> had a much larger crew capacity than most missions probably needed
We rarely flew the maximum number of passengers. On non-EVA missions we typically only sent up 5 astronauts. For EVA missions we usually sent up 7 with the two extra crew typically being dedicated to the EVA.
EVAs are a real chore. The shuttle is at 14.7 psi with regular atmosphere, but the EVA suits are 4 psi with pure oxygen atmosphere, so you have to spend a lot of time pre-breathing just to put on the suit. It also drains the hell out of you because it's microgravity, not zero gravity, and moving around and positioning in the suit using just your hands all day wears you out fast.
The extra capacity was also useful for bringing other nations personnel onto a mission with us. They didn't strictly have a large mission role, but it is good diplomacy, and helps other nations build up their own space program. Plus.. a few times.. we sent up 6 but brought back 7, which is a nice feature.
Anyways, when not sending up extra crew, we used the additional space for equipment and large experiment packages, some of them as large as a single person.
> and probably used a little more than it should be.
NASA did a great job of making space flight look normal and routine. Which is a bummer, because if you dig into any of their voluminous documentation on the shuttle program as a whole, or into individual missions, they are all anything but.
Space is just an absolutely insane environment to work in, let alone to discover and study from, and the shuttle was an excellent platform for that work. Somewhere along the way space commercialization became about building stations and just trucking people back and forth to them. And for that inglorious mission the shuttle is definitely not appropriate.
Anyways.. one of my favorite things about the orbiter.. the front thermal windows need to be tinted; obviously, but what I found out recently is they used the same green dye they use in US banknotes to do that.
We rarely flew the maximum number of passengers. On non-EVA missions we typically only sent up 5 astronauts. For EVA missions we usually sent up 7 with the two extra crew typically being dedicated to the EVA.
EVAs are a real chore. The shuttle is at 14.7 psi with regular atmosphere, but the EVA suits are 4 psi with pure oxygen atmosphere, so you have to spend a lot of time pre-breathing just to put on the suit. It also drains the hell out of you because it's microgravity, not zero gravity, and moving around and positioning in the suit using just your hands all day wears you out fast.
The extra capacity was also useful for bringing other nations personnel onto a mission with us. They didn't strictly have a large mission role, but it is good diplomacy, and helps other nations build up their own space program. Plus.. a few times.. we sent up 6 but brought back 7, which is a nice feature.
Anyways, when not sending up extra crew, we used the additional space for equipment and large experiment packages, some of them as large as a single person.
> and probably used a little more than it should be.
NASA did a great job of making space flight look normal and routine. Which is a bummer, because if you dig into any of their voluminous documentation on the shuttle program as a whole, or into individual missions, they are all anything but.
Space is just an absolutely insane environment to work in, let alone to discover and study from, and the shuttle was an excellent platform for that work. Somewhere along the way space commercialization became about building stations and just trucking people back and forth to them. And for that inglorious mission the shuttle is definitely not appropriate.
Anyways.. one of my favorite things about the orbiter.. the front thermal windows need to be tinted; obviously, but what I found out recently is they used the same green dye they use in US banknotes to do that.