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[[image]] [[bold]] Chapter 3: The Space Shuttle [[/bold]] [[italics]] Objective: To learn the shuttle and its next KidSat flight. [[/italics]] This chapter provides an introduction to the space shuttle and a space shuttle mission. It is geared toward KidSat, and is not intended to be comprehensive or detailed, but rather to give you and your students a basic understanding of the shuttle, an introduction to some concepts that will be relevant to KidSat, and an introduction to the next KidSat flight. There is a lot of information, on the space shuttle, and each mission, available at NASA's shuttle web site: [[bold]] http://shuttle.nasa.gov [[/bold]] It's not necessary to know much about the space shuttle to participate in KidSat. The essentials are outlined below. In particular, there are a couple of concepts that are critical to success in KidSat: students must have a sense of the space shuttle's orbit (described briefly in ch. 3, and in more detail in ch. 6), and they must understand "Mission Elapsed Time". [[bold]] Essentials: [[/bold]] • Information on the next KidSat flight (launch date, flight duration, astronaut crew, experiments, etc.) can be found on the "Fact Sheet" accompanying this chapter. • The space shuttle goes into orbit around the Earth. -On KidSat flights, its altitude will range from about 160 miles (early in the flight) to 240 miles (later in the flight). -The space shuttle goes around the Earth once every 90 minutes. -About 45 minutes of each orbit is in daylight; 45 minutes is in night. •After launch, time is measured in "Mission Elapsed Time" (MET): the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds since launch. (Your students need to understand MET; they will use it to specify photograph selections) Teachers' Handbook Page 37