CONCEPTS OF COMPREHENSION: COMPARE AND CONTRAST 5th GRADE UNIT
Reading Passage
Beyond the Shuttle
What Will Replace The Aging Spacecraft?
Just before dawn on August 9,
2005, the space shuttle
Discovery fired its engines over
the Indian Ocean and began its
dangerous journey home.
As the craft streaked across the
Pacific Ocean at a blistering
speed of 16,000 miles an hour,
the eyes of the world were
focused on Discovery after its
14-day, 5.8-million-mile trip. The
mission, the first since the
Columbia disaster in 2003, was
far from flawless1.
At first, a faulty fuel sensor
postponed the liftoff for several
days. Once Discovery finally
blasted off, a huge chunk of
insulating2 foam ripped from its
external fuel tank, narrowly
missing the ship's wing.
As the shuttle orbited Earth,
astronauts had to remove a piece
of fabric sticking up between two
of the ship's heat tiles. The tiles protect the ship during its fiery reentry into the atmosphere.
NASA
For 25 years, the space shuttle has powered
humans and cargo into space.
Despite those problems, Discovery touched down at Edwards Air Force
Base in California one minute ahead of schedule. NASA officials called
the flight a "wild success."
1
2
flawless: without a defect
insulating: protecting from extreme temperatures
Text: Copyright © 2007 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved.
Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation.
Used by permission.
© 2010 Urban Education Exchange. All rights reserved.
CONCEPTS OF COMPREHENSION: COMPARE AND CONTRAST 5th GRADE UNIT
Reading Passage
Grounded
Still, many people claim that the shuttle fleet—built in the late 1970s
and 1980s—is too old and too dangerous to fly.
In fact, NASA has grounded all three shuttles, Discovery, Endeavour,
and Atlantis, until the agency has fixed the falling foam problem on the
external fuel tank. The same problem doomed Columbia. NASA plans
to retire the shuttles by 2010.
Louis D. Friedman, the executive
director of the Planetary Society,
says NASA cannot ignore the
shuttle's troubles. He told The
New York Times that Discovery's
less-than-perfect flight "makes
clear that the shuttle is not our
vehicle of the future."
Rocketing Into Orbit
If the shuttle is not the spaceship
of the future, what is? NASA
officials say they have plans for a
new generation of spacecraft to
ferry people and cargo into outer NASA
space.
Some say the shuttle is too old to continue
flying.
NASA plans to replace the
winged space shuttle with traditional rockets, like the ones NASA used
in the early days of space exploration. Officials say the rockets would
minimize the dangers of falling debris3 during takeoff. The rockets will
also be workhorses. The biggest of the planned rockets, which will
stand 350 feet tall, could carry 100 tons of cargo. The shuttle can
currently transport 20 tons.
More important, the rockets will enable humans to move farther out
into space to explore the moon and other planets.
3
debris: the remains of something broken down or destroyed
Text: Copyright © 2007 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved.
Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation.
Used by permission.
© 2010 Urban Education Exchange. All rights reserved.
CONCEPTS OF COMPREHENSION: COMPARE AND CONTRAST 5th GRADE UNIT
Reading Passage
Other Plans
Whether NASA's rocket plan
will get off the ground
remains to be seen.
Congress has to give the
space agency money to build
the rockets.
Still, there are other types of
spacecraft on NASA's
drawing board.
Topping the list is a space
taxi that would transport 10
astronauts at a time to and NASA
from the International Space NASA's Orbital Space Plane might one day ferry
astronauts into space.
Station. NASA is spending
$2.4 billion to design the craft, called the Orbital Space Plane.
The space plane is a shuttle-like craft that would sit on top of a rocket.
The rocket would blast the plane into orbit. NASA accelerated the
space plane's construction schedule after Columbia exploded as it
reentered Earth's atmosphere.
NASA is also thinking about replacing the shuttles with a spacecraft
that would be attached to the back of a larger aircraft. Once both
vehicles were airborne, crew members would release the spacecraft
and it would speed into orbit, using a super-powerful jet engine. That
engine is called a ramjet or a scramjet.
The engine would rocket the craft into orbit at 10 times the speed of
sound. Sound travels through air at 1,087 feet per second. NASA has
already successfully tested the ramjet.
In the meantime, many people hope the space shuttle will keep
flying—at least for a little while longer.
"Some people say we should stop flying the shuttle," says Discovery
commander Eileen Collins. But, she adds, "we are people who believe
in this mission, and we are going to continue it."
Text: Copyright © 2007 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved.
Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation.
Used by permission.
© 2010 Urban Education Exchange. All rights reserved.