Student Colloquium - Hasse Stræde Hansen: The Space Shuttle – how to land a brick from space
Supervisor: Victoria Antoci
The Space Shuttle program was the pinnacle of space engineering and has inspired many generations. The Space Shuttle was build to be a rocket, a glider and a satellite and has launched some of the greatest space observatories into space, including Hubble Space telescope and Chandra X-ray telescope. It carried most of the modules for International Space Station into orbit and sent 355 astronauts into space.
In this presentation, I will explain how the Space Shuttle lands safely in Cape Canaveral, Florida, despite its incredibly high velocity of 27500 km/h when it enters the atmosphere.
I will discuss the physics involved and show how the Space Shuttle can be a satellite and a glider although it was considered to be a “flying brick”.