A Space Shuttle launch consumed millions of pounds of propellant
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Reference documentation shows that a Space Shuttle launch consumed massive quantities of propellant, with the solid rocket boosters alone utilizing over a million pounds and the main engines burning hundreds of thousands of gallons.
Engines - NASA
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Space Shuttle Recordation
## History of the Space Shuttle Main Engines
Each Space Shuttle consisted of three Space Shuttle Main Engines. The three SSME’s, in conjunction with the Solid Rocket Boosters, provided thrust to lift the Orbiter off the ground for the initial ascent. The main engines continued to operate for 8.5 minutes after launch, the duration of the Shuttle’s powered flight.
After the solid rockets were jettisoned, the main engines provided thrust which accelerated the Shuttle from 4,828 kilometers per hour (3,000 mph) to over 27,358 kilometers per hour (17,000 mph) in just six minutes to reach orbit. They created a combined maximum thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds.
As the Shuttle accelerated, the main engines burned 500,000 gallons of liquid propellant provided by the large, orange external fuel tank. The main engines burned liquid hydrogen – the second coldest liquid on Earth at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 252.8 degrees Celsius) – and liquid oxygen.
For more information on the Space Shuttle Main Engines, click here.
Space Shuttle main engines during testing
# How much fuel was used for a Space Shuttle launch?
Tags: launch, rockets, space-shuttle, fuel
- Score: 19
- Views: 61748
- Answers: 1
- Answered: yes
- Asked by: Zoltán (5243 rep)
- Asked: 2013-10-21
- Edited: 2016-06-07
- Site: space
## Question
Many of us have watched the launch of a Space Shuttle space ship, I think: a giant red rocket, some smaller, and the way smaller space ship on the red one.
It reaches Mach 23 to be able to leave Earth. But what's the amount of fuel that is used overall for this purpose? How much fuel is burnt in the first phases? (so it doesn't include the fuel burnt by the space shuttle itself; only the rockets)
## Answers
### Answer by TildalWave (score: 26 [ACCEPTED])
NASA's Space Transportation System (STS) vehicle, better known as the Space Shuttle, used two single engine Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) as Stage 0, an engineless external tank providing propellant for the three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) on the orbiter as stage 1, and additional two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) hypergolic liquid-propellant rocket engines on the Space Shuttle orbiter as stage 2.
The two solid rocket boosters used roughly 500,000 kg (1.1 Mlb) of a 11-st
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