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| Shown
is a cut-away of the re-designed bolt catcher. Behind it is the
two-piece welded design that was deemed marginally adequate and
therefore a potential debris source. The new bolt catcher design
is milled from a single billet of aluminum.
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Cut-away showing the aligned, hollow aluminum crush material that absorbs the impact of the split bolt after the separation ordnance is detonated. | Location and separation plane diagram showing new bolt catcher design |
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| Milliseconds
after SRB separation, 16 solid-fueled separation motors (cutaway shown
above), four in the forward section of each SRB and four in the aft
skirt of each SRB, are fired for just over one second to separate the
SRB's from the Space Shuttle. Each of the separation motors can
produce a thrust of about 22,000 pounds.
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Igniter
for SRB Separation motors
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Shown is one of eight booster tie-down explosive bolts that hold the Shuttle to the Mobile Launch Platform (MLP). At SRB ignition, all eight bolts are split in half allowing liftoff. |
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| Upper and lower explosive bolts of the SRB/ET attach points. | Cutaway of an upper SRB explosive bolt. | Cutaway
of the threaded ends of the explosive bolts that connect the boosters
to the External Tank.
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| Shown is an exploded nut. | Click here for more technical information |
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