What did the space shuttle use to maneuver in space?

1 answer

Answer

1270774

2026-05-18 07:30

+ Follow

The space shuttle had two kinds of rockets for maneuvering. The Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) is used for changing the shuttle's orbit. When the main engines shut down, the shuttle is not completely in its orbit, so the OMS is used for final orbital insertion. The OMS is also used to de-orbit for landing. The OMS design is based on the rocket engine used by Apollo to orbit the moon and de-orbit the moon for return to earth. There are two OMS per shuttle, on the back just above the main engines. The OMS are on swivels (gimbals), which allows pointing them in slightly different directions to rotate the shuttle when they are active.

When the other engines are not active, the space shuttle turns itself to point in different directions, and makes small motions such as to dock with the space station when it is already orbiting near it, using the small Reaction Control System (RCS) engines. There are 38 primary RCS engines, 14 in the front and 24 in the back, pointing in all different directions so the shuttle can move in all different directions when it is docking with something or wants to change directions. There are 6 smaller vernier RCS engines, 2 in the front and 4 in the back, that are used for fine adjustments. If the OMS engines fail, the shuttle can still de-orbit and land using the primary RCS engines in an emergency mode.

ReportLike(0ShareFavorite

Copyright © 2026 eLLeNow.com All Rights Reserved.