Columbia: The first 5 flights entry heating data series. Volume 1: An overview

Entry heating flight data and wind tunnel data on the lower windward and upper lee side centerline, lower wing 50% and 80% semi-spans, side fuselage and payload bay door, Z-400 and 440 trace aft of X/L=0.2, and OMS Pod trace 3, are presented for the first five flights of the space shuttle orbiter. Heating rate distributions are presented in terms of normalized shock Reynolds number to show the sensitivity of heating to these parameters. The surface heating rates and temperatures were obtained via the JSC NONLIN/INVERSE computer program.