Rev Space Primer (97) 3/10/99 6:08 PM Page 1

SPACE
PRIMER
The Aerospace Corporation
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E. C. “Pete” Aldridge, Jr.

President and Chief Executive Officer
The Aerospace Corporation

You are fortunate to be living in an exciting era.

In the 1990s, the people of the world will gain
increased benefits from space systems satisfying
scientific, defense, and commercial needs.
The first satellite was launched into orbit in
1957. Since then, humankind has expanded its
knowledge greatly by orbiting the Earth, exploring
the moon, and sending spacecraft on long journeys
to the planets and the limits of our solar system.
Space research has already led to many practical
benefits. Today, satellites provide worldwide voice
and television communications, precise navigation
for planes and ships, weather images, and maps of
the Earth’s natural resources. More applications
will undoubtedly be uncovered as we extend our
reach into space during the next decade.
As any science moves forward, it frequently out-
paces general understanding. While the average
person doesn’t need an expert’s grasp of space sci-
ence to appreciate the advances it brings, we
believe it is important for students to appreciate the
principles involved. That is why The Aerospace
Corporation publishes this booklet sketching the
development of rocketry and spacecraft.
The men and women who conceived and devel-
oped today’s most advanced launch vehicles and
space systems were once young people who found a
special fascination in the paraphernalia of a chem-
istry lab, the physical laws affecting their everyday
life, or the marvelous order of mathematics. Their
successors will come from your generation.
The Space Primer is limited in size and provides
only fundamental information. It is intended to
stimulate your interest. If you find the material
exciting, we encourage you to continue your study
of the disciplines involved and to consider a career
in one of the many fields supporting the exploration
and use of space.
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THE AEROSPACE CORPORATION

The Aerospace Corporation is a private, non-
profit company dedicated to serving national
security needs. It operates a Federally Funded
Research and Development Center specializing
in space systems. Founded in 1960, the company
has been the catalyst in many successful space
programs.
Aerospace provides systems engineering,
architecture and acquisition support to the U.S.
Government, principally the United States Air
Force, and performs national security related
work for other agencies.
People are the company’s primary resource.
Professionals of the highest caliber, they are
responsible for a corporate tradition of technical
excellence. Nearly 3,000 people are employed by
The Aerospace Corporation, over half of whom
are members of the technical staff. Two-thirds of
the technical staff hold advanced degrees in a
broad range of disciplines. One-fourth hold doc-
torates.
The company’s headquarters is in El Segundo,
California, near Los Angeles International Air-
port. The Washington corporate office is located
in Rosslyn, Virginia. Regional offices are located
at Kennedy Space Center, Florida; Vandenberg
AFB and Sunnyvale, California; Johnson Space
Center, Texas; Falcon AFB, Colorado; Albu-
querque, New Mexico; and Chantilly, Virginia.
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SPACE
PRIMER

THE AEROSPACE
C O R P O R AT I O N
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CONTENTS

1. Space Exploration—A Short History ....1

2. Paths to Space .........................................4

3. The Space System Challenge................5

4. How a Rocket Works ..............................8

5. Liquid and Solid Rockets .....................11

6. Solid Propellants ...................................12

7. Thrust.....................................................14

8. Packages of Energy ..............................17

9. Solving Problems..................................19

10. Military Space Systems ........................22

11. Careers in Aerospace...........................23

12. Glossary .................................................24

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1
SPACE EXPLORATION—A SHORT HISTORY
People have dreamed about space flight since
antiquity. Rockets were used by the Chinese for
ceremonial and military purposes centuries ago.
But only in the latter half of the 20th century
have we been able to develop rockets powerful
enough to overcome the force of gravity and
attain or surpass orbital velocities.
The earliest practical work on rocket engines
designed for space flight was done simultane-
ously in three countries (as often happens in the
world of science). Three key figures in this work
were a Russian, Konstantin Tsiolkovski; an
American, Robert Goddard; and a German,
Hermann Oberth.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazi Germany saw the
possibilities of using long-distance rockets as
weapons. The result: late in World War II, London
was attacked by 200-mile-range “V-2” missiles,
arcing 60 miles high across the English Channel
at speeds greater than 3,500 miles per hour.
After World War II, America and the Soviet
Union created their own missile programs. In
October 1957, the Soviets propelled a satellite
named Sputnik into space. Four years later, the
first human orbited the Earth.
The first U.S. satellite, Explorer I, went into
orbit in January 1958. In 1961, Alan Shepard
became the first American to fly into space. In
1962, John Glenn’s historic flight made him the
first American to orbit the Earth.
“Landing a man on the moon and returning
him safely to Earth within a decade” was a
national goal set by President John Kennedy in
1961. In July 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong
took “a giant step for mankind” as he stepped on
the moon. It was an event few Americans living
at the time will forget. Six Apollo expeditions
explored the moon between 1969 and 1972.

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In the 1960s, unmanned spacecraft pho-

tographed and probed the moon in advance of
the astronauts. In the early 1970s, communica-
tions and navigation satellites were in everyday
use, and the Mariner spacecraft was orbiting and
mapping the surface of Mars. By the end of the
decade, the Voyager spacecraft had sent back
detailed pictures of Jupiter and Saturn, their
rings, and their moons.
Skylab, America’s first space station, was a
manned-flight highlight of the 1970s, as was the
Apollo Soyuz Test Project, the world’s first inter-
nationally manned (American and Russian)
space mission.
In the 1980s, satellite communications
expanded to carry TV programs, and people
were able to pick up the satellite signals on their
home dish antennas. Satellites discovered an
ozone hole over Antarctica, pinpointed forest
fires, and gave us photographs of the nuclear
power plant disaster at Chernobyl. Astronomical
satellites found new stars and gave us a new
view of the center of our galaxy.

SPACE SHUTTLE

In April 1981, the launch of the Space Shuttle

Columbia ushered in a period of reliance on the
reusable shuttle for most civilian and military
space missions. There were 24 successful shuttle
launches that fulfilled many scientific and

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military requirements. Then, in January 1986,

the Shuttle Challenger exploded after launch,
killing its crew of seven.
The Challenger tragedy led to a reevaluation
of America’s space program. The new goal was
to make certain a suitable launch system was
available when satellites were scheduled to fly.
Today, this is accomplished by having more than
one launch method and launch facility available
and by having satellite systems that can be
designed to be compatible with more than one
launch system.
Future space launch systems, already under
consideration, will be designed to reduce costs
while improving schedule dependability, lift and
launch rate capability, and reliability.
The shuttle will continue to carry out impor-
tant space missions during the 1990s, while most
U.S. military and scientific satellites will be lifted
into orbit by a family of expendable launch vehi-
cles designed for a wide variety of missions.
Other nations have their own launch systems
that compete in the commercial market.

DELTA II TITAN II SPACE SHUTTLE

ATLAS II TITAN IV

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2
PATHS TO SPACE
Getting to the moon, Mars, or Venus was not
simply a matter of aiming directly at the heaven-
ly body and pushing a firing button.
In the case of reaching the moon, engineers
had to decide ahead of time whether to take the
direct-ascent course or to use a parking orbit
technique. The latter became the most common
method.
On Apollo missions to the moon, the space-
craft was boosted into an Earth orbit where it
coasted until it was in proper position to start the
second leg of the trip. At the appointed time, the
Apollo was boosted out of its parking orbit and
into a trajectory or path to the moon.
Orbital paths, incidentally, rarely form a per-
fect circle. In many cases, an elliptical orbit is
desired. The highest point from the Earth in an
orbit is called the apogee; the lowest point is the
perigee.
Other factors must be considered. The overall
problem of voyages to the moon or planets has
been described aptly as similar to shooting a
high-flying duck from a racing speedboat.
Hitting a “target” in space is a complicated
mathematical problem.
When the moon was the “duck,” as in the
Apollo program, it was traveling around the
Earth at an average speed of 2,268 miles per
hour, while the Earth “speedboat” was revolving

EARTH MOON

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on its own axis and circling the sun. The launch

point, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, was mov-
ing eastward at 910 miles per hour due to the
Earth’s rotation, and Earth itself was going
around the sun at 66,000 miles per hour. More-
over, gravitational fields of the Earth, moon, and
sun all were tugging at the “bullet,” the Saturn-
launched Apollo spacecraft.

ASTEROIDS
MERCURY

JUPITER

SATURN

URANUS
VENUS

NEPTUNE
EARTH
MARS
SUN

PLUTO
STARS

Unmanned spacecraft have landed on Mars

and Venus, and flown past Mercury, Jupiter, Sat-
urn, Uranus, and Neptune. The travel plans are
solved by similar mathematics, although more
involved since the gravitational influences of the
sun and the planets are bigger factors on longer
journeys from Earth.

3
THE SPACE SYSTEM CHALLENGE
As remote systems operate thousands of miles
away from Earth, satellites must be reliable and
self-sufficient. The high cost of putting a satellite
into orbit means that it may have to operate for a
decade or more, performing functions such as
relaying communications, transmitting precision
navigation signals, monitoring local weather
conditions, pinpointing activities on our planet,
providing strategic warning, or exploring the
solar system. The types of services spacecraft
provide are so critical that there is little room for
error or “downtime.”

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FLTSATCOM

To get the most out of the limited payload,

structures must be light and strong, electronics
must be microminiaturized and densely packed,
and optical and radio frequency devices must be
built with great precision. The typical result is a
compact package that may have more than
200,000 parts. These parts, which may include
deployable devices with intricate mechanisms,
must operate reliably after being subjected to the
shock, vibration, and acceleration of launch.
Power consumption must be minimized. The
entire spacecraft must be able to pass unaffected
through temperature regimes ranging from the
intense cold of the Earth’s shadow to the radiant
glare of the sun in the space vacuum and must
withstand exposure to the natural radiation of
space.
High-performance space systems are rarely
accessible once launched and in orbit. They rely
on miniaturization techniques, new materials, and
computer technology to enhance performance.
Space projects are unforgiving of any form of
neglect or human error, particularly in engineer-
ing. Their actual performance can’t be tested
fully before they are sent into space, because the
space and launch environment cannot be fully
simulated on Earth. An aircraft like the B-2 is
tested very carefully for a year or more before it
becomes operational; but a space booster like the

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Titan IV rocket, carrying a military satellite the

size of a Greyhound bus, becomes operational
the first time it flies. All systems must work the
first time—and every time.
The majority of payloads are carried into
space by unmanned, expendable boosters. Each
of these boosters has a demanding task: it is
unable to return to Earth if something goes
wrong; its structure is highly stressed by launch
loads; its rocket engines operate at very high
temperatures; it goes through an enormous
range of aerodynamic conditions; its guidance
system must operate from the crawl of liftoff to
the hypersonic speed of orbit injection with pin-
point accuracy; all information to and from the
booster rocket must be carried by communica-
tion links; and it must release its payload without
human intervention.
The payload must operate unattended for its
mission lifetime. Careful technical oversight is
the only way to prove that the system will operate
the first time and throughout the mission, which
might last 10 years or more. This task requires
the skills necessary to get high performance out
of each item, and the modeling and simulation
ability to determine how variations in each com-
ponent affect system performance.
Success in space systems results from dedica-
tion to detail, repeated testing, and careful
checking to avoid mistakes. The technical skills
needed to successfully master space systems
require some of the best scientific and engineer-
ing talent in the nation.

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4
HOW A ROCKET WORKS
The “Star-Spangled Banner” speaks of “the
rockets’ red glare” at Fort McHenry in the War of
1812. Those were British rockets, fired in an
unsuccessful attempt to destroy the American
fortress in Baltimore. They had been devised by
Sir William Congreve 12 years earlier.
These so-called “Congreves” were not the first
war rockets, however. Some six centuries before,
the Chinese connected a tube of primitive gun-
powder to an arrow and created an effective
rocket weapon to defend against the Mongols.
In 1500 A.D., a Chinese named Wan Hoo
devised a chair with 2 kites and 47 gunpowder
rockets on the back. The rockets were ignited,
presumably with punk, a dry, spongy material
prepared from fungi and used to ignite fireworks
fuses. Whatever orbit Wan Hoo achieved in the
ensuing fireworks certainly was his last. Manned
space flight went into eclipse until the 1960s.
The early Chinese “fire arrows,” the British
Congreves, and even our familiar Fourth of July
skyrockets have certain things in common. One,
they are basically tubes of gunpowder lighted at
the bottom to make them go in the opposite
direction. Two, they are similar in principle to a
family of military and space booster rockets that
includes the Delta, Atlas, Titan, and Saturn, as
well as the Space Shuttle.
In each case, some kind of fuel is burned with
an oxidant in the combustion chamber, creating
hot gases accompanied by high pressure. In the
combustion chamber, these gases try to expand,
pushing equally in all directions. At the bottom of
the chamber, there is a relatively small opening
called the throat. Below this is the exhaust noz-
zle, flaring out like a bell. Once through the
throat, the expanding gases continue pushing in
all directions, pushing out against the widening
sides of the nozzle.

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ROCKET PRINCIPLE

OXIDANT FUEL COMBUSTION NOZZLE

CHAMBER

As a given volume of gas reaches the edge of

the nozzle, it is spread out over a much greater
area than at the throat. Hence, the pressure per
square inch on the edge is less than that within
the combustion chamber.
The sum of all the internal pressures acting
on the combustion chamber and nozzle skirt in a
forward or upward direction is more than the
sum of all the pressures acting in a rearward or
downward direction.
It is this net difference that makes the rocket
engine and the vehicle attached to it—fuel and
oxidant (propellant) tanks, plus payload or
spacecraft—lift from the launch pad.
You can demonstrate this principle by blowing
up a toy balloon.
Hold the opening tightly closed. The round
balloon shows how the air inside, made up of
gases, pushes equally in all directions. Let go.
The balloon will fly across the room or up to the
ceiling. The opening is the exhaust nozzle,
where the gases escape and expand. Reducing
the pressure at that point, while the pressure
opposite the nozzle on the front of the balloon
remains unchanged, pushes the balloon forward.
The flight will be erratic because the balloon
has no guidance system, no fixed shape, and no
exhaust control.
The balloon’s flight demonstrates Sir Isaac
Newton’s Third Law of Motion, which states: “To
every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction.”

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In the closed balloon, the pressure of the

gases inside is the “action.” The counter-pres-
sure of the walls holding them in is the “opposite
reaction.” When these two factors are in balance,
the gas in the balloon remains at rest. The bal-
loon remains at rest, too, because its weight is
balanced by the force you use to hold it, and the
force exerted by the gas on each part of the bal-
loon is balanced by a force of the gas on the
opposite side of the balloon.
Newton’s First Law of Motion says in essence:
“A body at rest will remain at rest…unless an
unbalanced force is exerted upon it.”
When an opening or nozzle is provided for the
gases inside the balloon, there can no longer be
an action by the gas on the part of the balloon
where the hole is located. The pressure at that
point is reduced. The gases leave through this
low-pressure area. There is no reaction to hold
them back. The internal pressure of the gases
creates an unbalanced force that drives the gas
through the opening.
The opposite side of the balloon is now experi-
encing a force that is no longer balanced by an
equal and opposite force in the area of the hole.
It is this unbalanced force on the balloon in a
direction opposite to the gases flowing out of the
hole that makes the balloon move forward.
Because Newton’s laws were postulated in the
17th century, some people might say, “All the
basic scientific problems of space flight were
solved 300 years ago. Everything since has been
engineering.”
Many scientific developments in mathematics,
chemistry, and other disciplines were needed,
however, before man could apply Newton’s basic
principles to achieve controlled space flight.

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5
LIQUID AND SOLID ROCKETS
As he sought to develop operational rockets,
Dr. Robert Goddard found, in the early years of
the 20th century, that many rejected his ideas as
fantastic. Some opponents insisted rockets would
not operate in the vacuum of space. They said
there would be no air to push against, no air to
sustain the burning of the rocket fuel, once space
was reached.
On the first point, Dr. Goddard believed New-
ton’s theories of action-reaction and unbalanced
forces were universally applicable.
On the second point, his answer was to take
along the needed oxygen in extremely cold liq-
uid form, plus a liquid fuel such as kerosene,
and pump the two together into a combustion
chamber.
He proved both points initially in his laborato-
ry. The test device not only operated in a vacu-
um, but actually operated more efficiently—with
more thrust per pound of propellant—than in the
normal air outside.

LIQUID-FUEL ROCKET

OXIDANT FUEL COMBUSTION NOZZLE

CHAMBER

In 1926 in Massachusetts, Dr. Goddard suc-

cessfully launched the world’s first liquid-fuel
rocket. By present standards it was rudimentary,
indeed. Ignited by a blow torch, it flew but 184
feet in two and a half seconds.
But in principle, mighty Atlas, Titan, and Sat-
urn liquid-fueled rockets are only refinements of
that “horseless carriage of space” of more than
60 years ago.

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6
SOLID PROPELLANTS
Another kind of rocket has come into wide
use, both as part of military weapons systems
and as space flight boosters. This is the solid-pro-
pellant rocket, such as the Air Force Minuteman
ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile), the
Navy’s submarine-launched Poseidon FBM (fleet
ballistic missile) and Trident. The Space Shuttle,
Delta II, and the Air Force Titan IV space booster
all use both solid- and liquid-fueled rockets.
There is considerable difference between
these solid rockets and the early solids such as
the Chinese fire arrows and the British-made
Congreves.
It is true those modified skyrockets had one
characteristic necessary for space flight, even
though it was not recognized then. Their basic
gunpowder propellant would ignite in a vacuum,
since the ingredients of gunpowder contain an
oxidizer.
But the characteristics of gunpowder doomed
its use as a propellant. Producing only a relative-
ly small amount of thrust per pound, a range of
two miles for rockets was considered good
through the 19th century.
As conventional guns gained greater range
and accuracy, military rockets fell from favor
until they were virtually forgotten by all, save for
a few such as Dr. Goddard. He realized that liq-
uid fuels held much more promise than the solid
propellants of his day.
New interest in solids came during and after
World War II. It resulted from experimental work
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using a liquid
polymer developed for industrial use as propel-
lant.
(A polymer is created by joining identical
molecules, necklace-like, into larger molecules,
without any change in the basic chemical com-
position. Polymers are the basis of the synthetic

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rubber and plastics industries and include sub-

stances like nylon and Terylene.)
It was discovered that mixing a chemical oxi-
dizer and fuel, often aluminum powder, with the
polymer to provide the needed oxygen with the
polymer resulted in a substance, similar to
peanut butter in consistency, that could be
poured into forms and baked into a rubbery solid
material.
When ignited, this material burned furiously
and created large volumes of gases, producing
much greater thrust per pound than gunpowder.
In solid rockets, the propellant mixture is
called the “grain,” a word carried over from
gunpowder days. A carefully designed hole
through the propellant, formed when the fuel is
cast to fit into the cavity of the rocket, is called
the perforation.

PERFORATION

SOLID FUEL

Varying the size and shape of the perforation

determines the rate and duration of burning,
which controls the thrust.
SOLID-FUEL ROCKET

PERFORATION
SOLID FUEL NOZZLE

First applications were for the military, which

was impressed by the “rifle readiness” of solid
compared with liquid rockets. There was no
need to lose precious minutes required when
fueling with liquid propellants.

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But this does not mean liquid rockets are

obsolete. Each type has special capabilities,
advantages, and applications. Rocket vehicles,
such as the Titan IV, combine both liquid and
solid motors. The Space Shuttle also combines
liquid and solid motors.

7
THRUST
Whether powered by liquids or solids, rocket
systems are propelled by gas pressure resulting
from fuel combustion. The force driving them
forward is called thrust.
If the rocket system—the liquid or solid boost-
er plus payload—is to move upward against
gravity, the thrust must be greater than gravity’s
counteracting downward pull.
Hence, thrust is usually measured in pounds,
just as the pull of gravity’s opposing force is mea-
sured in pounds of weight of an object.
If you hold a one-pound ball in the palm of
your extended hand, you are exerting one pound
of thrust. In doing so you are burning fuel and
oxygen—the foods you eat and the air you
breathe—for energy merely to cancel the gravi-
tational pull on the ball. The ball is not going up.
If you let go, gravity will pull it to the ground.
Now bring your hand up quickly, so the ball
leaves your palm and flies upward a bit farther
before falling back to the ground.
You have done something more than merely
cancel gravity for a moment. You have imparted
thrust of more than one pound to the ball.
The Atlas was the first U.S. ICBM. It was also
used extensively as a space booster. Fully fueled
it weighed about 260,000 pounds. Its engines
developed a thrust at liftoff of more than 360,000
pounds, considerably more than its total initial
weight.

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The ratio between these two values is called

the thrust-to-weight ratio of the booster. In the
Atlas IIA, it is 1.2 at liftoff, sufficient to accelerate
a payload to speeds of 17,000 miles per hour,
sending it to targets or orbits many thousands of
miles away. As propellants are burned, the
thrust-to-weight ratio increases, and the booster
continues to accelerate at higher rates.
There is a direct analogy here to the experi-
ment with the one-pound ball mentioned above.
Your hand and arm are, in effect, the Atlas
rocket with its engines and tanks of fuel and liq-
uid oxygen. The ball is the payload.
The upward swing of your hand duplicates the
powered-flight phase of an Atlas launch. The
instant you stop your hand is like the instant of
engine burn-out or shutdown on the Atlas, when
its fuel is exhausted or the engines are stopped
by plan.
From this instant, both the ball and the payload
begin decelerating, slowing down, in their climb.
Gravity is pulling at each. While defied, it is
not defeated. Both the ball and payload are being
pulled back toward the Earth.
How, then, have we put vehicles and persons
into orbit about the Earth, landed scientific pay-
loads and men on the moon, sent spacecraft to
land on Mars with an automated laboratory, and
launched other space probes to help unravel the
mysteries of our planetary neighbors?
By exerting more force, more thrust, to a
given payload, it will achieve a much higher
velocity before thrust termination. It will also go
much farther from the Earth before gravity suc-
ceeds in pulling it back. Velocity, therefore, is a
critical factor.
The velocities needed for specific space mis-
sions were calculated long before space flight
was possible. To put an object into orbit around
the Earth, for instance, a velocity of at least
18,000 miles per hour, depending on the precise
orbit desired, must be achieved. This is called
orbital velocity.

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Orbital velocity is attained when the vehicle is

moving in the right direction and fast enough to
miss the Earth as it falls back. Thus, the actual
course resulting keeps it in space. In effect, it is
falling continually around the Earth.

EARTH

To break away from the Earth’s gravity for dis-

tant space missions, a velocity greater than
25,000 miles per hour is required. This is called
escape velocity.
The direct approach to bigger and better
space programs might seem to be: build bigger,
more powerful rockets. This indeed has been
done. The Titan IV generates 3.3 million pounds
of thrust at liftoff. NASA’s Saturn V generated 7.5
million pounds; and the Space Shuttle has about
6.25 million pounds of thrust.
Yet, during the early years of space flight,
remarkable achievements were made in space,
even though the rockets then available had less
thrust than users of space might have desired.
How? The payloads were kept as small and as
light in weight as possible in keeping with avail-
able rockets. America’s first artificial satellite,
Explorer I, weighed but 30.8 pounds.
Hundreds of Earth satellites have been orbit-
ed. Humans were orbited, sent to the moon, and
returned safely. Payloads were sent to Mars, to
Venus, and beyond into orbit about the sun as
artificial planets, to last perhaps as long as the
Earth itself.

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8
PACKAGES OF ENERGY
To achieve the greater and greater velocities
required to send a given mass farther and farther
out into space, higher thrust must be exerted or it
must be applied for a longer period of time.
The principles of physics tell us the longer
thrust is exerted, the faster a rocket will go. For
example, providing its mass doesn’t change, a
vehicle starting from rest under constant net
thrust will be going 100 times faster after 100
seconds than after 1 second.
But for rockets, mass does not remain the
same, it decreases. As each pound of propellant
is burned, the mass of the climbing vehicle
becomes one pound less, and large rocket
engines may burn hundreds of tons of propellant
in seconds. Thus, the same thrust has much less
mass to accelerate. The decrease in weight
allows an increase in acceleration.
This principle is used in the concept of stag-
ing. A space launch vehicle usually consists of a
number of sections known as stages. After the
first rocket stage accelerates the entire vehicle
and finally burns out, its tanks and motors are
discarded as no longer needed and consequently
as useless weight to accelerate further. The same
happens in the second and subsequent stages.
Finally, the payload is all that remains, having
been accelerated to the necessary velocity.
The Titan IV space launch vehicle looks like
three rockets joined together side by side. On the
outside are huge solid-fuel motors, with a com-
bined thrust of more than three million pounds.
When these have burned out, they fall away from
the central core, which then continues the mis-
sion. The middle part is itself a two- or three-
stage vehicle, but liquid-fueled.
Before the Titan IV booster, a smaller version
of the Titan family (Titan III) was used in the fol-
lowing manner. The Viking spacecraft, used to

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TITAN IV LAUNCH

“soft land” instruments on Mars, was mounted

on a Centaur rocket that, in turn, was mounted
on top of a Titan III booster. In this case, the solid
motors burned and dropped away; then each
stage of the Titan III core burned and dropped
away, until the Centaur and its Viking Mars
spacecraft continued alone. At the proper
moment, Centaur’s own engines were started
and imparted the additional thrust to give the
necessary velocity for the spacecraft to continue
to Mars.
In addition to mass, other factors affect veloci-
ties necessary for space operations.
The higher a rocket climbs from the Earth, the
thinner the atmosphere through which it travels.
There is consequently a decrease in friction or
drag from air molecules. In space, there is very
little if any atmosphere and essentially no friction
or drag.
The pull of gravity also diminishes with the
distance from the Earth’s center. This effect is
not significant for satellites orbiting a few hun-

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dred miles above the Earth, but does become

important if the spacecraft is to be sent thou-
sands of miles into space.
Packaging the energy of a rocket vehicle into
stages that can be discarded as they burn out has
been the “secret” of launching into space. The
number of stages may vary from two to five or
even more.

9
SOLVING PROBLEMS
In the early days of rocketry, many aircraft
features were adapted to the new vehicles. Dr.
Goddard placed vanes, similar to the tail sur-
faces of an airplane, on the nozzle section of his
rockets.
Turning these one way or the other deflected a
portion of the exhausted gases, pushing the rock-
et’s tail in the opposite direction.
The mere presence of the vanes, however,
reduces the efficiency of the rocket. Whatever
amount of downward thrust pushes against the
vanes cancels out an equal amount of the thrust’s
upward push inside the rocket.
The solution developed for large rockets and
space boosters was to gimbal the nozzle. A gim-
bal is a pivot device that allows the entire nozzle,
and the flow of exhaust gases, to be swiveled in

THE
GIMBALLED
NOZZLE

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any desired direction. The rocket’s course then

veers in the opposite direction.
Rockets can be guided by radio signals from
the ground or by equipment and prerecorded
instructions that have been placed on board.
Inertial guidance is a common form of on-
board control. It is an automatic navigation sys-
tem that senses, through gyroscopic devices and
acceleration measuring devices, the vehicle’s
position and speed, compares them with the
planned flight path, then gives orders for any
necessary adjustments.
A number of missile and space programs use
inertial guidance. Inertial guidance signals can-
not be detected outside the vehicle or disrupted
by radio commands.
Another problem is stability in flight. There
are three distinct motions to be controlled and
corrected quickly before the vehicle begins
undesirable tumbling. These motions are pitch,
yaw, and roll.
PITCH

YAW

YAW

ROLL
PITCH

Extend your arm straight out in front of you.

When you swing your arm up and down, you are
describing pitch.
When you swing your arm from side to side
horizontally, you are describing yaw.
Rotate your arm so that the palm of your hand
faces upward then downward, keeping your arm
straight out in front of you. This is roll.
Airplane fins are of no help for roll, pitch, or
yaw control outside our atmosphere because

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there is no air to push against in space. Instead,

spacecraft have small gimbaled engines or
extremely small jets, using the reaction princi-
ple, to provide control.
Those small rocket engines are used to pro-
duce short bursts of very small thrust in the
direction opposing the undesirable motion,
damping it out. They are often powered simply
by a small supply of cold gas under pressure.
Another method for stabilizing certain
unmanned payloads is to make them spin like a
gyroscope. The payload spinning at a preplanned
rate gives it stability in flight, just as the rifling in
a gun barrel spins the bullet for stability.
A critical period in the return to Earth of any
space vehicle is that of reentry into the atmo-
sphere. “Shooting stars” in the night sky are the
most dramatic example of what could happen,
because these meteors and vehicles both plunge
into the atmosphere at high speeds. As the air
becomes thicker, its particles create such friction
that the descending body becomes increasingly
hotter until it first glows, then burns.
Spacecraft can be designed to survive where
most meteors do not because of heat shields.
Three kinds of heat shields prevent fatal heat
from reaching astronauts or instruments.
The first type is known as the heat sink. Good
examples were the early nose cones for Atlas and
Thor missiles that were made of copper and
could absorb and store a large amount of heat
without melting. The second, now used instead,
is called the ablative type. Here, special materials
coating the forward surface of the vehicle are
capable of dissipating the reentry heat by abla-
tion—boiling and bubbling away into vapor to
use up the heat energy before it reaches the
inside. The third type, surface insulation ceramic
tile, is used on the Space Shuttle. The tile surface
is built to survive the intense heat while insula-
tion prevents that heat from reaching the inter-
nal parts of the spacecraft.

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10
MILITARY SPACE SYSTEMS
Space systems have made an irreplaceable
contribution to keeping the peace for more than
three decades. They perform many functions
important to U.S. military forces and to the nation:
• Communication satellites provide reliable
communication for command and control of
land, sea, and air forces.
• Meteorological satellites provide up-to-date
weather information to Army, Air Force,
Navy, and Marine field units.
• Navigation satellites provide accurate posi-
tioning (within tens of feet) for troops,
planes, and ships.
• Space-based surveillance systems provide
treaty-monitoring capability during peace-
time and essential warning during conflict.
Because of these advantages, space systems
are being used increasingly by the military. As
U.S. forces overseas decrease and overseas
bases close, space systems are increasing in
importance.

DSCS III

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11
CAREERS IN AEROSPACE
We trust you found the material in the Space
Primer of interest.
The space industry at 30+ years is mature but
still vigorous. Humans have achieved orbit, land-
ed on and explored the moon, and sent space-
craft on incredibly long exploratory journeys to
the planets, the sun, and the stars.
We have achieved marvels with satellites in
space: worldwide voice and television communi-
cations; precise navigation of planes and ships;
weather forecasting; detecting, monitoring and
surveillance of Earth resources; and various
national defense objectives.
Space research has achieved great advances
in materials science—light and durable materi-
als; computers and miniaturization; space
physics; medical and pharmaceutical applica-
tions; and, in a less obvious arena, technical
management. There is an ongoing critical need
for trained, skilled, imaginative, and dedicated
people in all these fields.
The men and women who work for organiza-
tions such as The Aerospace Corporation are
part of a still challenging and rewarding frontier.
If you choose to pursue studies in an area of sci-
ence or engineering, we hope you will consider
applying your talent to the national space effort.

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GLOSSARY

ablation—The process by which heat is removed

from a reentry body through the melting,
vaporizing and scouring off of special materi-
als as the body is heated by friction with the
atmosphere.
apogee—The highest point from the Earth in an
orbit.
gimbal—A pivot device that allows the entire
nozzle and the flow of exhaust gases to be
swiveled in any desired direction, thus
directing the rocket’s course in the opposite
direction.
parking orbit—The initial orbit achieved for a
vehicle that is to be sent into space as a probe,
for vehicles to be joined in rendezvous, or for
reentry vehicles to be returned to Earth.
payload—The load carried by a spacecraft
consisting of things (such as instruments or
satellites) necessary to the purpose of flight.
perigee—The lowest point from the Earth in an
orbit.
propellant—The solid or liquid fuel of a rocket
that, when burned in combination with an
oxidizer, provides thrust.
satellite—Any body held in an orbit by the gravi-
tational field of another body.
stage—One unit in a multistage rocket. The stage
has its own engines and fuel supply, and may
have its own guidance system. The booster is
the first stage of a multistage rocket.
thrust—The amount of push generated by a
rocket engine measured in pounds.

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THE AEROSPACE
C O R P O R AT I O N
P. O. Box 92957 Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957
Available to download on the Web at
http://www.aero.org/

Printed in U.S.A./AC/PAD/7M/Aug 97/RH0036