ABSTRACT Since atmospheric winds play the most critical natural enviroment (NE) role as input into the design and development of an aerospace launch vehicle, this paper provides a more detailed description of the wind environment and its interaction with engineering design in launch and space vehicle development applications at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

ABSTRACT Natural (Terrestrial & Space) Environment (NE) phenomena play a significant role in the design and flight of aerospace vehicles and in the integrity of the associated aerospace systems and structures. Both the terrestrial environment (0-90 km altitude) and the space environment (Earth orbital altitudes) parameters and their engineering application philosophy are given with emphasis on launch vehicle-affected terrestrial environment elements. This paper will describe the key terrestrial and space environment sources: wind; atmospheric; and orbital models used in the design and development of launch/space vehicles.

ABSTRACT: Natural (Terrestrial & Space) Environment (NE) phenomena play a significant role in the design and flight of aerospace vehicles and in the integrity of the associated aerospace systems and structures. Natural environmental design criteria guidelines described here are based on measurements and modeling of atmospheric and climatic phenomena relative to various aerospace vehicle development and mission/operational procedures, and for vehicle launch locations. Both the terrestrial environment (0-90 km altitude) and the space environment (Earth orbital altitudes) parameters and their engineering application philosophy are given with emphasis on launch vehicle-affected terrestrial environment elements. This paper also addresses the basis for the NE guidelines presented, the interpretation of the guidelines, and application to the development of launch or space vehicle design requirements. This paper represents the first of three on this subject.

ABSTRACT: This paper is mainly a review presenting 3 unique NASA natural environment field projects. Included are some important natural environment technical results and applications that are applicable in the design, development and operations of launch vehicles as well as in advancing the atmospheric state-of-the-art. For the design, development, testing, launch and flight of various launch vehicles all natural terrestrial environments are considered, with normally wind being the main contributor or driver to the design of a launch vehicle.

ABSTRACT: The natural terrestrial environment plays a significant role in the design and operation of aerospace vehicles (space vehicles and rockets) and in the associated integrity of aerospace systems and elements. Addressed herein are some of the key vehicle and environment areas of concern plus "lessons learned" that have been identified over a number of years. Many of these aerospace meteorology related events occurred during the development and interpretation of natural environment inputs, especially those of terrestrial environment, used in the design and development of the Saturn Apollo and Space Shuttle vehicles plus associated mission operations. Background is given regarding the actions needed to avoid having to re-learn these lessons.