In
this section
Position
and Orbit
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Position and
Orbit
To change
the direction that the orbiter is pointed (attitude), the reaction control
system (RCS) located on the nose and OMS pods of the aft fuselage must
be used.
The RCS has 14 jets that can move the orbiter along each axis of rotation
(pitch, roll, yaw). The RCS thrusters burn monomethyl hydrazine fuel and
nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer just like the OMS engines described in the
section Basic Structure and Launching. Attitude
changes are required for deploying satellites or for pointing (mapping
instruments, telescopes) at the Earth or stars. Firing the OMS engines
must be needed to change orbits.
Also, these engines change the velocity of the orbiter to place it in
a higher or lower orbit.
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Multi
Media
Graphic:
Photo Courtesy
NASA
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