rocket boosters (SRBs) that would drop away in
\nflight. The Shuttle’s cargo bay eventually would carry most of the
\nNation’s civilian and military payloads. Each Shuttle was to have a
\nlifetime of 100 space missions, carrying up to 29,500 kilograms at a
\ntime. Sixty or seventy flights a year were expected in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Flown by a three-man crew, the Shuttle would carry satellites to
\norbit, repair them in orbit, and later return them to Earth for
\nrefurbishment and reuse. It would also carry up to four scientists and
\nengineers to work in a pressurized laboratory or technicians to
\nservice satellites. After a 7- to 30-day mission, the orbiter would
\nreturn to Earth and land like an aircraft, for preparation for the
\nnext flight.<\/p>\n
At the end of 1974, parts were being fabricated, assembled, and tested
\nfor flight vehicles. Horizontal tests were to begin in 1977 and
\norbital tests in 1979. The first manned orbital flight was scheduled
\nfor March 1979 and the complete vehicle was to be operational in 1980.<\/p>\n
—
\nORIGINS OF NASA NAMES, Helen T. Wells, Susan H. Whiteley, and Carrie
\nE. Karegeannes, The NASA History Series, SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL
\nINFORMATION OFFICE, 1976, Washington DC, NASA SP-4402.<\/p>\n
