May 14 1986
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(New page: After more than a year of study by NASA centers and contract teams, Dr. James C. Fletcher announced a baseline configuration for the permanently crew-tended Space Station that would gu...)
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After more than a year of study by NASA centers and contract teams, Dr. James C. Fletcher announced a baseline configuration for the permanently crew-tended Space Station that would guide preliminary design activities for the remaining eight months of the Phase B studies. The contract called for development of the Space Station to begin in October 1986, ending with a permanently tended habitable station in 1994. A total of 14 Space Shuttle flights were thought to be required for assembly.
Major features of the design included two vertical keels 361 feet long and connected by upper and lower horizontal booms 146 feet long (the Space Station measured 503 feet at its widest point); two 44.5-foot long, 13.8-foot interior diameter U.S. supplied modules, with external interconnects for lab-oratory functions and crew quarters for eight members and two smaller logistics modules to alternate between the ground and the station; modules located near the station's center of gravity to provide the best possible microgravity environment for experiments, with raft patterns having four nodes and two tunnels to serve as module interconnects; internal module pressure of 14.7 per square inch and 80/20 nitrogen/oxygen mixture ratio to approximate sea level Earth atmospheric conditions, with a closed loop environmental control and life support system where oxygen and water could be recycled and nitrogen and food could be resupplied; hybrid solar power system with 75 kilowatts of power, where 25 kilowatts would be provided by photovoltaic system and the remaining 50 by the solar dynamics system; five locations on the structure for placing attached payloads and a facility for servicing free flying spacecraft and platforms with a telerobotic servicer; polar platform with useful payload on single Shuttle launch and a co-orbiting platform to support astrophysics and materials processing; gaseous hydrogen/oxygen propulsion system for altitude control (assembly would be at 220 nautical miles and operational altitude at 250 nautical miles minimum); metric as standard unit of measurement; and inclusion of international elements into the overall design, including the Canadian Mobile Servicing Center and hardware provided by Japan and the European Space Agency. (NASA Release 86-61; NY Times, May 15/86; W Times, May 15/86)
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