Posts: 96
From: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 2009

posted 04-11-2018 08:46 PM               

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I'm curious to know more about the history and configurations of the space shuttle EVA airlock.

Did Columbia contain an airlock in its first five flights? Flight 6 (Challenger) had first middeck airlock?

The airlock took up a lot of room, given larger crews. Then the airlock went out into the cargo bay. Did that free up the space in the middeck?

What configurations were used on the five orbiter vehicles? How was the external airlock different from the middeck airlock? Thanks.

Posts: 274
From:
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 04-11-2018 09:06 PM            

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I'll just speak to the first point — yes, Columbia did have an airlock on the OFT flights and STS-5. The OFT crews trained for contingency EVAs in the event they needed to manually close and secure the payload bay doors.

STS-5 was also supposed to have the first scheduled EVA of the shuttle program but there were technical problems with the spacesuits, so the EVA was scrubbed.

Posts: 1463
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 04-16-2018 08:42 AM               

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All orbiters were delivered with operational internal airlocks. All missions had to support contingency EVAs for task like closing the payload bay doors.

It wasn't until each orbiter modifications for ISS missions, when the airlock was moved to the payload bay. The extra volume was used and filled on each mission with stowage. The airlock configuration remained basically the same but the top had an additional hatch and the orbiter docking system could be attached.