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

58 boat-tail
deliver a two-ton nuclear payload over a range of 4,500
km—a capability similar to that of the American Atlas.
The De Havilland Aircraft Company was given the contract
to build the missile; Rolls Royce was to provide the
engines. The first tests took place at Spadeadam Rocket
Establishment in August 1959. By the following February,
the engines were being run for their full burn time of
three minutes. But then on April 13, 1960, the British
government decided to cancel the Blue Streak ICBM
project and, subsequently, proposed to other European
countries that it be used as the first stage of a space
launcher.
boat-tail
The cylindrical section of a ballistic body that gradually
decreases in diameter toward the tail to reduce aerodynamic
drag.
Boeing
A major U.S. aerospace company that, in addition to aircraft
and other products, manufactures the modern
Delta family of space launch vehicles, the Inertial Upper
Stage (IUS), and a variety of rocket engines through its
Rocketdyne subsidiary. It is also the prime contractor for
the International Space Station (and the builder of the
U.S. Destiny laboratory module) and a partner in Sea
Launch. Boeing was involved in the development of the
Bomarc missile and of the design of Dyna-Soar (X-20),
and built the Lunar Orbiters, the first stage of the Saturn
V, the Apollo lunar rover, and the Space Shuttle
main engine. In 1996, it merged with Rockwell (which
had evolved from North American Aviation and
included Rocketdyne) and in 1997 merged with McDonnell
Douglas.
boilerplate
A piece of test hardware, generally nonfunctioning, that
simulates weight, center of gravity, and aerodynamic configuration,
and may incorporate interim structural shells
or dummy structures. Internal systems may be inert or
have some working subsystems to obtain flight data for
use in development.
boiloff
The vapor loss from a volatile liquid—for example, liquid
oxygen—particularly when stored in a vehicle ready for
flight.
Bomarc
The world’s first long-range antiaircraft missile. Authorized
by the U.S. Air Force in 1949, the Bomarc was
developed by Boeing and the University of Michigan
Aeronautical Research Center, whose initial letters form
its name. The Model B Bomarc had a range of about 650
km and a ceiling of over 24,000 m.
Bond, Alan (1944–)
A British aerospace engineer who began his career with
Rolls-Royce Rocket Division, led the design team in Project
Daedalus, and went on to design the HOTOL space
plane and its successor, Skylon. In 2002, Bond was managing
director of Reaction Engines, the developer of the
Skylon concept.
bonded grain
Solid rocket propellant cast in a single piece and
cemented or bonded to the motor casing.
Bondi, Hermann (1919–)
An Austrian-born British cosmologist and mathematician
who was director general of ESRO (European Space
Research Organisation) from 1967 through the early
1970s and the organization’s transformation into ESA
(European Space Agency). Bondi later served as science
advisor to the British minister for energy.
bone demineralization in space
One of the greatest threats to long-duration manned space
missions. Relieved of the normal stresses produced by
gravity, bones start to lose calcium and other minerals
faster than they can replace them. On short missions, such
as those of the Space Shuttle, this is not a problem. However,
some of the bones of astronauts and cosmonauts who
have spent months aboard space stations have been found
to have lost up to one-fifth of their mineral content—significantly
increasing the risk of fractures. Not all bones
lose minerals at the same rate in space. For example, the
bones in the upper body appear not to be affected at all,
whereas the weight-bearing bones in the legs and lower
back experience a disproportionately high loss.
When bones lose minerals—as they do all the time, even
under normal conditions—those minerals are carried by
the blood to the kidneys, where they are filtered out for
excretion in the urine. However, prolonged heightened
levels of calcium in the body, a condition known as hypercalciuria,
can lead to the formation of kidney stones,
which are potentially disabling. This is one of the reasons
that astronauts’ diets cannot simply be calcium-enriched.
The methods used to remove kidney stones on Earth are
simply not available aboard a space station. Furthermore,
the drugs that have some effect on bone calcium loss have
side effects, and they act on all the bones in the body, not