# Space Technology

Canonical URL: https://shipslides.com/d/technology-space-tech
Raw viewer URL: https://content.shipslides.com/d/technology-space-tech/raw
Category: Technology
Slides: 15
Updated: 2026-05-17T20:49:49.106Z
Tags: technology, space, tech

## Summary

Seven decades of getting hardware out of the gravity well — and increasingly bringing it back. Key sections include: Above.; Sputnik 1.; 1957–1969.; Apollo 11.; Space Shuttle.; The ISS.; Reusability changes the curve.; Stainless. Reusable. Big.; The rocket equation.; Who launches..

## Slide Outline

1. Above.
2. Sputnik 1.
3. 1957–1969.
4. Apollo 11.
5. Space Shuttle.
6. The ISS.
7. Reusability changes the curve.
8. Stainless. Reusable. Big.
9. The rocket equation.
10. Who launches.
11. The film.
12. Where we put things.
13. Constellations.
14. Key terms.
15. Open problems.

## Slide Transcript

### Slide 1: Above.

- 01 / 15
- Deck 07 · Space Technology
- Seven decades of getting hardware out of the gravity well — and increasingly bringing it back.

### Slide 2: Sputnik 1.

- 02 / 15
- October 4, 1957
- An aluminum sphere, 58 cm across, 83.6 kg, four whip antennas, two radio transmitters. Launched from Tyuratam (now Baikonur) on an R-7 ICBM derivative. It beeped at 20 and 40 MHz for three weeks, audible on shortwave radios worldwide. It changed everything.

### Slide 3: 1957–1969.

- 03 / 15
- Space Race
- '57
- Sputnik 1
- First artificial satellite.
- '61
- Vostok 1
- Yuri Gagarin, first human in space.
- '62
- Friendship 7
- John Glenn orbits.
- '65
- Voskhod 2
- Leonov, first EVA.
- '66
- Luna 9
- First soft Moon landing.
- '69
- Apollo 11
- Armstrong, Aldrin land.

### Slide 4: Apollo 11.

- 04 / 15
- July 20, 1969
- Saturn V, 110.6 m tall, 2,970 t fully fueled — still the most powerful rocket to fly successfully until 2024. Eleven minutes from launch to LEO; 76 hours to lunar orbit; six and a half hours from landing to first step.
- Saturn V, by stage:
- S-IC → 5 × F-1, kerosene/LOX, 33,400 kN takeoff thrust
- S-II → 5 × J-2, hydrogen/LOX
- S-IVB → 1 × J-2, restart-capable, trans-lunar injection

### Slide 5: Space Shuttle.

- 05 / 15
- 1981–2011
- The Space Transportation System flew 135 missions over 30 years. It carried Hubble (1990), Magellan, Galileo, and assembled most of the International Space Station. Two orbiters were lost — Challenger (1986, O-ring failure) and Columbia (2003, foam strike).
- OrbiterFirst flightMissions
- Columbia (OV-102)198128
- Challenger (OV-099)198310
- Discovery (OV-103)198439
- Atlantis (OV-104)198533
- Endeavour (OV-105)199225

### Slide 6: The ISS.

- 06 / 15
- since 1998
- 419 t. 109 m × 73 m. Over 250 visitors from 19 countries. Continuously crewed since November 2, 2000. Orbit: ~408 km, 51.6° inclination, 92 min/orbit. The first major U.S.–Russian engineering partnership of the post-Cold-War era; planned deorbit ~2031.

### Slide 7: Reusability changes the curve.

- 07 / 15
- Falcon 9 · 2010
- SpaceX's first Falcon 9 booster recovery was December 21, 2015 (Orbcomm-2). By 2024, individual boosters had flown 20+ times. Per-launch cost to LEO fell from ~$10,000/kg in the Shuttle era to roughly $1,500/kg on Falcon 9 — a step change unmatched since the 1960s.

### Slide 8: Stainless. Reusable. Big.

- 08 / 15
- Starship
- 121 m fully stacked. 33 Raptor engines on Super Heavy. Methane/LOX. First integrated test flight April 20, 2023. By IFT-5 (October 2024) the Super Heavy booster returned to the launch tower and was caught by the Mechazilla arms — a first in spaceflight.

### Slide 9: The rocket equation.

- 09 / 15
- Math
- Tsiolkovsky's 1903 equation determines the velocity change a rocket can achieve:
- Δv = v_e · ln(m_0 / m_f)
- = I_sp · g_0 · ln(m_0 / m_f)
- For LEO from Earth's surface, ~9.4 km/s of Δv is needed (including gravity and drag losses). Liquid hydrogen/LOX yields I_sp ≈ 450 s; methane/LOX ≈ 350 s; kerosene/LOX ≈ 310 s. Staging is the only way to reach orbit on chemical fuels.

### Slide 10: Who launches.

- 10 / 15
- Players, 2026
- NASA
- SLS, Orion, Artemis program — return to the Moon (Artemis II 2026).
- SpaceX
- Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon, Starship; Starlink (~6,000 sats).
- ESA
- Ariane 6, Vega-C; lunar & Mars science.
- Roscosmos
- Soyuz, Proton successors; Luna program.
- CNSA
- Tiangong station, Long March family, Chang'e lunar missions.
- ISRO
- Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing 2023, Gaganyaan crewed program.
- Rocket Lab
- Electron, Neutron in development.
- Blue Origin
- New Shepard, New Glenn, Blue Moon lander.

### Slide 11: The film.

- 11 / 15
- Watch this
- Watch: starship test flight

### Slide 12: Where we put things.

- 12 / 15
- Orbits
- RegimeAltitudeUse
- LEO~200–2,000 kmISS, Starlink, Earth observation
- MEO~2,000–35,786 kmGPS (~20,200 km), Galileo, GLONASS
- GEO35,786 kmCommunications, weather (geostationary)
- SSO~600–800 km, polarEarth imaging, sun-synchronous orbit
- HEO & lunarup to ~400,000 kmJames Webb (L2), Artemis, Gateway

### Slide 13: Constellations.

- 13 / 15
- Side note
- SpaceX's Starlink crossed 6,000 active satellites in 2024 — more than any government program. Amazon's Kuiper began launching in 2023. China's Guowang is in early deployment. The total catalogued objects in LEO doubled between 2018 and 2024.
- Light pollutionConjunction riskSpectrumReentry debris

### Slide 14: Key terms.

- 14 / 15
- Glossary
- TermMeaning
- Δv (delta-v)Velocity change a maneuver costs.
- Specific impulseThrust per unit propellant mass flow; engine efficiency.
- Hohmann transferTwo-burn elliptical orbit between coplanar circular orbits.
- Lagrange pointEquilibrium of two-body gravity + orbital motion (L1–L5).
- AerobrakingUsing atmospheric drag to lower an orbit.

### Slide 15: Open problems.

- 15 / 15
- Fully reusable orbital launch with rapid turnaround.
- In-space propellant transfer at scale (Starship HLS depends on it).
- Long-duration human spaceflight: radiation, bone loss, closed-loop life support.
- Active debris removal in low Earth orbit.
- A repeatable economic case for cislunar industry beyond government anchor tenancy.
- ← Master catalog
- Technology index
- Top ↑


## Related Decks

- [SPACE / from V-2 to reusable boosters](https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-tech-space-tech)
- [AI & Machine Learning](https://shipslides.com/d/technology-ai-and-ml)
- [Artificial Intelligence: From Turing to Transformers](https://shipslides.com/d/technology-artificial-intelligence)
- [Biotechnology](https://shipslides.com/d/technology-biotech)