Obstacles of Spaceflight

Spaceflight is not easy. There are many obstacles to overcome. All systems of a space vehicle must work together perfectly in an unforgiving environment that doesn't allow for errors. A spacecraft must travel over 30 times the speed of sound to escape or gravity. It must endure extreme temperatures, pressures and vibrations. For a ship that carries a crew it must get human beings into space and return them safely. Confronted with these challenges over the years NASA engineers developed a system to build spacecraft designing and testing bit by bit then bringing all the elements together in a series of flight tests. It has been said that one good flight test is worth a thousand expert opinions. The flight tests either confirm engineers'predictions or direct their attention to what needs to be fixed. NASA's new space program is called Constellation. A new generation of space vehicles will take crews to the International Space Station return humans to the moon and even expand humankind's reach farther out into the solar system. For the Constellation era, spacecraft designs and hardware have reached the point where the first flight tests begin. Now, creating a spacecraft is a process engineers conceptualize, model and predict the performance of a vehicle using computers and other development tools.