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ORIGIN OF THE NAME "SPACE SHUTTLE"
The name "Space Shuttle" evolved from descriptive references in the
press, aerospace industry, and government and gradually came into use
as concepts of reusable space transportation developed. As early NASA
advanced studies grew into a full program, the name came into official
use.
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In January 1975, NASA's Project Designation Committee was
considering suggestions for a new name for the Space Shuttle,
submitted by Headquarters and Center personnel and others at the
request of Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator. Rockwell
International Corporation, Shuttle prime contractor, was reported as
referring to it as "Spaceplane." (Bernice M. Taylor, Administrative
Assistant to Administrator for Public Affairs, NASA, telephone
interview, 12 Feb 1975; and AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 102 [20
Jan 1975], 10)
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From its establishment in 1958, NASA studied aspects of reusable
launch vehicles and spacecraft that could return to the Earth. The
predecessor National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and
then NASA cooperated with the Air Force in the X-15 rocket research
aircraft program in the 1950s and 1960s and in the 1958-1963 Dyna-Soar
("Dynamic-Soaring") hypersonic boost-glide vehicle program. Beginning
in 1963, NASA joined the USAF in research toward the Aerospaceplane, a
manned vehicle to go into orbit and return, taking off and landing
horizontally. Joint flight tests in the 1950s and 1960s of wingless
lifting bodies--the M2 series, HL-10, and eventually the X-24--tested
principles for future spacecraft reentering the atmosphere.
Marshall Space Flight Center sponsored studies of recovery and reuse
of the Saturn V launch vehicle. MSFC Director of Future Projects Heinz
H. Koelle in 1962 projected a "commercial space line to Earth orbit
and the Moon," for cargo transportation by 1980 or 1990. Leonard M.
Tinnan of MSFC published a 1963 description of a winged, flyback
Saturn V. Other studies of "logistics spacecraft systems," "orbital
carrier vehicles," and "reusable orbital transports" followed
throughout the 1960s in NASA, the Department of Defense, and industry.
As the Apollo program neared its goal, NASA's space program objectives
widened and the need for a fully reusable, economical space
transportation system for both manned and unmanned missions became
more urgent. In 1966 the NASA budget briefing outlined an FY 1967
program including advanced studies of "ferry and logistics vehicles."
The President's Science Advisory Committee in February 1967
recommended studies of more economical ferry systems with total
recovery and rescue possibilities. Industry studies under NASA
contracts 1969-1971 led to definition of a reusable Space Shuttle
system and to a 1972 decision to develop the Shuttle.
The term "shuttle" crept into forecasts of space transportation at
least as early as 1952. In a COLLIER'S article, Dr. Wernher von Braun,
then Director of the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development
Group, Huntsville AL, envisioned space stations supplied by rockets
ships that would enter orbit and return to Earth to land "like a
normal airplane," with small, rocket-powered "shuttle-craft," or
"space taxis," to ferry men and materials between rocket ship and
space station.
In October 1959 Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and Hughes Aircraft
Company reported plans for space ferry or "commuter express," for
"shuttling" men and materials between Earth and outer space. In
December, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Correspondent Courtney Shelton
wrote of the future possibility of a "man-carrying space shuttle to
the nearest planets."
The term reappeared occasionally in studies through the early 1960s. A
1963 NASA contract to Douglas Aircraft Company was to produce a
conceptual design for Philip Bono's "Reusable Orbital Module Booster
and Utility Shuttle (ROMBUS)," to orbit and return to touch down with
legs like the lunar landing module's. Jettison of eight strap-on
hydrogen tanks for recovery and reuse was part of the concept. The
press--in accounts of European discussions of Space Transporter
proposals and in articles on the Aerospaceplane, NASA contract
studies, USAF START reentry studies, and the joint lifting-body
flights--referred to "shuttle" service, "reusable orbital shuttle
transport." and "space shuttle" forerunners.
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The DEFENSE/SPACE BUSINESS DAILY newsletter was persistent in
referring to USAF and NASA reentry and lifting-body tests as "Space
Shuttle" tests. Editor-in-Chief Norman L. Baker said the newsletter
had first tried to reduce the name "Aerospaceplane" to "Spaceplane"
for that project and had moved from that to "Space Shuttle" for
reusable, back-and-forth space transport concepts as early as 1963.
The name was suggested to him by the Washington DC to New York airline
shuttle flights. (Telephone interview, 22 April 1975.)
Application of the word "shuttle" to anything that moved quickly
back and forth (from shuttlecock to shuttle train and the verb "to
shuttle") had arisen in the English language from the name of the
weaving instruments that passed or "shot" the thread of the woof from
one edge of the cloth to the other. The English word came from the
Anglo-Saxon "scytel" for missile, related to the Danish "skyttel" for
shuttle, the Old Norwegian "skutill" for harpoon, and the English
"shoot." (WEBSTER'S INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY, ed 2, unabridged.)
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In 1965 Dr. Walter R. Dorberger, Vice President for Research of
Textron Corporation's Bell Aerosystems Company, published "Space
Shuttle of the Future: The Aerospaceplane" in Bell's periodical
RENDEZVOUS. In July Dr. Dornberger gave the main address in a
University of Tennessee Space Institute short course: "The
Recoverable, Reusable Space Shuttle."
NASA used the term "shuttle" for its reusable transportation concept
officially in 1968. Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight
George E. Mueller briefed the British Interplanetary Society in London
in August with charts and drawings of "space shuttle" operations and
concepts. In November, addressing the National Space Club in
Washington DC, Dr. Mueller declared the next major thrust in space
should be the space shuttle.
By 1969 "Space Shuttle" was the standard NASA designation, although
some efforts were made to find another name as studies were pursued.
The "Space Shuttle" was given an agency-wide code number; the Space
Shuttle Steering Group and Space Shuttle Task Group appointed by
President Nixon to help define post-Apollo space objectives
recommended the U.S. develop a reusable, economic space transportation
system including a shuttle. And in October feasibility study results
were presented at a Space Shuttle Conference in Washington. Intensive
design, technology, and cost studies followed in 1970 and 1971.
On 5 January 1972 President Nixon announced that the United States
would develop the Space Shuttle.
The Space Shuttle would be a delta-winged aircraftlike orbiter about
the size of a DC-9 aircraft, mounted at launch on a large, expendable
liquid-propellant tank and two recoverable and reusable
solid-propellant rocket boosters (SRBs) that would drop away in
flight. The Shuttle's cargo bay eventually would carry most of the
Nation's civilian and military payloads. Each Shuttle was to have a
lifetime of 100 space missions, carrying up to 29,500 kilograms at a
time. Sixty or seventy flights a year were expected in the 1980s.
Flown by a three-man crew, the Shuttle would carry satellites to
orbit, repair them in orbit, and later return them to Earth for
refurbishment and reuse. It would also carry up to four scientists and
engineers to work in a pressurized laboratory or technicians to
service satellites. After a 7- to 30-day mission, the orbiter would
return to Earth and land like an aircraft, for preparation for the
next flight.
At the end of 1974, parts were being fabricated, assembled, and tested
for flight vehicles. Horizontal tests were to begin in 1977 and
orbital tests in 1979. The first manned orbital flight was scheduled
for March 1979 and the complete vehicle was to be operational in 1980.
---
ORIGINS OF NASA NAMES, Helen T. Wells, Susan H. Whiteley, and Carrie
E. Karegeannes, The NASA History Series, SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL
INFORMATION OFFICE, 1976, Washington DC, NASA SP-4402.