Page 23 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Payload bay for carrying cargo into space. Most of the space in the orbiter is taken up by the payload bay.
The orbital maneuvering system allows the astronauts to adjust the orbit in space.
Payload bay doors protect the cargo through takeoff and into orbit.
Ailerons on the wings and tail help steer the orbiter during runway landing back on Earth rather like a normal jet airplane.
The NaSa fleet consists
of three orbiters currently
in operation—Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour. One test vehicle, Enterprise, has never flown in space, and Challenger and Columbia were lost in the line of duty.
nAsA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Altitude control rockets.
Three main engines are used to provide the thrust that gets the orbiter from Earth into orbit. The vast majority of the fuel used for this comes from the external fuel tank that separates prior to orbit.
Because the Shuttle is such a complex machine, it is computer controlled, with four computers operating in parallel in case one or more of them fails.
What the Shuttle carries
The Shuttle is exactly what its name implies: a vehicle designed for carrying objects into space or recovering them from space and bringing them back to the Earth’s surface. The key to the Shuttle is therefore the orbiter with its huge cargo bay. It is 18.3 m long and 4.6 m wide.
There is another cargo area under the flight deck. That is where materials needed by the crew as well as scientific equipment are kept. This cargo bay sits alongside the crew living and sleeping quarters, making up the middeck.
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