ABIS - Hercules Block 3 - A meeting in Space by preeder

Poser • Science/Medical • posted on Jun 18, 2010

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Description

Hercules Block 3 - A meeting in Space. Once again Hercules handles all its challenges flawlessly and watching the test from not far away the crew of the orbital shuttle Atlantis get a ring-side view of the colossal payload as it hurtles toward low Earth orbit. For the crew of Atlantis one final task remains to make the Hercules test flight a success. As the huge test article starts to slow after being hurled into Earth orbit by the Hercules, the crew of the Atlantis deploy the two robotic arms in the Orbital Shuttleâ��s payload bay and slowly, ever so slowly match speeds with the huge mass of concrete and steel before manoeuvring to within a few inches of the now orbiting mass. Whilst there are no hard points for the shuttles crew to grab with their two robotic arms this simple task has been enough to confirm that the crew could have taken hold of the test article if required. After staying in formation for over an hour with the orbiting mass the crew finally move way and watch as the mass slows enough for gravity to finally take hold of the dummy payload and it re-enters Earthâ��s atmosphere. As the steel plates and girders which make up nearly 50% of the huge payload start to expand from the heat of re-entry it will force the huge mass of the dummy payload to break-up ensuring that it does not re-enter the atmosphere in one solid piece. These much smaller sections will now come to a fiery end in the Pacific Ocean far below. Two more successful test flights will follow, this time with the Orbital Shuttles Discovery and Endeavour meeting up with the huge test payloads. Both flights will be a complete success and with the final series test flightâ��s completed the Hercules Super Booster will be granted its â��Certificate of Aero-Space Worthinessâ�� and NASA can now move on to the next phase of its mission to take America back into space. Here ends the next series. To be continued.