Space Shuttle Olympus

Olympus in orbit during STS-41F

Orbiter insignia

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**Space Shuttle *Olympus* (**Orbiter Vehicle Designation: **OV-201**) is the largest orbiter in the International Space Shuttle program. With a crew capacity of eighty-four, it broke the record of most crew on a single space mission when it launched for the first time on May 2, 1984 on STS-41F. It's named after the tallest mountain/volcano in the solar system - Olympus Mons, with an elevation of 27,000 metres.

*Olympus* is a worldwide collaboration shuttle orbiter, with every space agency on Earth having worked together on at least one part of the vehicle, and with parts manufactured in 174 countries. Upon its completion in January 1984, an international commemorative celebration was held at the Kennedy Space Center with attendees representing the United Nations Space Development Committee.

The vehicle is so large a new modified shuttle stack launch system had to be developed, adopting the current design of an external tank with boosters and main engines. However *Olympus*' stack has the main engines on the core tank rather than the orbiter (much like *O'Brien* originally had). Instead, the orbiter has four OMS thrusters attached at the rear, giving the shuttle over 600 m/s delta-V.

Because of *Olympus*' size, it can re-enter the atmosphere more gently and at a higher altitude than all the other orbiters. It also has a rather short space endurance rating, where the life support systems can support a full crew for up to six days when flying independantly, and 7 days attached to a space station.

The vehicle first launched on STS-41F, and returned to return to Earth on May 10th 1984.

## History, Design and construction

In 1982, a vision to manufacture a much larger orbiter came to light when shuttle engineer Kyle Herring envisioned a spacecraft with such a high crew capacity, it can reduce the cost per passenger seat by 30% for crew rotation missions on large capacity space outposts. He recommended this to J. Chryslar who accepted this plan. Laurence O'Brien strongly suggested the idea to have all the world's space agencies to build this orbiter together, rather than a selected few like all the other shuttles.

On November 4 1983, a meeting at the World Trade Center took place with Kyle, Chryslar, Laurence, and Gene Kranz, who addressed a panel of space agency representatives of the UN-SDC announcing the development and construction of a new class of shuttle orbiter - the Enhanced Capacity edition, or OV-2XX series.

### Naming

A poll in the International Astronaut Corps was conducted on November 5, where teams of students and employees had to choose a suitable name for the new orbiter. The ballot drawed on November 14, and the name *Olympus* was chosen (a 73% majority), after the largest and tallest mountain in the Solar System - to signifiy the largest and heaviest orbiter in the shuttle fleet.

### Design

The design of the orbiter again was assigned to SSPX, where the shuttle was to be built from the same general shape like the other shuttles, but calling for a stretched fuselage and wider wings.

The blueprint specified a shuttle consisting of three main passenger compartments, two permannt auxiliary passenger modules in the payload bay, a series of radiators, solar arrays and eight fuel cells. The wingspan was increased by 3m, and overall length increased to 54m. Extra steel reinforcement in the wings and fuselage was requested, as well as the addition of two more OMS engines, totalling to four.

Just like with the initial design of OV-099, OV-201 will be the second orbiter to not have RS-25-H main engines in the initial design. This time this would be permanant, as the total mass of the orbiter would exceed the lifting capacity of the latest generation of Shuttle Stack.

*Olympus*' stack was designed using the current and final generation of Shuttle Stack Lifting Systems, where the external tank design was elongated by 27%, and five new (and disposable) variants of RS-25 engines: the RS-25-E (made with 3D printed parts and cheaper alloys). These engines will have the same 2,279 kN thrust like the others, but these are located on the bottom of the main tank in an I-position.

The twin solid rocket boosters was designed in a 6-segment booster configuration, each with a total thrust of 16,700 kN. They have a few extra seconds of burn time, and are recoverable. The core stage tank however (just like the external tanks) are expendable, and blow up in the atmosphere after MECO and seperation.

### Manufacturing

On November 17th 1983, the General of the UN-SDC approved the construction of *Olympus*, where each part will be made in space agency factories located in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Oceana, Asia and even the Antarctic. The International Astronaut Corps issued a new flag to commemorate the orbiter, designated the International Flag of Earth and Space, to be added as a decal livery to the completed orbiter.

Production of the components took place at the follwing space factories administered by their respective space agencies. Contractor employees from many other collaborating countries also helped out in these manufacturing buildings.

European Space Agency

* European Space Research and Technology Centre, Netherlands
* Cannes Mandelieu Space Centre, France
* European Astronaut Centre, Germany
* Guyana Space Centre, Guyana, South America

NASA

* Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, LA
* Chris A. Hadfield Rocket Factory, New Orleans, LA
* Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
* Kennedy Space Center, Florida
* Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
* Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD
* Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA
* Wallops Flight Facility, VA
* World Technology Center, Chicago, IL

Brazilian Space Agency

* São Paulo space launch complex, Brazil

Roscosmos

* Star City, Moscow, Russia
* Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia
* Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
* Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, Moscow, Russia

JAXA

* Tsukuba Space Center, Tsukuba Science City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
* Tanegashima Space Center, Kyushu Japan

Australian Space Agency

* Sydney Space Centre

New Zealand Space Agency

* Wellington Space Research and Manufacturing Facility

Canadian Space Agency

* John H. Chapman Space Centre, Longueuil, Quebec
* MTA Space Missions, Brampton, Ontario

Others

* **UK Space Agency (UKSA)** — United Kingdom
* **Israeli Space Agency (ISA)** — Israel
* **Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM)** — Mexico
* **Agência Espacial Brasileira (AEB)** — Brazil
* **Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing** (Greek: Ινστιτούτο Διαστημικών Εφαρμογών και Τηλεπισκόπησης) — Greece
* **Agencia Boliviana Espacial (ABE)** — Bolivia
* **Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales** (**CONAE**; - **National Space Activities Commission**) — Argentina
* **Agencia Bolivariana para Actividades Espaciales (ABAE),** Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities — Venezuela
* **Asociación Centroamericana de Aeronáutica y el Espacio (ACAE)***,* **Central American Association for Aeronautics and Space** — Costa Rica
* **Comisión Colombiana del Espacio (CCE)***,* Colombian Space Commission — Colombia
* **Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)** — Republic of India
* **South African National Space Agency (SANSA)** — South Africa
* **Korea Aerospace Research Institute** (**KARI**) — South Korea
* **Antarctic Space and Astronautics Organization (ASAO)** — Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

### Delivery

After two months of manufacture, all the parts were delivered to the Chris A. Hadfield Rocket Factory in New Orleans for final assembly. This process took three weeks, and on January 14th 1984, *Olympus* rolled out of MAF and was taken on a piggy-back ride to Kennedy Space Center atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Once arrival and de-mating from the SCA, *Olympus* was towed to an Orbiter Processing Facility for storage until ready for its first flight to the Skylab Workshop Station: STS-41F.

## Flights

On April 27, 1984, *Olympus* was rolled out of the VAB to Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39B atop a custom-designed Mobile Launch Platform. Weighing at 2,572 tons, the vehicle blasted off on May 2, 1984, with 84 crew onboard. The STS-41F mission, bound for the Skylab, is its maiden flight and was successfully completed.