Orbiter emergency crew escape system

Abstract

Two conventional ejection seats were incorporated into the first two orbiter vehicles to provide the crew with emergency ejection capability during the flight test programs. To avoid extensive development and test costs, existing ejection seats were selected and minimum modifications were made to accommodate the orbiter application. The new components and modifications were qualified at the component level, and a minimum sled test program was conducted to verify the orbiter installation and validate the six degree-of-freedom analysis. The system performance was certified and the orbital flight test capability was established by analysis.