The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

mostly involving crew and passengers of high-altitude
planes, but also including those of the three cosmonauts
aboard Soyuz 11 in June 1971. However, the only known
decompression incident in American spaceflight happened
during Space Shuttle mission STS-37 in April
1991. In the course of an EVA, the palm restraint in one
of the astronaut’s gloves came loose and punched an
eighth-inch hole in the pressure bladder between thumb
and forefinger. In the excitement of his spacewalk, the
astronaut didn’t realize what had happened and only
later discovered a painful red mark on his hand. His skin
had partly sealed the opening and he had then bled into
space until his clotting blood had filled the rest of the
gap. See radiation protection in space and space medicine.
Space Technology 3
See Starlight.
Space Technology 5
See Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer.
space tether
A chord, cable, or wire connection between a spacecraft
and another object in orbit. The earliest tethers were
those used as lifelines for astronauts carrying out spacewalks
during the pioneering Soviet and American manned
orbital missions. Much longer space tethers, however,
provide a means of deploying probes to study Earth’s
outer atmosphere or generating electricity to power a
spacecraft or space station. A number of such tethers
have already been flown on missions such as SEDS
Spaceguard Foundation 403
(Small Expendable-tether Deployer System), TSS (Tether
Satellite System), and TiPS (Tether Physics and Survivability
experiment). The ability of a tether system to produce
electric power was demonstrated by PMG (Plasma
Motor/Generator). NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
now plans a more sophisticated version of PMG to show
that an electrodynamic tether can serve as a propellantfree
space propulsion system—a breakthrough that could
lead to a revolution in space transportation.
Space Transportation System (STS)
The collective name for the Space Shuttle fleet, boosters
and upper stages, launch and landing facilities, and training
and control facilities.
Spacecause
A pro-space political lobbying organization, based in
Washington, D.C., affiliated with the National Space
Society. Active in supporting pro-space legislation, it
arranges meetings with political leaders, interacts with
legislative staff, and publishes a bimonthly newsletter,
Spacecause News.
spacecraft system
The spacecraft and all equipment on the ground or in
space that is associated with flight preparation and that is
required during flight operation.
Spaceguard Foundation
An association aimed at the protection of Earth’s environment
against bombardment by comets and asteroids.
The Foundation works to promote and coordinate
space tether A scientist at the Marshall
Space Flight Center inspects the nonconducting
part of a tether as it exits a
deployer similar to the system to be used
in NASA’s Propulsive Small Expendable
Deployer (ProSEDS) experiment. ProSEDS
technology draws power from the space
environment around Earth and transfers it
to a spacecraft. NASA