USAFA astro
Orbit
A fixed "racetrack" on which the spacecraft travels around a planet or other celestial body
constellation
A fleet of identical spacecraft placed in different orbits to provide the necessary coverage to satisfy a mission
stages
A series of smaller rockets, (called stages) in a luanch vehicle, that ignite, furnish thrust, and then burn out in succession, each one handing off to the next one like runners in a relay race
X-15
A rocket-propelled spaceplane planned to exceed Mach 8 (eight times the speed of sound) and climb more than 112 km (70 mi) above Earth
Mariner
A series of missions designed to be the first U.S. spacecraft to other planets, specifically Venus and Mars and Mercury. The first Mariner spacecraft were launched in 1962.
mission operations systems
All facilities and infrastructure needed to design, assemble, integrate, verify, launch, and operate a space mission
limited by geometric constraints
Limited by the geometric cone of visibility and the edge of radio horizon
thrusters
Small rocket engines that adjust the spacecraft's orientation and maintain the orbit's size, shape, and orientation
focus
The planets moved around the Sun in elliptical orbits, with the Sun not at the center but at a focus
Subject
The primary focus of the mission
launch vehicle
The rocket that supplies the necessary velocity change to get a spacecraft into orbit
astronautics
The science and technology of spaceflight
astronomy
The science of the heavens
communication satellites
communication satellites
Redstone
A U.S. rocket develped from the German V-2 rocket
Bell X-1A
Experimental aircraft that flew to the edge of Earth's atmosphere
perturbation
A wobble in a planets orbit
flight control
Directs mission events thru communication between ground team and vehicle crew and/or computers
Vanguard
A Navy rocket that exploded on the launch pad on December 6, 1957 in the first attempt to launch a satellite by the U.S.
Mir Space Station
A Soviet expandable space station designed to extend the length of human presence in space
Space Shuttle
A piloted reusable spacecraft that carried men and cargo back and forth to the ISS
ballistic missile
A rocket launched into space that reenters the atmosphere to deliver warheads to a predetermined target
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
A sophisticated satellite observatory dedicated to observing the high-energy Universe. Compton carries a collection of four instruments which together detected an unprecedented broad range of high-energy radiation called gamma rays.
International Space Station (ISS)
A space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. It is a modular structure whose first component was launched in 1998. Now the largest artificial body in orbit. The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA.
Hubble Space Telescope
A space telescope launched in 1990, used to study objects both in our own solar system and in galaxies billions of light years away
Cold War
A state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact
heliocentric
A sun-centered universe
parking orbit
A temporary orbit where the spacecraft stays until a final "kick" sends it into a transfer orbit
geostatic
A universe with the Earth not moving
Skylab
America's firt space station launched in 1973
transfer orbit
An intermediate orbit that takes the spacecraft from its parking orbit to its final mission orbit
Apollo-Soyuz
Apollo 18 docked with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in July, 1975
sublunar realm
Aristotle's universe composed of everything beneath the Moon's sphere
superlunar realm
Aristotle's universe composed of everything from the Moon up to the sphere of the fixed stars
Doppler
Compared to the emitted frequency, the received frequency is higher during the approach, identical at the instant of passing by, and lower during the recession
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Created in 1958 to consolidate U.S. space efforts under a single civilian agency and to put a man in space before the U.S.S.R.
mission
Describes why we're going to space and what we hope to accomplish while we're there.
V-2 rocket
Developed in Germany, the world's first ballistic missile
geocentric
Earth-centered universe
Galileo spacecraft
Entered orbit around Jupiter in late 1995, provided detailed images and other data about Jupiter and its moons, and deployed a probe into the planet's dense atmosphere
Mercury Program
Established in 1958, the Mercury Program was NASA'a first human spaceflight program. It's objectives were to place a manned spacecraft in orbital flight around the earth, investigate man's performance capabilities and his ability to function in the environment of space, and recover the man and the spacecraft safely.
Concept of operations (ConOps)
How we plan to conduct the mission, how all of the stakeholders and mission elements will work together to satisfy users
free fall
In orbit, spacecraft (and everything in them) are weightless when they have no contact forces (such as thrust from a rocket engine) acting on them. This weightless condition is free fall, meaning the spacecraft is falling toward Earth because of gravity but missing it continually because of its forward speed.
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
Launched by NASA in 1999 to study the universe at x-ray wavelengths
Spitzer Space Telescope
Launched in 2003, an infrared observatory
Kepler spacecraft
Launched in 2009, Kepler focuses on only a small sliver of the sky, but monitors more than 100,000 stars to look for any brief, periodic drops in brightness caused when a planet orbiting that star passes in front of it
Echo
Launched on August 12, 1960, an aluminum-coated, 30.4 meter-diameter plastic sphere that passively reflected voice and picture signals
limited by physical constraints
Limited by the capabilities of the equipment such as the lens, the image plane, or the antenna beam pattern
Viking
Marian space porobes that analyzed Martian soil, weather, and atmospheric composition as well as captured more than 4500 spectacular images of the Red Planet's surface
relativity
Motion depends on the perspective or frame of reference of the observer
degree
One part of a circle divided into 360 equal parts
minute of arc
One part of a degree divided into 60 equal parts
flight controllers
Receive and monitor data on the spacecraft's health and decide how to command the spacecraft's functions remotely from Earth
remote-sensing
Satellites used to gather information about the nature and condition of Earth's land, sea, and atmosphere.
Challenger
Space Shuttle that exploded minutes after launch, killing her crew
Cassini
Space probe that arrived at Saturn in 2004 capable of taking accurate measurements and detailed images in a variety of atmospheric conditions and light spectra. It continues to return data.
Voyager
Space probes that invetigated Jupiter and Saturn and their moons. Voyager 2 went on to take revelatory photographs of Uranus and Neptune
Space-based telescopes
Telescopes placed in space above Earth's atmosphere
field-of-view (FOV)
The FOV is the actual area the sensor or communication gear can access at any one time when it focuses on the Earth
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
The James Webb Space Telescope will be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror. The project is working to a 2018 launch date. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.
parallax
The apparent shift in the position of bodies when viewed from different locations
systems engineering
The art and science of designing and building systems that deliver capabilities to meet the user's need
scintillation
The blurring of "starlight" as it passes through the atmosphere that gives stars the appearance of twinkling
space mission architecture
The collection of spacecraft, orbits, launch vehicles, operations systems, and all other things that make a space mission possible
Bus
The collection of subsystems that support the payload
project management
The discipline of planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling all resources needed to achieve the mission's intended purpose
light year
The distance light travels in one year at a speed of 300,000 km/s [186,000 mi/s]
communications
The exchange of commands and engineering data between a spacecraft and its ground controllers. It includes the processing and transmitting of payload data to users.
Telstar
The first active communications satellite, launched on July 10, 1962, relayed communication between far-flung points on the Earth
Explorer 1
The first satellite successfully launched by the U.S.
red-shift
The lengthening of electromagnetic waves as a source and observer move apart
need
The need (or needs) a mission is addressing—who needs what
Payload
The part of the spacecraft that actually performs the mission
Trajectory
The path an object follows through space
Soyuz
The second-generation Soviet vehicle capable of carrying humans into space. The Soyuz would be able to conduct active maneuvering, orbital rendezvous and docking. These capabilities were all necessary for a flight around the Moon and to support lunar landing.
eccentricity
The shape of an orbit as a ratio of the distance between the two foci and the length of the major axis
field-of-regard (FOR)
The spacecraft's FOR refers to the total area it can access at any one time based on physical limits of sensors or communication gear
upper stage
The stage that provides the extra kicks of energy needed to transfer the spacecraft from its parking orbit to its mission orbit
spectroscopy
The study of radiated energy in visible bands
swath width
The width or diameter of a specific total area on Earth's surface potentially visible at any one time, depending on the sensor's field of regard and the height of its orbit
Apollo Program
U.S. space program whose goal was to put a man on the moon by 1970
stakeholders
Users, sponsors, and other people or organizations who have a stake in the mission's outcome
goal
What we want to accomplish during the mission and how well
objectives
What we want to accomplish during the mission and how well