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Orbital Maneuvering System

 
Orbital Maneuvering System

 
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Orbital Maneuvering System
 
 
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The Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System, or OMS (pronounced /omz/), is a system of rocket
Rocket

A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the Reaction of the rocket to the ejection of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine....
 engines used on the space shuttle
Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
 orbiter
Space Shuttle Orbiter

The Space Shuttle orbiters are the orbital spacecraft of the Space Shuttle Space Shuttle program operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States....
 for orbital injection
Orbit insertion

Orbit insertion is a deceleration or acceleration maneuver performed by a spacecraft designed to allow the spacecraft to be captured into orbit around a planet or other body such as a natural satellite....
 and modifying its orbit.






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Oms Pod Schematic
Oms Pod
The Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System, or OMS (pronounced /omz/), is a system of rocket
Rocket

A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the Reaction of the rocket to the ejection of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine....
 engines used on the space shuttle
Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
 orbiter
Space Shuttle Orbiter

The Space Shuttle orbiters are the orbital spacecraft of the Space Shuttle Space Shuttle program operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States....
 for orbital injection
Orbit insertion

Orbit insertion is a deceleration or acceleration maneuver performed by a spacecraft designed to allow the spacecraft to be captured into orbit around a planet or other body such as a natural satellite....
 and modifying its orbit. It consists of two "packs" at the back of the Shuttle, the large lumps on either side of the vertical stabilizer
Vertical stabilizer

The vertical stabilizers, or fins, of aircraft, missiles or bombs are typically found on the aft end of the fuselage or body, and are intended to control Yaw angle....
. Each pack contains a single hypergolic
Hypergolic fuel

A hypergolic propellant is either of the two rocket propellants used in a hypergolic rocket engine, which spontaneously Combustion when they come into contact....
 engine, based on the Service Propulsion System on the Apollo
Project Apollo

The Apollo program was a human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA during the years 1961?1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions....
 Service Module
Service module

A service module is a spacecraft compartment containing a variety of support systems used for spacecraft operations, but not any habitable area....
, with a thrust of 6,000 lbf (27 kN) and a Specific impulse
Specific impulse

Specific impulse is a way to describe the efficiency of rocket engine and jet engine engines. It represents the impulse per unit of propellant....
 of 313 seconds, which can be reused for 100 missions and is capable of 1,000 starts and 15 hours of firing. The OMS pods also contain the rear set of reaction control system
Reaction control system

A reaction control system, abbreviated RCS, is a subsystem of a spacecraft. Its purpose is attitude control and steering. An RCS system is capable of providing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions....
 (RCS) engines as well, which are referred to as the OMS/RCS. The fuel used is monomethylhydrazine
Monomethylhydrazine

Monomethylhydrazine is a Volatility hydrazine with the chemical formula CarbonHydrogen3Nitrogen2Hydrogen3. It is used as a rocket fuel in bipropellant rocket engines....
 (MMH), which is oxidized with nitrogen tetroxide
Dinitrogen tetroxide

Dinitrogen tetroxide is the chemical compound N2O4. It forms an Chemical equilibrium with nitrogen dioxide; some call this mixture dinitrogen tetroxide, some call it nitrogen dioxide....
 (N2O4). The Shuttle has enough fuel for about 1000 ft/s (approx. 300 m/s) of delta-V using the OMS.

Depending on the ascent profile of the mission, the OMS engines may be used to assist acceleration to orbit.

Orbital maneuvering system can be used to describe any system for moving about in orbit, so the term is found in non-Shuttle related topics as well.