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

414 stage
pilot for Gemini 3 and pilot for Gemini 6, became command
pilot for Gemini 9 upon the death of a prime crew
member, and was backup commander for Apollo 7, commander
of Apollo 10, and commander of the Apollo-
Soyuz Test Project. He resigned from NASA on
November 1, 1975, to become commander of the Air
Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base. He was
promoted to Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for
Research and Development in March 1978 and retired
from the Air Force in November 1979. Subsequently, he
held a number of senior management positions.
stage
A portion of a launch system that fires until its fuel supply
is exhausted and then separates from the rest of the
system.
staging
The jettisoning of self-contained propulsion units after
consumption of their propellants—a crucial technique
for improving the mass ratio of space transport systems
not using an environmental engine. Among the earliest
pioneers of the idea appear to have been Conrad Haas
and Johan Schmidlap in the sixteenth century. However,
the first detailed theoretical analysis of staging was done
by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
stand-up spacewalk
An extravehicular activity in which an astronaut stands
up in the space capsule, with the hatch opened, so that
part of his or her body extends outside the vehicle into
space. Stand-up spacewalks were common in the early
days of the space program when spacecraft were not
equipped with airlocks.
stapp
A unit of exposure to acceleration or deceleration used in
aerospace medicine and named after John Stapp. One
stapp is the force exerted by one g acting on the human
body for one second. Thus, an astronaut subjected to 3g
for 12 seconds is said to have endured 36 stapps.
Stapp, John Paul (1910–1999)
See article, pages 416–417.
Starfish Missions
star drive
See reactionless drive.
Stardust
A NASA spacecraft that will pass within 160 km of comet
Wild-2 (pronounced “vihlt”) in December 2004 and return
particles of dust from the comet’s tail to Earth. Stardust
will capture the samples of cometary material using a
spongelike cushioning substance, known as aerogel, which
is attached to panels on the probe. It will also send back
pictures, take counts of the number of comet particles
striking it, and analyze in real time the composition of substances
in the comet’s tail. Stardust will then bring back
samples of cosmic dust, including those of recently discovered
interstellar dust streaming into the Solar System
from the direction of Sagittarius. Having been “softcaught”
and preserved in aerogel, the dust samples will be
returned to Earth in a reentry capsule that will land in
Utah in January 2006. Analysis of the material from
Wild-2 and interstellar space, which will include pre–solar
grains and condensates left over from the formation of the
Solar System, is expected to yield important insights into
the evolution of the Sun and planets and possibly the origin
of life itself. During its seven-year mission, Stardust
will complete three orbits of the Sun. On the first of these
it passed close by the Earth for a gravity-assist, on the second
it will encounter the comet, and on the third it will
again pass by Earth and release its sample capsule, which
will descend by parachute to the surface. Stardust is the
fourth mission in NASA’s Discovery Program, following
Mars Pathfinder, NEAR-Shoemaker, and Lunar
Prospector, and involves an international collaboration
between NASA and university and industry partners.
Launch
Date: February 7, 1999
Vehicle: Delta 7925
Site: Cape Canaveral
Length of main bus: 1.7 m
Mass: 370 kg
Starfish
Two early U.S. Air Force and Atomic Energy Commission
satellites designed to collect data on radiation
(continued on page 417)
Spacecraft Launch Date Orbit Mass (kg)
Starfish 1 Oct. 26, 1962 197 × 5,458 km × 71.4° 1,100
Starfish 2 Sep. 2, 1965 Launch failure 1,150