[Space] NASA STS-114 (ISS)

[GioFX]

Benvenuti alla missione STS-114




NASA News release

LCD Timeline

Launch-3 Days (Sunday, July 10): Countdown begins at the T-43 hours (6 p.m.)

Launch-2 Days (Monday, July 11)
Remove mid-deck and flight-deck platforms (2 a.m.);

Complete preparation to load power reactant storage and distribution system (5 a.m.);

Activate and test navigational systems (7 a.m.);

Flight deck preliminary inspections complete (10 a.m.)

Enter first built-in hold at T-27 hours for four hours (10 a.m.)

Resume countdown (2 p.m.);

Begin loading of cryogenic reactants into Discovery's fuel cell storage tanks (3:30 p.m.)

Enter 4-hour built-in hold at T-19 hours (10 p.m.)

Launch-1 Day (Tuesday, July 12)
Resume countdown (2 a.m.);

Final preparations of Shuttle's three main engines for tanking and flight (2 a.m.);

Fill pad sound suppression system water tank (3 to 6 a.m.)

Enter planned hold at T-11 hours for 12 hours, 55 minutes (10 a.m.);

Begin star tracker functional checks (10:50 a.m.);

Move Rotating Service Structure to the park position (7 p.m.)

Resume countdown at T-11 hours (11 p.m.)

Launch Day (Wednesday, July 13)
Enter planned 2-hour built-in hold at T-6 hours (3:55 a.m.);

Verification of launch commit criteria prior to cryogenic loading of External Tank(ET)

Resume countdown (5:55 a.m.)

Begin load ET with 500,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants (approx. 6:05 to approx. 8:55 a.m.);

Final Inspection Team to launch pad
Enter planned 3-hour built-in hold at T-3 hours (8:55 a.m.);

Perform inertial measurement unit preflight calibration;

Align Merritt Island Launch Area tracking antennas
Resume countdown at T-3 hours (11:55 a.m.)

Crew departs Operations and Checkout Building for the pad (12 p.m.);

Crew entry into orbiter (approx. 12:30 p.m.);

Crew air-to-ground voice checks with Launch and Mission Control;

Close Discovery's crew hatch (about 1:35 p.m.)


Enter planned 10-minute hold at T-20 minutes (2:35 p.m.);

NASA Test Director conducts final launch team briefings; inertial measurement unit preflight alignments
Resume countdown at T-20 minutes (2:45 p.m.);

Transition the orbiter's onboard computers to launch configuration;

backup flight system to launch configuration

Enter estimated 40-minute hold at T-9 minutes (2:56 p.m.);

Launch director, Mission Management Team and NASA test director conduct final polls for go/no go to launch

Resume countdown at T-9 minutes (about 3:36 p.m.) (more likly resume at 3:42 to launch in plane)

Start automatic ground launch sequencer (T-9:00 minutes);

Retract orbiter crew access arm (T-7:30);

Ignition of three Shuttle main engines (T-6.6 seconds); ignition and liftoff (T-0)

STS-114 CREW & LAUNCH DAY ACTIVITIES (TV events (#)-times may vary)
Commander Eileen Collins; pilot James Kelly; payload commander Soichi Noguchi; mission specialists Stephen Robinson, Andrew Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, Charles Camarda

5:45 a.m. Crew wake up; 6:15 a.m.

Breakfast #10:15 a.m.

Crew snack #11:20 a.m.

Weather Briefing #11:20-11:50 a.m.

Don flight suits #12:00 p.m.

Depart for launch pad #12:30 p.m. Arrive at white room;

begin entering Shuttle #1:45 p.m.

Close crew hatch #3:51 p.m.

Launch

For NASA TV schedules, viewing and information on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

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Astronauts catch early flight to launch site

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 9, 2005

Flying in one day early to dodge Hurricane Dennis, the shuttle Discovery's crew arrived at the Kennedy Space Center this evening to make final preparations for launch Wednesday on the first post-Columbia flight.


Shuttle Discovery's astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center this evening. Credit: NASA-KSC

"This shuttle flight is the beginning of a new chapter in space exploration," commander Eileen Collins told a crowd of journalists at the Shuttle Landing Facility. "We are going to finish building the international space station, we're going to do the science up there that needs to be done in learning how to keep people going in space for long periods of time (and) leaving low earth orbit and going back to the moon.

"By exploring, we make this world a better place to live in and we continue to grow as a human species. That's important, not just for the United States but for all of us around the world."

Collins, pilot James Kelly, flight engineer Stephen Robinson, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, Andrew Thomas, Wendy Lawrence and Charles Camarda hope to strap in Wednesday for a launch attempt at 3:51 p.m., weather permitting. The countdown begins at 6 p.m. Sunday.

While Hurricane Dennis did not churn up any serious weather at the Kennedy Space Center Saturday, rain and thunderstorms are expected next week and with a short five-minute launch window, the weather could play a major role in when Discovery finally gets off on the long-awaited flight.

"To all the folks traveling out here to launch, especially with Hurricane Dennis bearing down on the Gulf Coast, hopefully they'll all make it here safely and later on this week, on Wednesday, we'll light the candle and head back up into space."


The crew addressed a large crowd of reporters and photographers gathered at the runway. Credit: NASA-KSC

Collins and her crewmates appeared relaxed and in good spirits as they departed the SLF for crew quarters. All seven said they were eager to finally resume shuttle flights two-and-a-half years after the Columbia disaster grounded NASA's fleet.

"That's way too long," Thomas said of the hiatus. "It's definitely time we went back to flight and back to space. And having the responsibility of the return-to-flight mission certainly makes me feel that sense of privilege even more.

"To all the people down here in Florida who have prepared the vehicle and done so much work to make the flight possible, I say thank you. And to all the taxpayers and the members of the public who support the space program, I very much want to thank you for your support. I would like you to know that as we execute the mission, we will do our very best to live up to the great trust you have put in us."

Noguchi, after addressing Japanese journalists in his native tongue, summed up the crew's mood in English, exclaiming: "Let's go fly!"

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Weather outlook favorable for Discovery's launch

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 10, 2005

NASA engineers made final preparations to start the shuttle Discovery's countdown later today, buoyed by forecasts calling for a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather during the ship's five-minute launch window Wednesday.

NASA test director Jeff Spaulding, who will oversee Discovery's countdown in the hours leading up to launch, told reporters today the launch team is not tracking any significant technical issues at pad 39B and that all systems are go for launch.


Cloudy weather over launch pad 39B today should give way to good conditions on Wednesday. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

"A lot's happened over the last two-and-a-half years," he said. "Our focus during that timeframe has shifted from one of recovery and investigation to one of redesign, improvement and mission processing and now, to launch. Our launch team (is) well prepared and I know they're up to the task of returning our shuttle fleet to flight, of returning to the international space station and for returning our crew safely back home."

The countdown is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and if all goes well, Discovery will lift off on the 114th shuttle mission - the first since the Columbia disaster Feb. 1, 2003 - at 3:50:52 p.m. Wednesday. The ship's crew - commander Eileen Collins, pilot James Kelly, flight engineer Stephen Robinson, Andrew Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, Charles Camarda and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi - arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Saturday night.

Forecaster Kathy Winters called for a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather Wednesday, although she said there was a chance inland thunderstorms could push into the launch area. The forecast is 60 percent "go" on Thursday and Friday should launch be delayed.

Winters said expected temperatures and humidity levels should help minimize the formation of ice on the shuttle's huge fuel tank, a major impact debris concern in recent weeks.

Spaulding said Discovery has enough on-board liquid hydrogen and oxygen, used by the ship's electrical generators, to make three launch attempts in four days. After that, the team would have to stand down for 72 hours to top off the tanks.

Asked about the mood at Kennedy as return to flight approaches, Spaulding said excitement is clearly building.

"Certainly for the last several months, it's been one where everybody has been pretty much having their head down, working very hard," he said. "We had a number of challenges over those months. And it's only recently, I think, that it's all come to fruition where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"The excitement, I think has been building and growing," he added. "There's a great anticipation for launch ... and also maybe a quiet reserve as well just remembering where we've been. But we all do feel confident we've done it right."

Said Scott Higginbotham, payload manager for Discovery's mission: "It sure does feel good to be back in the saddle again."

"It's been too long, but here we are," he said. "I am very happy to report to you that all 28,000 pounds of international space station hardware that's in the payload bay of Discovery is ready to go."

The goal of Discovery's mission is to deliver critical supplies and equipment to the space station, along with a new stabilizing gyroscope that will be installed during the second of three spacewalks by Robinson and Noguchi. The spacewalkers also will test rudimentary heat shield repair techniques during their first excursion.

Assuming an on-time launch, Discovery is scheduled to land July 25 at 11:06 a.m.

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Part 1: NASA finally ready to put shuttle back in flight

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL (CBS) - NASA hopes to resume shuttle flights Wednesday, weather permitting, with a three-spacewalk mission to repair the international space station's stabilization system, to deliver critical supplies and equipment and to prove the design defects that led to the Columbia disaster have been corrected.

Implementing an overlapping suite of approaches, NASA managers believe the chances of Columbia-like damage to Discovery during launch are minimal. But if damage does, in fact, occur, they are equally confident they will be able to detect it, determine if it is entry critical and, if it is, carry out at least rudimentary spacewalk repairs.

Those repair procedures are not fully tested and formally certified for use by Discovery's crew. But NASA managers say certified repair procedures are not required for flight because of the elimination of major debris, improved damage detection, a better understanding of the consequences of impacts and the crew's worst-case ability to use the space station as a "safe haven" until another shuttle, already prepped for flight, could be launched on a rescue mission.

"I believe in our flight rationale, which says we are fixing the vehicle," said LeRoy Cain, the ascent-entry flight director for Columbia's final mission and now, for return to flight. "We are eliminating critical debris from being liberated from the tank and the boosters, the launch pad, every source that we can think of, we think we're eliminating critical debris. That's number one for me.

"I really feel like the chances of us having something come off of the stack and create a problem for us in our flight are exceedingly low."

Low, but not zero. Even after two-and-a-half years of research, testing and analyses to minimize the amount of foam insulation or ice that can shake off the shuttle's external fuel tank during launch, NASA engineers say catastrophic impacts are still possible in worst-case scenarios.

Not to mention the ever-present possibility of a main engine or booster failure in a machine that weighs 4.5 million pounds at launch and accelerates from zero to more than 100 mph - straight up - in less than 10 seconds.

"People seem to have forgotten that when we fly the shuttle with the technology that we human beings own today - and there is none better - it's still not good enough," said new NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, a refreshingly candid rocket scientist with a doctorate and five master's degrees.

"This is a very risky venture," he said. "The people who are doing this are risking their lives in support of objectives the United States has in the pursuit of space exploration. Many people risk their lives on behalf of the United States and our flight crews, our astronauts, are in that group also. Everybody should understand that."

Shuttle commander Eileen Collins agreed.

"There are millions of things that have to go right on launch day and entry day, there are all kinds of sensors and transducers and wires and electrons and flow paths going all through the orbiter, any of which could break at any time," she said in an interview with CBS News. "People ask me, what worries you the most? It's really not what we know about but what we don't know about that worries me."

Even so, she said, "it's time for us to go fly."

"It's been over two years now and a huge effort has been put into getting the space shuttle back flying again," she said. "I think we're ready to do it. My only concern is that after my mission flies that we continue to make things better, we don't just drop it and say return to flight has happened and now we can go back to business as usual."

A "business as usual" attitude among senior NASA managers played a role in the decision to launch Columbia Jan. 16, 2003, despite a major foam debris strike two missions earlier.

During Columbia's launching, a piece of foam broke away from the same area of the ship's external tank and blasted a hole in the leading edge of the shuttle's left wing. During re-entry sixteen days later, on Feb. 1, 2003, super hot plasma entered the breach and melted the wing from the inside out, triggering the shuttle's destruction.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, or CAIB, made 29 recommendations to improve safety and management, including 15 that were to be implemented before the resumption of shuttle flights.

An independent panel charged with assessing that implementation concluded the agency had failed to fully address the three most critical recommendations to eliminate all debris sources; to make the shuttle's thermal protection system more resistant to impacts; and to develop repair techniques to fix any such damage that might occur.

The Return to Flight Task Group's conclusions rekindled a long-running debate among managers, engineers and even reporters about the intent of the CAIB given the deliberately vague wording used in some of the recommendations.

But the Task Group, led by former Apollo astronaut Thomas Stafford and former shuttle commander Richard Covey, adopted a literal interpretation of the recommendations. And by that standard, they concluded, NASA came up short on debris elimination, shuttle hardening and development of reliable repair techniques.

NASA managers did not argue with the panel's conclusions. But they pointed out that engineering reality had dramatically changed since the CAIB's initial report was released and that it had turned out to be impossible, given the shuttle's design and the time and funding available, to eliminate all debris.

While some tiles and seals around the landing gear doors were "hardened" to resist impacts, NASA managers called off efforts to toughen the shuttle's wing leading edges, concluding it did not make sense to mount such a major engineering effort given a recent presidential directive to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010. Only 18 to 20 shuttle flights are expected before the shuttle era ends.

As for repair techniques, NASA managers say they ended up in a "Catch-22:" To fully develop the required repair procedures, astronauts needed to test them in the space environment to make sure they could be trusted to bring a crippled ship home.

Instead, Discovery's crew will test two rudimentary leading edge repair techniques, one meant for cracks and one for small holes, and one procedure intended for use on tiles with minor impact damage. The results of the tests aboard Discovery, coupled with additional tests aboard the next shuttle flight in September, may provide the data needed to formally certify one or more repair techniques.

Then again, they may not.

"The fact is, several CAIB recommendations, taken word by word, are not implementable with the state of our knowledge today," Griffin said. "We do not know how to repair large holes in (reinforced) carbon carbon (leading edge panels) or even small holes, maybe.

"We are being as smart about this as we know how to be but we are up against the limits of our human knowledge. If someone wants more, they're going to have to find smarter humans. So the recommendations as they were written are not strictly speaking implementable, at least not all of them are, and the (Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group) noted NASA was not able to implement them. That was not a surprise."

In the end, Griffin agreed with his engineers that NASA had done everything reasonably possible to improve shuttle safety and that only incremental improvements could be expected by keeping the fleet on the ground.

"If we ground the shuttle fleet, we're not going to be able to complete station assembly, we're not going to be able to do other things that we want to do," Griffin said. "If, of course, we believe that all debris sources have been reduced to a level low enough that the shuttle won't be damaged, then the tile repair issue becomes kind of moot.

"We're in that gray area where we believe we have greatly reduced the risk due to debris, foam and ice, but not so much we're completely comfortable with it. So the STS-114 crew ... will be lifting off in the face of a known risk."

For the record, Gehman said he believed NASA did, in fact, met the board's overall intent.

"It is our judgment that they've efforts have passed the criteria that we set up for them," Gehman said in an interview with CBS News. "But that doesn't mean they're allowed to give up on the repair. In our view, they have to keep working at it."

The critical recommendations, in his view, centered on four broad areas.

"First of all, you've got to understand foam creation and the creation of the hazard in the first place and you've got to do everything you can to prevent the creation of foam in the second place," Gehman said in the CBS interview. "The second thing you've got to do is, you've got to have much better pictures on launch and ascent to know whether or not there's been a foam event, or a debris event. You've got to know that. The third thing you've got to do is, you've got to essentially re-certify the orbiter to be ready to come back into the Earth's atmosphere. That translates into some kind of an inspection in orbit.

If serious damage is detected, "you have to have some minimal, practical kind of capability to do some kind or orbital repair, the best practicable kind of a repair. Knowing full well, depending on the size of the damage or what the nature of the damage was, there are some repairs that are beyond your capability to do in space.

"And it has been our unwritten policy ... and I told Stafford-Covey and asked Stafford and Covey to back me up on this and they have - and that is, you must attack all four of these things.

"Now you can do some better than others," Gehman said. "If you really think you've done a fabulous job of preventing the creation of debris in the first place, you've got some really good ways to take pictures to make sure your orbiter hasn't been struck or anything like that and you're really sure that it's in good condition, then you can do some of the other stuff to a lesser degree.

"But you do have to make an attempt at all four areas. Now, within those four areas, there are sometimes one, two, three or four things that you've got to do. But that was what our intent was."

In a recent teleconference with reporters, Gehman said "I know of no reason why they should not proceed with the launch. That's not to same thing as saying it's safe to go, that's a different story."

Asked to explain, he added: "I don't think the American people and the Congress of the United States realize how dangerous this is."

"We didn't realize how dangerous it was when we started this investigation," he said. "It was dangerous, it remains dangerous. We the country have got to replace this vehicle as soon as possible. ... I'm sure this next flight will be safer than the previous ones, but by any measure of 'safe,' this is not safe."

Discovery is targeted for launch on the 114th shuttle mission at 3:50:52 p.m. Wednesday, July 13. Joining shuttle veteran Collins on Discovery's flight deck will be pilot James Kelly, flight engineer Robinson, seated to Robinson's right, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

Strapped in below on the shuttle's middeck will be Mir-veteran Andrew Thomas, Wendy Lawrence and Charles Camarda. All but Camarda and Noguchi are shuttle veterans.

The shuttle's primary cargo includes a refurbished control moment gyroscope to replace one that failed earlier aboard the space station; a tool kit and spare parts module that will be mounted on the station's airlock to enable future assembly work; and a pressurized logistics module loaded with space station equipment and supplies.

In an interview for the book "Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia," by this author and Michael Cabbage, Collins was asked if she had any second thoughts about commanding mission STS-114.

"Absolutely not," she said. "In fact, I am more committed to flying this mission than I ever would have been. ... I am excited, I am going to be extremely confident because look at all this work that is being done, not just done because of (Columbia), but other things that we think are risky. I am so confident, I am so excited, I want to get our country back flying in space again, so I am not one blink of an eye worried about safety."

And her crewmates?

"It's time to go fly," Robinson told CBS News in a recent interview. "There will be debris, there will be some damage, I'm convinced of that. If there isn't, that'll be great but I'll sure be surprised. I would be very surprised if it's critical damage, damage that won't allow us to fly home on. But here's the thing. We'll know it. We won't have to wonder. We'll know it.

"We'll have the technology now for the first time on this mission to take a look at it with all the cameras and sensors. This is the way we verify all the engineering that's been done. So we'll get to look at our bird before we come home. Then, on top of that, if the worst on worst on worst happens and we do have critical damage, the space station will (be available for safe haven), we won't have to risk our lives coming back through the atmosphere. This is what gives me tremendous confidence and makes me feel very lucky I'm flying now."

[GioFX]

Part 2: Limited launch periods now in place

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

Columbia was brought down by a suitcase-size piece of foam insulation that broke away from an aerodynamically shaped ramp used to keep ice from forming on a strut connecting the shuttle's nose to its external fuel tank. The 1.67-pound piece of foam came off 81.7 seconds after liftoff and struck the underside of Columbia's left wing 0.2 seconds later, smashing into the lower side of a reinforced carbon carbon panel, one of 22 making up the wing's leading edge.

Ground cameras were unable to see the point of impact. One long-range tracker that might have shown the impact site was out of focus. And given the resolution of the cameras in place at the time, it's not clear obvious signs of damage would have been detected.

In any case, without the benefit of high-resolution video of the impact, mission managers were forced to rely on computer modeling and other indirect techniques for determining whether the foam strike could have caused any entry-critical damage. In the end, they wrongly concluded Columbia could safely re-enter as is.

Commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, David Brown, Michael Anderson and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon were killed Feb. 1, 2003, when hot gas burned its way into the interior of the left wing through a presumed breach on or near the underside of RCC panel No. 9. The wing melted and the shuttle broke up 37 miles above Texas.

In the wake of the disaster, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board ordered sweeping changes, including "an aggressive program to eliminate all external tank thermal protection system debris shedding at the source with particular emphasis on the region where the bipod struts attach to the external tank."

The bipod ramp was intended to keep ice from forming around the struts due to the ultra-low temperatures of the shuttle's liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants. NASA's solution was to simply eliminate the ramps and to install 300-watt heaters on the strut attachment fittings to prevent ice buildups.

Tank engineers also implemented a variety of other changes to minimize foam shedding and the first upgraded tank was shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in the first week of January.

"Through all our testing, we believe the amount of foam that can come off the tank and not cause serious damage is .03 pounds," said Wayne Hale, deputy director of the shuttle program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "If you think about that, that is three one hundredths of a pound. That is something like six tenths of an ounce. So that's a pretty small piece of foam.

"All our investigations of the foam indicate we will not get a piece of foam coming off bigger than .008, eight one thousandths, or almost an order of magnitude smaller than the requirement."

It is not possible to eliminate all foam shedding, but "we're clearly moving toward an era where we expect to see much less damage in the tile and no critical damage that will require a repair," Hale said. "So that's our goal in this and it's beginning to look very positive that we'll be able to accomplish that level of control on the ET foam."

But to make absolutely sure, NASA must be able to inspect the tank and the space shuttle after launch with much greater precision than before. The CAIB recommended that NASA "upgrade the imaging system to be capable of providing a minimum of three useful views of the space shuttle from liftoff to at least solid rocket booster separation."

The panel also told NASA to look into putting cameras aboard ships and/or aircraft to provide additional coverage, to develop a capability to obtain high-resolution images of the tank after separation from the shuttle, to develop techniques for high-resolution imaging of the ship's underside and wing leading edges; and to make arrangements to obtain imagery from spy satellites if needed.

On its own, NASA managers decided to launch the first two post-Columbia shuttle flights in daylight to improve photo coverage and to time the launchings so the external tank, separating from the ship half a world away, also would be lighted by the sun.

To reach the space station, the shuttle must launch within a few minutes of when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the lab's orbit. And as a final complication, the shuttle can only visit the station when the "beta angle" - the angle between the plane of the station's orbit and the sun - ensures the shuttle-station stack will not get too hot.

Throwing all of those requirements together, NASA can only launch a shuttle to the station during relatively short windows.

NASA had hoped to launch Discovery in mid May, but the flight was delayed after a fueling test April 14 because of concern about ice buildups around a flexible liquid oxygen feedline bellows assembly. In addition, two of four hydrogen fuel sensors operated intermittently and a pressure relief valve in the hydrogen section of the tank cycled more often than expected.

At the same time, engineers were struggling to define the threat posed by ice during launch. While engineers had focused on foam impacts in the initial stages of the recovery program, it became clear earlier this year that ice posed a similar threat. Areas of concern centered on the feedline bellows and on so-called stand-off brackets that support the tank's externally mounted liquid oxygen line.

NASA managers ultimately ordered engineers to haul Discovery off the launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to an external tank and boosters originally slated for the second post-Columbia mission. The new tank was equipped with a heater to minimize ice buildups around the feedline bellows.

Before the rollback, however, a second fueling test was conducted May 20, confirming the hydrogen vent valve's unusual behavior. Engineers believe the valve cycling was associated with a jet-like device called a diffuser that injects helium into the tank to help maintain the proper temperature and to pressurize the tank for flight. A new dual-screen diffuser was used in Discovery's original tank and managers decided to switch back to the original single-screen design for the new tank.

As for the hydrogen sensors, which operated normally the second time around, NASA managers decided June 6 to forego a third tanking test, saying they are confident the new tank will behave normally during Discovery's countdown.

And they ultimately concluded the threat posed by whatever ice does fall off the tank is an acceptable risk.

But unlike the threat posed by foam, agency managers refused to provide any numbers defining the smallest allowable ice or the odds of a catastrophic impact. They said the issue was too complex and that such numbers would be meaningless without a thorough understanding of the assumptions that went into the calculations.

"It's a really complex formulation, going from how much ice can you a have on the spacecraft and what velocities, at what vibration levels it shakes loose, how big are the pieces that shake loose and then how they transport through the aerodynamic environment," said John Muratore, the engineer in charge of the debris assessment.

"And then, what's the resistance of the tiles to ice impacts and finally, given an ice crater - which is different from a foam (insulation) crater - how well can we enter (the atmosphere) with regard to that?

"The uncertainties in each of those areas are significant," he said. "There are all sorts of numbers that are floating around. We have nine different estimates for ice on tile from one ice location. ... It is a very complex problem.

"So what we did was, we looked at the relative risks and we're convinced the ... the remaining risks due to ice is around an order of magnitude less than the ones that we fixed."

Muratore said ice represents more of a threat to the shuttle's tiles than it does to its reinforced carbon carbon leading edge panels and that even though engineers used "all the supercomputers at NASA to run it down ... it doesn't lend itself to a single number."

"Impact dynamics are a very complicated engineering discipline," he said.

While he would not discuss the underlying statistics, sources said some estimates of the likelihood of tile damage due to ice impacts - damage that would require repair or some other response - could be as high as 1-in-100 or so or as low as one in tens of thousands, depending on the assumptions that were made.

Engineers do not put much faith in either extreme because they do not have enough reliable test data to more precisely define the actual risk. And that won't change anytime soon. As one briefing chart put it, significant improvement in the understanding of the impact threat from ice and foam would require "another enormous undertaking."

The best way to improve that understanding in the near term, many engineers believe, is to collect actual flight data by launching Discovery as planned. They believe the studies carried out to date, plus NASA's experience in 113 previous shuttle missions, show the risk of a debris strike, what ever it might be, is acceptable.

"We believe it's an acceptable risk at this time," said shuttle program manager William Parsons.

[GioFX]

Part 3: Unprecedented video coverage will monitor launch

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

From a mission control standpoint, ascent-entry flight director Cain said Discovery's flight will use the same rules and procedures in place for Columbia's launching with one major exception. NASA will use a new trans-Atlantic abort site in France that will replace Ben Guerir in Morocco.

While NASA will leave equipment at Ben Guerir for possible use in the future, security issues in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks could not be ignored. The new landing site, known as Istres-le-Tube, is located northwest of Marseilles and is one of the largest military air bases in Europe.

"We're real excited about it," Cain said. "It's a great opportunity for us and the French air force and the air traffic control folks in southeastern France have been very helpful."

Barring an engine failure or some other malfunction that might trigger a TAL abort, Collins and Kelly will carry out the same ascent procedures as Rick Husband's crew aboard Columbia. But major changes have been implemented on the ground to document foam shedding from Discovery's external tank and any possible damage to the orbiter.

Bob Page, the engineer at the Kennedy Space Center who leads NASA's launch photo team, said Discovery's launching will be documented in unprecedented detail using a mixture of high-speed film cameras, high-definition TV cameras and even airborne sensors using two NASA WB-57 jets. More than 112 cameras are in place for tracking and analysis, including more than 20 HDTV cameras.

The high-definition video cameras are a major improvement over the standard television cameras in place when Columbia took off. Those operated at just under 30 frames per second, limiting how precisely engineers could track the debris from the fuel tank. The new HDTV cameras will operate at 60 frames per second and provide four times the resolution, or clarity.

But because the shuttle rolls into a "heads down" orientation shortly after launch, putting the belly on the other side facing upward, ground cameras, no matter how good, still will not be able to see certain areas of the shuttle's underside. Even so, any major debris strikes should be readily apparent.

"For tracking debris, for determining debris size, for determining debris velocity, for location of impact, for source location, for a lot of those things, I have much better data," Page said in a recent interview. "But what so far has been determined as a damage size that would be a threat to the vehicle, it is smaller than the resolution that I can work with at the time frames from 70 seconds out to SRB separation. The damage size that's a threat to the vehicle is a whole lot smaller than anything I can see."

That's where cameras aboard the shuttle will come into play. But if anything large breaks away, and certainly anything the size of Columbia's bipod ramp, Page's cameras will spot it, track it and help managers determine what damage it may have caused.

More than 50 high-speed film cameras mounted on the launch pad, running at 400 frames per second, will capture the initial seconds of flight from extreme close range. Three short-range tracking platforms around the perimeter of the pad, each one equipped with two film cameras and an HDTV camera, will capture imagery through the first minute or so of flight.

Six medium-range tracking platforms, each with film and HDTV cameras, will capture the view through the first 100 seconds and 10 long-range trackers, five of them north and five south of the shuttle's ground track, will cover the flight through the first 165 seconds, well after booster separation.

Because of the high frame rate, imagery from the HDTV cameras will be stored on hard drives. The engineering team that will analyze the footage will be able to access it across the agency from internal NASA web sites. The public will see normal-resolution television views from those tracking cameras in realtime over NASA's satellite network. Within six to eight hours, Page hopes to deliver processed HDTV imagery to public affairs for broadcast.

Along with switching to HDTV, Page also bumped up the frame rate of the film cameras to provide better temporal resolution.

"You've got to look at both the spatial and the temporal. Let's start with the film," he said. "We ran 35-millimeter film before and we're running it now. So the pixel, or grain, count is the same. But we've increased the frame rate from 64 frames per second to 100. So we have 50 percent more data points to track a piece of debris. As you're tracking a piece of debris as it moves down the stack during ascent, we have 50 percent more number of points, number of frames, to pinpoint where it is in three dimensional space. So that's important.

"From the video side, we're going from 30 frames per second interlaced, where every other line is scanned, and we're now going to 60 frames per second progressive scan, and that means every single line is scanned. So we have a hundred percent more data points, plus we have four times the resolution. We can measure the size better, we can see it better."

The smallest piece of debris or damage detectable by the ground cameras at the moment of solid-fuel booster separation is 15 to 16 inches across. To improve those numbers, NASA has equipped its two WB-57 jets with nose-mounted HDTV cameras and infrared sensors. The planes will fly 15 miles to the north and south of the shuttle's ground track at an altitude of 60,000 feet some 40 miles off shore. At booster separation, they will be 15 miles below the shuttle.

Each HDTV camera in the nose of each jet will be hooked up to a 4.2-meter focal length telescope. The telescopes should be capable of detecting debris or damage sites as small as six inches across at booster separation.

Page said the planes have two additional benefits for NASA: They can provide full video coverage of a return-to-launch-site abort and they will be used during re-entry to image the shuttle at altitude on its way home. But footage cannot be downlinked from the aircraft. It must be delivered to analysts after landing.

The CAIB recommended that NASA include the operational status of its tracking cameras in the agency's launch commit criteria, the set of rules used to determine whether a countdown can proceed or not. Page said the status of long-range trackers will be included in a management poll during a 10-minute hold at the T-minus 20-minute mark. A final poll of short-range camera status will be conducted during a hold at T-minus nine minutes. But the cameras are not part of the formal launch commit criteria because they do not directly affect flight safety.

No additional polling will be conducted after the T-minus nine-minute hold and any subsequent failures in the camera system will not stop a countdown. The high-speed launch pad cameras fire up at T-minus 10 seconds and Page said it would be more dangerous to abort a countdown at that point than it would be to continue without complete camera coverage.

"The LCC comes into play when you look at these cameras on the pad," he said. "Now I have a computer system that is controlling every single one of these. If I lose that computer system, I lose all of these views. So what I do is, I have an LCC down to T-minus nine minutes for the control system for these cameras, to make sure it is operating and it is stable. And then I can continue on from T-minus nine."

NASA is spending $40 million to upgrade the imaging system at the Kennedy Space Center and $9 million to modify the WB-57s. Through the end of the shuttle program, the agency expects to spend another $40 million on operations, pushing the total cost of the new system to nearly $90 million.

[GioFX]

Part 4: On-board cameras promise dramatic views

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

Ground- and air-based shuttle imagery mark a clear improvement over what was in place for Columbia's launch. But it still isn't good enough to spot small areas of potential entry critical damage or damage to areas of the underside of the shuttle that cannot be seen from the ground.

To close that gap, NASA is installing cameras on the external tank of the shuttle, on the two solid-fuel boosters and in the recessed cavity where 17-inch propellant feed lines enter the belly of the orbiter. In addition, as soon as the shuttle reaches space, the astronauts will use a hand-held video camera to "shoot" the tank from close range before it drifts away.

"We have added some cameras on the tank and on the solids that are primarily looking at tank and at the bottom of the vehicle for the higher impact concern areas," said Paul Hill, the lead flight director for STS-114. "From a crew perspective, they're all hands off, almost passive operations. Once we separate from the ET, we have modified the ET separation maneuver, which will pitch us around so the crew can take pictures at about half the range we used to take pictures at.

"What we're more excited about from an ET photography perspective is the umbilical well camera. Because that camera is going to give us such a good shot of the ET foam in particular that's on the orbiter side and we're going to see that at a really close range. That will give us a really good idea of how the ET insulation performed during ascent."

Within a minute or so of separation, the crew will get a full view of the tank from Columbia's flight deck.

"We would definitely be able to see if we had large pieces of foam come off," Hill said. "My expectation is, we will have really good resolution because it is a still camera instead of video, and because of the close range. Because it's a digital still camera, we'll also be able to downlink (the images) instead of waiting until post-flight like we would a film camera."

NASA managers had hoped to downlink the imagery before the astronauts went to bed at the end of their first day in space. But in an embarrassing oversight, engineers discovered a clearance issue very late in the processing flow between the shuttle's high-speed KU-band television antenna and a new instrumented boom that will be used to help spot damage. Clearances between the antenna and the boom are so tight, NASA amended the flight rules to delay deployment of the KU-band antenna until the second day of the mission, after the boom is deployed.

During robot arm checkout during the first day of the flight, the astronauts will photograph the actual clearance between the boom and the antenna, providing data engineers can use to determine if the antenna can remain deployed after the sensor boom is stowed prior to space station undocking.

While mission managers will have to wait for the crew's tank separation video, the shuttle's computer system can use a slower antenna system to downlink data from new wing leading edge sensors that were added to the shuttle's wings as a post-Columbia upgrade.

Located on each wing's forward spar behind every RCC panel, the 132 accelerometers will provide data telling flight controllers whether anything struck the leading edges during launch. In fact, they may show engineers aspects of the shuttle they've never seen before.

Flight Day 1 highlights (all times in Eastern; a detailed flight plan is available on the Current Mission page):



DAY.EDT.........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/13/05
Wed 03:51 PM...00...00...00...STS-114 Launch
Wed 04:00 PM...00...00...09...Main engine cutoff
Wed 04:29 PM...00...00...38...OMS-2 rocket firing
Wed 04:41 PM...00...00...50...Post-insertion timeline
Wed 06:21 PM...00...02...30...GIRA install; PGSC laptop setup (1)
Wed 06:41 PM...00...02...50...Shuttle remote manipulator system (SRMS)
powerup
Wed 07:01 PM...00...03...10...SRMS checkout
Wed 07:21 PM...00...03...30...Elevon park
Wed 07:46 PM...00...03...55...SSRMS photographs KU-OBSS clearance
Wed 07:51 PM...00...04...00...SEE setup
Wed 08:06 PM...00...04...15...SSRMS powerdown
Wed 08:53 PM...00...05...02...NC-1 rendezvous burn (166.1/122.8 nm)
Wed 09:16 PM...00...05...25...Group B computer powerdown
Wed 09:51 PM...00...06...00...STS crew sleep begins

The sensor system generates two types of data: Peak and detailed.
"Think about what a stereo equalizer looks like," Hill said. "You've seen these ones that, across the frequency band, as the signal bounces up and down, it leaves a hash mark. The system works kind of like that. It's recording very high rate frequency response data across the wing leading edge from all these accelerometers that are on the wing spar for every RCC panel. And it registers the peaks, the software pulls out where those little peaks are from T-0 all the way to after we've made it into orbit.

"The first thing we downlink is just the file that has all the peaks in it," Hill said. "That then tells us that we have a suspected impact somewhere and after we see that, then within an hour after the guys in the MER (mission evaluation room) see that and pick out the ones they think are potential impacts, then we put commands on board to downlink the detailed data around each one of those peaks."

Hill acknowledged that engineers worry "we're going to get data down that we don't understand, or because of the shake rattle and roll we'll get going up hill, we won't be able to interpret the data."

"What's in our favor on this is we've been flying accelerometers like this and the same data collection system in the aft compartment of the orbiter for years," he said. "Now we haven't had it on the wing leading edge and we weren't using it to detect impacts, but the hardware has been flying for some time and we have characterized a similar ascent vibe environment in the aft compartment."

In addition, the sensors have been used during impact tests at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, to collect actual data.

"So we have a certain amount of data on how the system will respond going up hill, we have other data to tell us what impact ought to look like," Hill said. "One thing's for sure, by the end of flight day one we'll have data on the ground and we'll know the answer to that question."

[GioFX]

Part 5: Taking a close-up view of wing leading edges

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

Even if no obvious signs of foam shedding or damage show up in the initial imagery or wing leading edge data, CAIB recommendation 3.4-3 calls for NASA to "provide a capability to obtain and downlink high-resolution images of the underside of the orbiter wing leading edge and forward section of both wings' thermal protection system." The Discovery astronauts are going to spend their second day in space carefully inspecting the leading edges of both wings, along with the RCC nose cap of the shuttle, using a new 50-foot-long boom mounted on the starboard side of the payload bay known as the orbiter boom sensor system, or OBSS.

Thomas will unlimber the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm and lock it onto the OBSS. Thomas, Kelly and Camarda then will spend the entire day maneuvering the boom back and forth along the leading edges of both wings, using an OBSS television camera and a laser sensor to inspect every square inch of the RCC panels. The astronauts also will use the boom to inspect the nose cap.

Maximum speed of the boom survey: 2 inches per second.

"If you think about the laser, the way we're recording the data is similar to recording video," Hill said. "Imagine standing on the side of a soccer field watching one of your kids play soccer with a camcorder. And you're panning that camera real fast so you can watch him run down the field. But when you play it back at home, you can't make out hide nor hair because everything is blurred. That's the problem we've got. We've got a translation constraint. If we move too fast, we blur the image, which directly affects the resolution and we can't see the small stuff we're looking for."

A year ago, Hill said, engineers thought entry critical damage "required a penetration of the RCC, not just coating damage or even small damage to the substrate on the outside."

"More recent arc jet testing has us worried that coating damage alone, if it's large enough and if we had internal damage - delamination - between the layers, that the combination of those two could be entry critical."

In the early years of the shuttle program, Hill said, tests indicated the leading edge RCC panels could tolerate penetrations a quarter of an inch across. But that testing was with a clean hole punched in the panel, which is what one would expect with a hypervelocity impact in space. But during launch, impact velocities would be much lower and any resulting penetrations would be more ragged.

Engineers then began wondering if lower-velocity impacts might be entry critical.

"What we found out in more recent arc jet tests, in the last couple or three months - this is the thing that's key - if (RCC coating is intact), our conventional wisdom is good, we don't care, internal delamination's not an issue.

"But if the coating is gone and underneath that coating you're delaminated, then picture the RCC itself from a side view like a cross section. Now you've got this bubble or this void in between layers. What you've done is, you've significantly reduced the density of this RCC that's exposed to the heat load. So it burns faster.

"So now instead of being this more solid material that's hard to light, kind of like if you take a piece of hard wood like oak and you hold a match to that oak, it won't light typically. But if you shave off some splinters of that oak, you can get them to flash. Damned if that's not what we found in a handful of RCC runs for uncoated RCC."

For the tests, engineers deliberately damaged an RCC panel by pushing on it with a metal cylinder. After confirming the panel developed delamination as a result, "they put that bad boy under the arc jet and it burned like there was no tomorrow. The whole area that covered the delamination burned off like a fuse."

If it is credible that the shuttle could take an impact that has enough energy to cause delamination and loss of coating, "then that does not have to be very big to be catastrophic," Hill said. "From an RCC damage perspective, that looks like a penetration. So now the question is, do we believe that testing? Have we done enough of those tests to be sure that is an entry critical damage form? And then, is it credible for us to take an impact that could cause that kind of damage?"

One OBSS laser sensor, known as the laser dynamic range imager, or LDRI, dwill be used to inspect the wing leading edge panels and the shuttle's nose cap. A second sensor, known as the laser camera system, or LCS, may be used later to focus on a suspect area or to collect additional data.

"With our increased knowledge of the transport model, there's only very few parts of the leading edge where we're really at risk of taking an impact that can do that," Hill said.

Flight Day 2 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/14/05
Thu 05:51 AM...00...14...00...STS crew wakeup
Thu 08:06 AM...00...16...15...SRMS powerup
Thu 08:08 AM...00...16...17...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing
(165.7/155.3 nm)
Thu 08:21 AM...00...16...30...Centerline camera installation
Thu 08:21 AM...00...16...30...SRMS checkout
Thu 08:51 AM...00...17...00...Ergometer setup
Thu 09:06 AM...00...17...15...Orbiter boom survey system (OBSS) unberth
Thu 09:21 AM...00...17...30...PGSC setup (2)
Thu 09:21 AM...00...17...30...KU-band antenna deploy
Thu 10:31 AM...00...18...40...Rendezvous tools checkout (part 1)
Thu 10:36 AM...00...18...45...OBSS thermal protection system (TPS)
survey
Thu 10:51 AM...00...19...00...Contingency water container (CWC) setup
Thu 11:01 AM...00...19...10...SAFER jet backpack checkout
Thu 11:31 AM...00...19...40...Lawrence exercises
Thu 11:31 AM...00...19...40...Spacewalk power tool checkout
Thu 12:01 PM...00...20...10...Crew meals begin
Thu 01:01 PM...00...21...10...Airlock prep
Thu 01:51 PM...00...22...00...EMU (spacesuit) checkout prep
Thu 02:06 PM...00...22...15...Docking ring extension
Thu 02:36 PM...00...22...45...OBSS survey resumes
Thu 03:36 PM...00...23...45...EMU (spacesuit) checkout (MS1&2)
Thu 04:01 PM...01...00...10...OBSS berthing
Thu 04:46 PM...01...00...55...SRMS survey
Thu 05:21 PM...01...01...30...NPC rendezvous rocket firing
(165.8/155.1 nm)
Thu 06:16 PM...01...02...25...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing
(165.8/155.1 nm)
Thu 08:51 PM...01...05...00...STS crew sleep begins

[GioFX]

Part 6: Going back to the international space station

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

The OBSS will survey RCC panels and the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap. To look for signs of tile damage on the underside of the shuttle, including possible damage to critical seals around landing gear doors, Discovery's crew will rely on help from the crew of the space station.

Docking is targeted for flight day three. Collins will guide Discovery through a standard rendezvous profile, approaching the lab complex from behind and below.

On final approach, at a distance of about 600 feet directly below the station, Collins will carry out a slow 360-degree rendezvous pitch maneuver, or RPM, that will point the belly of the shuttle at the station.

As the shuttle's underside rotates into view, Expedition 11 commander Sergei Krikalev and flight engineer John Phillips, shooting through windows at opposite ends of the station, will photograph Discovery's belly with handheld digital cameras equipped with 400- and 800-millimeter lenses. During an earlier expedition, science officer Donald Pettit took test photographs of approaching Russian spacecraft to determine what the station's cameras could actually see.

"The 800 millimeter gives them one-inch resolution, which is what we're looking for around (landing gear) door seals," Hill said. "400 millimeters gives three inches, which is what they're looking for everywhere else."

Again, imagery from the station will be downlinked that day for detailed analysis.

After completing the RPM maneuver, Collins will position Discovery directly ahead of the space station with the shuttle's nose facing deep space and its cargo bay facing the lab complex. She then will guide the spacecraft to a docking with a pressurized mating adaptor attached to the Destiny lab module, the first shuttle linkup with the outpost since Nov. 25, 2002.

After leak checks, Krikalev and Phillips will welcome the shuttle crew aboard and provide a brief safety briefing before all nine astronauts get down to work.

Because of clearance issues after the shuttle is docked, Discovery's robot arm cannot unberth the OBSS for additional tile inspections. Instead, the space station's arm - the SSRMS - will pluck the sensor boom from the shuttle's cargo bay and hand it off to Discovery's arm a few hours after docking.

Flight Day 3 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/15/05
Fri 04:51 AM...01...13...00...STS crew wakeup
Fri 04:51 AM...01...13...00...ISS crew wakeup
Fri 06:21 AM...01...14...30...ISS daily planning conference
Fri 06:26 AM...01...14...35...Group B computer powerup
Fri 06:41 AM...01...14...50...Rendezvous timeline begins
Fri 07:06 AM...01...15...15...ISS: Phillips exercises
Fri 07:06 AM...01...15...15...Ku antenna clearance video downlinked
Fri 07:21 AM...01...15...30...Rendezvous tools setup
Fri 07:26 AM...01...15...35...ET video downlinked
Fri 07:23 AM...01...15...32...NH rendezvous rocket firing (192.8/155.8 nm)
Fri 07:51 AM...01...16...00...Noguchi exercises
Fri 07:56 AM...01...16...05...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Fri 08:15 AM...01...16...24...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing
(194.2/181.0 nm)
Fri 08:51 AM...01...17...00...EMU removal from airlock
Fri 09:21 AM...01...17...30...Thomas exercises
Fri 09:41 AM...01...17...50...TI rendezvous rocket firing (194.6/185.2 nm)
Fri 10:06 AM...01...18...15...Robinson exercises
Fri 10:06 AM...01...18...15...ISS meal
Fri 11:06 AM...01...19...15...Begin final approach
Fri 11:10 AM...01...19...19...Discovery directly below ISS (+Rbar)
Fri 11:31 AM...01...19...40...ISS crew films rotational pitch maneuver
Fri 12:06 PM...01...20...15...ISS crew prepares PMA-2 for docking
Fri 12:28 PM...01...20...37...Discovery docks with ISS (194.8/186.6 nm)
Fri 12:56 PM...01...21...05...Leak checks
Fri 12:56 PM...01...21...05...Camarda exercises
Fri 01:26 PM...01...21...35...Shuttle airlock prepped
Fri 01:31 PM...01...21...40...Group B powerdown
Fri 01:31 PM...01...21...40...Post-rendezvous PGSC reconfig
Fri 01:46 PM...01...21...55...Hatch opening
Fri 02:31 PM...01...22...40...Handshake/Welcome
Fri 02:41 PM...01...22...50...Safety Briefing
Fri 03:06 PM...01...23...15...SSRMS OBSS grapple
Fri 03:21 PM...01...23...30...Krikalev exercises
Fri 03:21 PM...01...23...30...Collins exercises
Fri 03:21 PM...01...23...30...EVA prep for transfer
Fri 03:31 PM...01...23...40...OBSS unberth with SSRMS
Fri 04:01 PM...02...00...10...OBSS handoff to SRMS
Fri 05:11 PM...02...01...20...Lithium hydroxide exchange
Fri 05:41 PM...02...01...50...SSRMS moves to Unity for MPLM inspection
Fri 06:36 PM...02...02...45...ISS daily planning conference
Fri 08:51 PM...02...05...00...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

The astronauts also will begin moving more than 1,000 pounds of station equipment stowed in the shuttle's middeck area over to the space station, along with tools that will be used in the upcoming spacewalks. The bulk of the supplies carried aloft aboard Discovery will be housed in the Italian-built multi-purpose logistics module mounted in the cargo bay. The 21,000-pound MPLM will be unberthed on Flight Day 4, using the station's robot arm, and attached, or mated, to the downward-facing port on the U.S. Unity module.
Once the MPLM is in place, the SSRMS will lock onto a mobile base system on the front side of the station's unfinished solar array truss to assist with additional tile inspections. Later that day, the station's arm will be moved back to its normal perch atop the Destiny module. The astronauts, meanwhile, will perform leak checks to make sure the MPLM is firmly mated, they will pressurize the vestibule between Unity and the supply module, activate critical system and then float inside to begin the process of moving supplies into the space station.

At roughly the same time, yet another shuttle tile survey will begin using the RMS-OBSS boom, with additional TV views provided by the SSRMS.

In addition, the tools that will be used for the upcoming spacewalks will be configured for use, two emergency jet backpacks will be moved aboard the station and the crew will spend an hour reviewing the procedures that will be used in the first spacewalk.

Flight Day 4 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/16/05
Sat 04:51 AM...02...13...00...STS crew wakeup
Sat 05:21 AM...02...13...30...ISS crew wakeup
Sat 06:51 AM...02...15...00...ISS daily planning conference
Sat 06:56 AM...02...15...05...SSRMS grapples multi-purpose logistics
module (MPLM)
Sat 07:26 AM...02...15...35...SSRMS pulls MPLM from payload bay
Sat 07:31 AM...02...15...40...Camarda exercises
Sat 07:36 AM...02...15...45...ISS: Phillips exercises
Sat 07:36 AM...02...15...45...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Sat 08:01 AM...02...16...10...EVA tool config
Sat 08:21 AM...02...16...30...MPLM installation begins
Sat 08:56 AM...02...17...05...MPLM equipment setup
Sat 09:26 AM...02...17...35...MPLM berthing mechanism (CBM) 1st torque
Sat 09:26 AM...02...17...35...Crew meals begin (staggered)
Sat 09:46 AM...02...17...55...MPLM CBS torquing (part 2)
Sat 09:51 AM...02...18...00...Middeck transfers
Sat 10:21 AM...02...18...30...Node 1 nadir CBCS removal
Sat 10:36 AM...02...18...45...SSRMS ungrapples MPLM
Sat 10:51 AM...02...19...00...SSRMS grapples mobile base system (MBS)
Sat 11:31 AM...02...19...40...PAO A/G
Sat 11:31 AM...02...19...40...MPLM vestibule pressurization
Sat 11:36 AM...02...19...45...SSRMS ungrapples lab module
Sat 11:51 AM...02...20...00...EVA tool config
Sat 12:06 PM...02...20...15...SRMS/OBSS moved to tile survey point
Sat 12:31 PM...02...20...40...MPLM vestibule preps and setup
Sat 12:31 PM...02...20...40...Collins exercises
Sat 12:36 PM...02...20...45...SRMS/OBSS docked survey
Sat 12:36 PM...02...20...45...Middeck transfers
Sat 01:31 PM...02...21...40...Thomas exercises
Sat 02:01 PM...02...22...10...Robinson exercises
Sat 02:31 PM...02...22...40...Noguchi exercises
Sat 02:51 PM...02...23...00...ISS: Phillips exercises
Sat 03:31 PM...02...23...40...EVA procedures review
Sat 04:01 PM...03...00...10...MPLM ingress
Sat 04:31 PM...03...00...40...SRMS/OBSS survey ends
Sat 04:31 PM...03...00...40...MPLM EVA transfer
Sat 05:31 PM...03...01...40...Transfer tagup
Sat 05:31 PM...03...01...40...SAFER checkout
Sat 05:31 PM...03...01...40...ISS daily planning conference
Sat 05:46 PM...03...01...55...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Sat 05:46 PM...03...01...55...STS crew leaves ISS
Sat 05:56 PM...03...02...05...10.2 psi cabin depressurization
Sat 08:51 PM...03...05...00...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

[GioFX]

Part 7: Spacewalk to test tile repair techniques

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

After weeks of internal debate, testing and analyses, NASA managers met Feb. 10 selected three rudimentary tile and wing leading edge repair techniques to demonstrate during the first post-Columbia shuttle mission.

One of the repair techniques will be carried out inside the shuttle Discovery's crew cabin, a so-called "plug" procedure for repairing larger holes in wing leading edge panels. A less sophisticated tile repair technique, one intended for minor damage, will be demonstrated during the crew's first spacewalk, along with a technique for repairing small cracks in leading edge panels.

NASA originally planned for Robinson and Noguchi to use so-called cure in-place-ablator applicator - CIPAA - backpacks, loaded with a tile repair material known as STA-54, to fill in deliberately damaged tiles in Discovery's cargo bay.

But questions about the reliability of the procedure surfaced last year when engineers noticed the formation of air bubbles in the viscous STA-54 material as the two compounds that made it up were mixed together in the backpack. After extensive troubleshooting, engineers were able to reduce the bubbling but they could not eliminate it. The concern was that bubbles could migrate in weightlessness and form large voids as the material cured. Those voids could weaken the patch and its ability to shield against re-entry heating.

Chief astronaut Kent Rominger told CBS News his office opposed in-flight testing aboard Discovery's flight and sources said later that Discovery commander Eileen Collins agreed with that position.

A second option debated during the Feb. 10 meeting called for eliminating a repair demonstration spacewalk altogether. Instead, the crew would demonstrate a so-called overlay tile repair procedure in the shuttle's cabin, along with the plug technique for repairing small holes in leading edge panels. By eliminating the spacewalk, the crew would have more time for external tile inspections and logistics transfers to the international space station.

A third option, the one ultimately selected, was chosen because the techniques in question were the most technically mature and offered the best opportunity to collect useful in-flight data.

Robinson and Noguchi now plan to test a tile repair technique known as "emittance wash" in Discovery's cargo bay. Using a demonstration kit with deliberately damaged tiles, the spacewalkers will paint exposed surfaces with a material that will replace damaged or eroded coating and improve heat rejection.

Flight Day 5 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/17/05
Sun 04:51 AM...03...13...00...STS crew wakeup
Sun 05:21 AM...03...13...30...ISS crew wakeup
Sun 06:51 AM...03...15...00...EVA-1: EVA prep
Sun 07:31 AM...03...15...40...ISS daily planning conference
Sun 07:41 AM...03...15...50...SSRMS grapples lab module for EVA
support
Sun 07:51 AM...03...16...00...Collins exercises
Sun 08:21 AM...03...16...30...Kelly exercises
Sun 08:21 AM...03...16...30...Transfer review
Sun 08:21 AM...03...16...30...EVA-1: EMU purge/prebreathe
Sun 08:41 AM...03...16...50...SSRMS ungrapples mobile base station
Sun 08:51 AM...03...17...00...Camarda exercises
Sun 09:11 AM...03...17...20...External stowage platform
attachment device (ESPAD) setup
Sun 09:21 AM...03...17...30...Lawrence exercises
Sun 09:46 AM...03...17...55...EVA-1: Airlock depress
Sun 09:56 AM...03...18...05...EVA-1: Egress and setup
Sun 09:56 AM...03...18...05...14.7 psi cabin repressurization
Sun 10:31 AM...03...18...40...ISS: Phillips exercises
Sun 10:31 AM...03...18...40...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Sun 10:31 AM...03...18...40...ISS ingress
Sun 10:46 AM...03...18...55...MPLM clothes transfer
Sun 10:46 AM...03...18...55...Lithium hydroxide changeout
Sun 11:01 AM...03...19...10...EVA-1: Tile/RCC repair demo
Sun 12:01 PM...03...20...10...ISS/STS meals
Sun 12:26 PM...03...20...35...SSRMS positioned for ESPAD installation
Sun 12:41 PM...03...20...50...EVA-1/MS1: ESPAD cable routing
Sun 12:41 PM...03...20...50...EVA-1/MS2, on SSRMS, removes ESPAD
Sun 01:16 PM...03...21...25...Transfer operations
Sun 01:26 PM...03...21...35...EVA-1/MS1/MS2: ESPAD installation on
Quest
Sun 01:56 PM...03...22...05...EVA-1/MS1: GPS antenna R&R
Sun 02:11 PM...03...22...20...EVA-1/MS2: CMG get aheads
Sun 02:21 PM...03...22...30...OBSS survey
Sun 02:56 PM...03...23...05...EVA-1: MS1/MS2 secondary ESPAD cable
routing
Sun 03:21 PM...03...23...30...EVA-1: MS1: payload bay cleanup
Sun 03:36 PM...03...23...45...STS crew departs ISS
Sun 04:01 PM...04...00...10...ISS: Phillips exercises
Sun 04:26 PM...04...00...35...EVA-1: Airlock repress
Sun 04:51 PM...04...01...00...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Sun 04:51 PM...04...01...00...CMG EVA setup
Sun 06:21 PM...04...02...30...ISS daily planning conference
Sun 07:06 PM...04...03...15...Daily transfer tagup
Sun 08:51 PM...04...05...00...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

NASA still has no way to repair the kind of leading edge damage that brought down Columbia, but Robinson and Noguchi will test a rudimentary technique in which a heat-resistant material known as NOAX will be smoothed over small cracks in RCC material.
NOAX, which stands for non-oxide adhesive experimental, will be squirted from a caulk gun-like device and then smoothed out with trowels. The RCC will be heated prior to NOAX application and the patch itself will be heated for a half hour after that to cure the material.

The final repair procedure, aimed at fixing small holes in RCC panels, requires a flexible carbon silicon-carbide patch called a "plug." After fit checks and application of a sealant, a plug would be inserted into a hole and held in place from behind by expansion bolts.

Between 20 and 30 different plugs, each with slightly different geometries, would be needed in a real repair kit to ensure a good fit virtually anywhere in the curving leading edge.

The crew of the shuttle Atlantis now plans to test the CIPA technique during the second post-Columbia flight in September. The crew also may test a promising tile overlay technique that calls for spacewalkers to cover a panel of damaged tiles with a thin, flexible sheet of heat-resistant carbon silicon-carbide. The sheet would be mounted atop a gasket and attached with fasteners similar to drywall bolts that would be screwed into surrounding tile.

"The way I interpret the CAIB, I think a practicable repair technique is a requirement," said James Adamson, a member of the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group. "I don't believe it needs to be certified. It's an emergency technique for an emergency situation. I don't think it necessarily has to have completed all its testing. It has to be reasonable, doable and practicable. And I think NASA's going to have that."

A former shuttle astronaut, Adamson said it's possible "we might disagree that they have met the full intent, or goal, of the CAIB recommendation and still be OK with them deciding that it's OK to fly because of this over-arching reduction of risk.

"But it's really not our call to say the shuttle's safe to fly," he said. "We're looking at a very tiny subset of all the things NASA has to consider to fly again so we really can't be in a position of declaring the shuttle safe to fly. That's their call."

NASA originally planned to stage all three Discovery spacewalks from the space station's Quest airlock module. but concern about contamination in a system used to recharge the crew's spacesuits between outings forced the astronauts to use the shuttle's airlock instead.

The change had a major impact on flight planning, preventing Robinson an Noguchi from using a Quest system to help remove nitrogen from their blood, a requirement to prevent the bends when working in the 5 psi spacesuits. Using the shuttle airlock, the astronauts must close hatches between Discovery and the station before each spacewalk so the orbiter's cabin pressure can be reduced to 10.2 psi as part of the bends prevention process. Once a spacewalk is underway, the hatches can be reopened.

[GioFX]

Part 8: Fixing the space station's gyro system

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

The Discovery astronauts will spend the day after the first spacewalk transferring more supplies and equipment to the station from the logistics module. Robinson and Noguchi will service their spacesuits and prepare the tools that will be needed for the second spacewalk to install the replacement control moment gyroscope. Two televised crew interviews are planned as the astronauts gear up for the critical station repair work.

Flight Day 6 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/18/05
Mon 04:51 AM...04...13...00...STS crew wakeup
Mon 05:21 AM...04...13...30...ISS crew wakeup
Mon 05:46 AM...04...13...55...Kelly exercises
Mon 06:16 AM...04...14...25...Robinson exercises
Mon 06:46 AM...04...14...55...Noguchi exercises
Mon 07:01 AM...04...15...10...ISS daily planning conference
Mon 07:21 AM...04...15...30...Transfer review
Mon 07:51 AM...04...16...00...EVA tool cleanup and stow
Mon 07:51 AM...04...16...00...Transfer operations
Mon 07:51 AM...04...16...00...Lithium hydroxide exchange
Mon 07:51 AM...04...16...00...Camarda exercises
Mon 08:51 AM...04...17...00...Middeck preps
Mon 09:06 AM...04...17...15...Lawrence exercises
Mon 09:21 AM...04...17...30...EVA tools config
Mon 10:21 AM...04...18...30...Collins exercises
Mon 10:51 AM...04...19...00...EVA pistol grip tool setup
Mon 10:51 AM...04...19...00...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Mon 10:51 AM...04...19...00...ISS: Phillips exercises
Mon 12:01 PM...04...20...10...PAO event (CDR, PLT, MS5)
Mon 12:21 PM...04...20...30...Joint ISS/STS meal
Mon 01:21 PM...04...21...30...Transfer operations
Mon 01:56 PM...04...22...05...PAO event (CDR, MS1, MS2, ISS: Krikalev)
Mon 02:36 PM...04...22...45...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Mon 03:21 PM...04...23...30...Crew choice television
Mon 03:51 PM...05...00...00...EVA-2: Procedures review
Mon 04:46 PM...05...00...55...Transfer review
Mon 04:46 PM...05...00...55...ISS: Phillips exercises
Mon 05:21 PM...05...01...30...ISS egress
Mon 05:46 PM...05...01...55...10.2 psi cabin depressurization
Mon 05:51 PM...05...02...00...Thomas exercises
Mon 06:06 PM...05...02...15...ISS daily planning conference
Mon 08:21 PM...05...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

The space station uses four massive control moment gyroscopes to maintain the lab's orientation in space without having to tap into limited supplies of on-board rocket fuel. They are housed in the Z1 truss, which was attached to the Unity module's upward-facing, or zenith hatch - hence the name - during shuttle mission STS-92 in October 2000.
Along with saving fuel, the 800-pound gyros, spinning at 6,600 rpm, allow station crews and flight controllers to reorient the outpost and keep it stable without using rocket firings that would jar sensitive microgravity experiments.

But on June 8, 2002, CMG-1 suffered a malfunction and shut down. Station astronaut Carl Walz reported hearing an unusual noise inside the Unity module. He said the noise appeared to be coming from the module's zenith area. Mission control then told Walz engineers were working an issue with a spin bearing in CMG No. 1. Walz said the noise was quite noticeable inside the module.

"We're hearing a pretty loud, audible noise, kind of a growling noise, from inside the node," Walz reported.

"It looks like we have a mechanical failure of the spin bearings on CMG-1," an astronaut in mission control replied. "It's currently spinning down right now. The growling noise is undoubtedly due to vibration."

The station's orientation, or attitude, can be controlled by just two CMGs in a worst-case scenario. And indeed, a second gyro, CMG-2, was knocked off line last year because of trouble with a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker was replaced during a station-based spacewalk, but the new unit malfunctioned in March, taking CMG-2 off line once again. During the first spacewalk, Robinson and Noguchi plan to wire around the faulty breaker to restore CMG-2 to service.

While the overall system remains fully operational, NASA wants to replace CMG-1 as soon as possible to provide additional redundancy in case of subsequent failures down the road.

Flight Day 7 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/19/05
Tue 04:21 AM...05...12...30...STS crew wakeup
Tue 04:51 AM...05...13...00...ISS crew wakeup
Tue 06:21 AM...05...14...30...EVA-2: Preps begin
Tue 06:51 AM...05...15...00...ISS daily planning conference
Tue 07:21 AM...05...15...30...Collins exercises
Tue 07:26 AM...05...15...35...ISS: Phillips exercises
Tue 07:51 AM...05...16...00...Transfer review
Tue 07:51 AM...05...16...00...Kelly exercises
Tue 07:51 AM...05...16...00...EVA-2: EMU pre-breathe
Tue 08:21 AM...05...16...30...Camarda exercises
Tue 08:21 AM...05...16...30...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Tue 08:26 AM...05...16...35...ISS: Phillips exercises
Tue 08:51 AM...05...17...00...Lawrence exercises
Tue 09:16 AM...05...17...25...EVA-2: Airlock depress
Tue 09:26 AM...05...17...35...EVA-2: Airlock egress and setup
Tue 09:26 AM...05...17...35...14.7 psi cabin repressurization
Tue 09:51 AM...05...18...00...ISS ingress
Tue 09:51 AM...05...18...00...Transfer operations
Tue 10:36 AM...05...18...45...EVA-2: CMG removal and replacement
Tue 11:31 AM...05...19...40...Crew meals begin
Tue 12:36 PM...05...20...45...Transfer operations resume
Tue 02:56 PM...05...23...05...EVA-2: Cleanup and ingress
Tue 03:06 PM...05...23...15...STS crew leaves ISS
Tue 03:56 PM...06...00...05...EVA-2: Airlock repress
Tue 04:21 PM...06...00...30...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Tue 06:06 PM...06...02...15...ISS daily planning conference
Tue 06:36 PM...06...02...45...Transfer tagup
Tue 08:21 PM...06...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

The replacement CMG will be mounted on a carrier truss at the back of Discovery's cargo bay. Robinson and Noguchi first will float up to the Z1 truss, unfasten thermal blankets, disconnect electrical cables and remove CMG-1. They will maneuver it to a temporary stowage location and lock it in place. Then, using the SSRMS, the replacement CMG will be removed from the cargo bay truss and moved up to the Z1 truss for installation.
After Robinson and Noguchi complete electrical connections and re-fasten the thermal blankets, engineers in mission control will begin preparations for spinning up the new gyro. The spacewalkers, meanwhile, will move the old gyro back to the cargo bay truss and lock it down for return to Earth. If all goes well, the new unit will be spun up while they are still in the cargo bay.

The gyroscopes are critical to station operation. Here's a description from a NASA press kit:


The motion control subsystem (MCS) hardware launched as part of the Z1 element includes the CMGs and the CMG assemblies.
The CMG assembly consists of four CMGs and a micrometeorite/orbital debris shield. The four CMGs, which will control the attitude of the ISS, have a spherical momentum storage capability of 14,000 ft-lb/sec, the scalar sum of the individual CMG wheel moments. The momentum stored in the CMG system at any given time equals the vector sum of the individual CMG momentum vectors.

To maintain the ISS in the desired attitude, the CMG system must cancel, or absorb, the momentum generated by the disturbance torques acting on the station. If the average disturbance torque is nonzero, the resulting CMG output torque is also nonzero, and momentum builds up in the CMG system. When the CMG system saturates, it is unable to generate the torque required to cancel the disturbance torque, which results in the loss of attitude control.

The CMG system saturates when momentum vectors have become parallel and only momentum vectors change. When this happens, control torques perpendicular to this parallel line are possible, and controllability about the parallel line is lost.

Russian segment thrusters are used to desaturate the CMGs.

An ISS CMG consists of a large flat wheel that rotates at a constant speed (6,600 rpm) and develops an angular momentum of 3,500 ft-lb/sec about its spin axis. This rotating wheel is mounted in a two-degree-of-freedom gimbal system that can point the spin axis (momentum vector) of the wheel in any direction.

At least two CMGs are needed to provide attitude control. The CMG generates an output reaction torque that is applied to the ISS by inertially changing the direction of its wheel momentum. The CMG's output torque has two components, one proportional to the rate of change of the CMG gimbals and a second proportional to the inertial body rate of the ISS as sensed at the CMG base. Because the momentum along the direction of the spin axis is fixed, the output torque is constrained to lie in the plane of the wheel. That is why one CMG cannot provide the three-axis torque needed to control the attitude of the ISS.

Each CMG has a thermostatically controlled survival heater to keep it within thermal limits before the CMGs are activated on Mission 5A. The heaters are rated at 120 watts and have an operating temperature range of -42 to -35 deg F.

[GioFX]

Part 9: Readying the station for continued assembly

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

The day after installing the new gyroscope, the astronauts will enjoy a half-day off, share a joint crew meal and hold a traditional in-flight news conference. Krikalev and Noguchi also will participate in separate news conferences with reporters from their own countries. Supply and equipment transfers to and from the logistics module will continue and Robinson and Noguchi will configure their tools and service their spacesuits for their third and final excursion the following day.

Flight Day 8 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/20/05
Wed 04:21 AM...06...12...30...STS crew wakeup
Wed 04:51 AM...06...13...00...ISS crew wakeup
Wed 05:16 AM...06...13...25...Robinson exercises
Wed 05:46 AM...06...13...55...Kelly exercises
Wed 06:16 AM...06...14...25...Noguchi exercises
Wed 06:21 AM...06...14...30...ISS daily planning conference
Wed 06:51 AM...06...15...00...Transfer review
Wed 07:21 AM...06...15...30...Lithium hydroxide exchange
Wed 07:21 AM...06...15...30...Camarda exercises
Wed 07:21 AM...06...15...30...Transfer operations
Wed 07:51 AM...06...16...00...Lawrence exercises
Wed 07:51 AM...06...16...00...EVA tools config
Wed 08:21 AM...06...16...30...Collins exercises
Wed 10:01 AM...06...18...10...Joint ISS/STS meal
Wed 11:01 AM...06...19...10...Crew photo
Wed 11:16 AM...06...19...25...Crew news conference
Wed 11:56 AM...06...20...05...Crew off duty time begins
Wed 12:06 PM...06...20...15...Russian PAO event
Wed 12:26 PM...06...20...35...ISS: booster fan DTO
Wed 01:26 PM...06...21...35...ISS: Phillips exercises
Wed 01:31 PM...06...21...40...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Wed 03:51 PM...07...00...00...EVA-3: Procedures review
Wed 04:46 PM...07...00...55...ISS: Phillips exercises
Wed 05:01 PM...07...01...10...Transfer review
Wed 05:21 PM...07...01...30...STS crew leaves ISS
Wed 05:46 PM...07...01...55...10.2 psi cabin depressurization
Wed 05:51 PM...07...02...00...Thomas exercises
Wed 06:06 PM...07...02...15...ISS daily planning conference
Wed 08:21 PM...07...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

The primary objective of the third spacewalk is installation of the external stowage platform, or ESP-2. Tipping the scales at 6,300 pounds, ESP-2 will be pre-packed with critical equipment needed for extensive station re-wiring during upcoming assembly missions when the lab's huge solar arrays will be attached to the currently unfinished boom. Robinson and Noguchi also will retrieve two materials science experiment packages used to expose various materials to the space environment and install a third.
The station's robot arm will be used to pull ESP-2 from its mounting in Discovery's cargo bay. The box then will be maneuvered up to the Quest airlock module on the starboard side of the Unity node for attachment by the spacewalkers. The SSRMS, meanwhile, will lock onto the logistics module attached to Unity's nadir port to set the stage for its detachment the next day.

Flight Day 9 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/21/05
Thu 04:21 AM...07...12...30...STS crew wakeup
Thu 04:51 AM...07...13...00...ISS crew wakeup
Thu 06:21 AM...07...14...30...EVA-3: EVA preps begin
Thu 06:51 AM...07...15...00...ISS daily planning conference
Thu 06:51 AM...07...15...00...RCC plug repair demo
Thu 07:26 AM...07...15...35...ISS: Phillips exercises
Thu 07:51 AM...07...16...00...Transfer review
Thu 07:51 AM...07...16...00...Kelly exercises
Thu 07:51 AM...07...16...00...EVA-3: EMU purge
Thu 08:21 AM...07...16...30...Camarda exercises
Thu 08:21 AM...07...16...30...ISS: Krikalev, Phillips exercise
Thu 08:51 AM...07...17...00...Lawrence exercises
Thu 09:16 AM...07...17...25...EVA-3: Airlock depress
Thu 09:26 AM...07...17...35...EVA-3: Airlock egress and setup
Thu 09:26 AM...07...17...35...14.7 psi cabin repressurization
Thu 09:46 AM...07...17...55...Transfer operations
Thu 09:56 AM...07...18...05...ISS ingress
Thu 10:11 AM...07...18...20...EVA-3: Camera install CP9
Thu 10:51 AM...07...19...00...SSRMS grapples ESP-2
(equipment stowage platform)
Thu 11:21 AM...07...19...30...Crew meals begin
Thu 11:36 AM...07...19...45...SSRMS unberths ESP-2
Thu 12:21 PM...07...20...30...ISS: CPA installation
Thu 12:31 PM...07...20...40...EVA-3: ESP-2 installation
Thu 01:16 PM...07...21...25...EVA-3: MISSE 1 & 2 retrieval;
MISSE 5 installation
Thu 01:16 PM...07...21...25...SSRMS ESP-2 ungrapple
Thu 01:31 PM...07...21...40...SSRMS maneuver to MPLM
Thu 01:46 PM...07...21...55...EVA-3: MS2 FRGF removal
Thu 02:01 PM...07...22...10...SSRMS grapples MPLM
Thu 02:16 PM...07...22...25...EVA-3: Cleanup and airlock ingress
Thu 02:26 PM...07...22...35...STS crew leaves station
Thu 02:51 PM...07...23...00...ISS crew lock reconfigured
Thu 03:26 PM...07...23...35...EVA-3: Airlock repress
Thu 04:01 PM...08...00...10...Collins exercises
Thu 04:51 PM...08...01...00...MPLM racks configured for entry
Thu 05:51 PM...08...02...00...ISS daily planning conference
Thu 06:36 PM...08...02...45...Transfer review
Thu 08:21 PM...08...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

The next day, the astronauts will complete their final logistics module equipment transfers, deactivate the module's systems and remove it from Unity using the station's robot arm. After re-berthing the module in the shuttle's cargo bay, the SSRMS will lock onto the end of the OBSS boom, take it from the shuttle's arm and put it back in the payload bay for return to Earth. Engineers hope to eventually mount the OBSS boom permanently on the space station, after assembly reaches the point where clearance issues become a problem.
Flight Day 10 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/22/05
Fri 04:21 AM...08...12...30...STS crew wakeup
Fri 04:51 AM...08...13...00...ISS crew wakeup
Fri 06:01 AM...08...14...10...MPLM cleanup
Fri 06:21 AM...08...14...30...Japanese PAO event (CDR, MS1)
Fri 06:51 AM...08...15...00...ISS daily planning conference
Fri 07:01 AM...08...15...10...Transfer review
Fri 07:11 AM...08...15...20...Collins exercises
Fri 07:16 AM...08...15...25...MPLM egress
Fri 07:26 AM...08...15...35...Post EVA transfer/reconfig
Fri 07:31 AM...08...15...40...MPLM deactivation
Fri 07:51 AM...08...16...00...Vestibule preps for unmating
Fri 07:51 AM...08...16...00...Kelly exercises
Fri 08:36 AM...08...16...45...Lawrence exercises
Fri 08:51 AM...08...17...00...Middeck transfers begin
Fri 09:21 AM...08...17...30...Vestibule depressurization
Fri 09:36 AM...08...17...45...Thomas exercises
Fri 09:36 AM...08...17...45...Protein crystal growth experiment transfer
Fri 10:21 AM...08...18...30...Noguchi exercises
Fri 10:36 AM...08...18...45...PAO event (CDR, PLT, ISS FE)
Fri 10:56 AM...08...19...05...ISS: Phillips exercises
Fri 11:06 AM...08...19...15...SRMS positioned for MPLM demate
Fri 11:36 AM...08...19...45...Crew meals begin
Fri 11:51 AM...08...20...00...Node 1 CBM demate
Fri 12:36 PM...08...20...45...MPLM uninstall
Fri 01:06 PM...08...21...15...MPLM berthing in payload bay
Fri 01:21 PM...08...21...30...3 water bags moved to station
Fri 01:41 PM...08...21...50...Rendezvous tools checkout pt 1
Fri 01:41 PM...08...21...50...MPLM ungrapple
Fri 01:56 PM...08...22...05...SRMS maneuver for OBSS handoff to SSRMS
Fri 02:56 PM...08...23...05...SSRMS grapples OBSS
Fri 03:21 PM...08...23...30...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Fri 03:21 PM...08...23...30...OBSS maneuver to clear UHF antenna
Fri 04:01 PM...09...00...10...SSRMS berths OBSS
Fri 04:01 PM...09...00...10...ISS: Phillips exercises
Fri 04:21 PM...09...00...30...Robinson exercises
Fri 04:41 PM...09...00...50...SSRMS ungrapples OBSS
Fri 04:56 PM...09...01...05...RMS powerdown
Fri 06:01 PM...09...02...10...ISS daily planning conference
Fri 06:41 PM...09...02...50...Transfer review
Fri 08:21 PM...09...04...30...STS/ISS crew sleep begins

[GioFX]

Part 10: Space shuttle Discovery's return to Earth

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 11, 2005

In what promises to be an emotional day for the shuttle-station teams in orbit and on the ground, Collins and her crewmates will bid farewell to Krikalev and Phillips during a departure ceremony shortly before Discovery undocks from the lab complex on the 11th day of the mission.

Flight Day 11 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/23/05
Sat 04:21 AM...09...12...30...STS crew wakeup
Sat 04:51 AM...09...13...00...ISS crew wakeup
Sat 06:21 AM...09...14...30...Farewell ceremony
Sat 06:36 AM...09...14...45...Egress and hatch closure
Sat 06:36 AM...09...14...45...Rendezvous tools checkout (part 2)
Sat 06:36 AM...09...14...45...Kelly exercises
Sat 07:06 AM...09...15...15...ISS daily planning conference
Sat 07:06 AM...09...15...15...Orbiter docking system leak checks
Sat 07:36 AM...09...15...45...Robinson exercises
Sat 07:51 AM...09...16...00...Group B computer powerup
Sat 07:51 AM...09...16...00...Centerline camera installation
Sat 08:36 AM...09...16...45...Undocking timeline begins
Sat 09:29 AM...09...17...38...Discovery undocks from ISS
Sat 09:51 AM...09...18...00...Flyaround begins
Sat 10:44 AM...09...18...53...Separation burn No. 1
Sat 11:12 AM...09...19...21...Separation burn No. 2 (194.4/184.8 nm)
Sat 11:21 AM...09...19...30...ISS crew meal
Sat 11:26 AM...09...19...35...Group B computer powerdown
Sat 11:41 AM...09...19...50...STS crew meal
Sat 12:16 PM...09...20...25...PMA-2 depressurization
Sat 12:41 PM...09...20...50...STS off-duty time begins
Sat 12:41 PM...09...20...50...Lawrence exercises
Sat 01:21 PM...09...21...30...ISS: Krikalev exercises
Sat 02:21 PM...09...22...30...Camarda exercises
Sat 02:41 PM...09...22...50...ISS: Phillips exercises
Sat 02:46 PM...09...22...55...Collins exercises
Sat 02:51 PM...09...23...00...Noguchi exercises
Sat 03:21 PM...09...23...30...Thomas exercises
Sat 06:51 PM...10...03...00...STS crew sleep begins

Collins and company will spend their final full day in space testing Discovery's re-entry systems and stowing loose gear for the return to Earth. Collins and Kelly also will practice landing procedures using a laptop-based shuttle flight simulator. Discovery's KU-band antenna will be stowed in the afternoon, ending normal television views from the orbiter.
Flight Day 12 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/24/05
Sun 02:51 AM...10...11...00...STS crew wakeup
Sun 05:51 AM...10...14...00...Flight control system checkout
Sun 05:51 AM...10...14...00...Cabin stow begins
Sun 06:06 AM...10...14...15...Camarda exercises
Sun 06:51 AM...10...15...00...Thomas exercises
Sun 07:01 AM...10...15...10...Reaction control system hotfire test
Sun 07:26 AM...10...15...35...Noguchi exercises
Sun 07:46 AM...10...15...55...PILOT landing simulations
(CDR, PLT, MS2)
Sun 08:16 AM...10...16...25...Lawrence exercises
Sun 08:46 AM...10...16...55...EVA hardware stowage
Sun 09:46 AM...10...17...55...Collins exercises
Sun 09:46 AM...10...17...55...Post EVA entry preps
Sun 09:47 AM...10...17...56...Orbit adjust rocket firing
(191.8/160.3 nm)
Sun 10:46 AM...10...18...55...STS crew meal
Sun 11:46 AM...10...19...55...PAO event (all)
Sun 12:16 PM...10...20...25...Deorbit review
Sun 12:46 PM...10...20...55...Cabin stow resumes
Sun 01:16 PM...10...21...25...White Sands communications check
Sun 01:21 PM...10...21...30...Kelly exercises
Sun 02:01 PM...10...22...10...Robinson exercises
Sun 02:51 PM...10...23...00...L-1 comm checks
Sun 03:01 PM...10...23...10...Ergometer stow
Sun 03:01 PM...10...23...10...PGSC FD-13 setup
Sun 03:31 PM...10...23...40...KU-band antenna stow
(assumes clearance OK)
Sun 04:16 PM...11...00...25...L-1 comm checks
Sun 06:51 PM...11...03...00...STS crew sleep begins

And then the stage will be set for the first shuttle re-entry since Columbia's fatal fall to Earth two-and-a-half years earlier.
"We're not changing anything as far as our trajectory planning or designing," Cain said. "We know we're right down the middle where we want to be. Of course, we've looked at all of that again. (But) we're going to continue to fly the way we've flown and what we consider to be the most benign entry profile we can do."

The shuttle's re-entry trajectory will carry the ship over the south Pacific Ocean, Central America, the Gulf of Mexico and then across Florida. The WB-57 jets will be in place west and east of the region of peak heating to document the shuttle's return. Engineers are hopeful the infrared sensors carried by the jets will help characterize the super-hot plasma around the spacecraft and perhaps improve understanding of at least some of the phenomena seen in amateur video of Columbia's descent.

But video from the modified WB-57 bombers will not be available until the day after landing.

In the wake of the Columbia mishap, NASA conducted studies to determine what risk a returning shuttle posed to the public in the event of another Columbia-class breakup at high altitude. Columbia's debris "footprint" was enormous, stretching almost all the way across Texas and into Louisiana. No one was injured by falling debris, but there were numerous close calls.

Based on population centers and the shuttle's ground track when returning from the space station, agency planners concluded the safest landing site, from a public risk perspective, was the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"We're going to plan to land at KSC, that's our prime landing site," Cain said. "Of course, our first line of defense and our prime rationale for flying to begin with is fixing the tank and the orbiter mods and the inspection and repair capability. We think that that rationale bolsters our ability to get back to KSC from a public risk standpoint.

If the weather or some other issue prevents a Florida landing, NASA will fall back on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and a backup site - Northrup Strip - at White Sands, N.M.

"The only difference is that if you look at the expectation of casualty information, there are some areas for Edwards and one specific area for Northrup where the public risk assessment is a little bit higher than the highest KSC entry approach. In other words, what was said fundamentally is any and all approaches into KSC are at a risk level that's equitable and acceptable from an agency policy standpoint. If you look at all the opportunities for all cross ranges to KSC and you look at all the areas that you're overflying during the entry ... it's all acceptable.

"When you go and plot that out for Edwards and Northrup, there are some areas that poke up above that line that defines the highest risk into KSC," Cain said. "You're going to have some cases where you're flying over the LA basin. And then even for Northrup, you've got a couple of cases where you fly over Mexico City or even the LA basin.

"So what we've said is, if I can't get into KSC for weather or whatever and I'm going to land at Edwards or Northrup, we're going to give consideration to not utilizing those approaches that have those higher public risk estimates that poke out above that line."

Flight Day 13 highlights:



DAY..EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

07/25/05
Mon 02:51 AM...11...11...00...STS crew wakeup
Mon 05:06 AM...11...13...15...Group B powerup
Mon 05:21 AM...11...13...30...Inertial measurement unit alignment
Mon 05:21 AM...11...13...30...PGSC stow (part 2)
Mon 06:01 AM...11...14...10...Deorbit timeline begins
Mon 10:02 AM...11...18...11...Deorbit to KSC (rev. 186)
Mon 11:06 AM...11...19...15...Landing at KSC

BACKUP LANDING OPPORTUNITIES

Mon 11:39 AM...11...19...48...Deorbit to KSC (rev. 187)
Mon 12:41 PM...11...20...50...Landing at KSC
Mon 01:08 PM...11...21...17...Deorbit to Edwards (rev. 188)
Mon 02:10 PM...11...22...19...Landing at Edwards

"We've made a lot of progress in the last several months," Hale said. "We've been doing major work in a lot of different areas for return to flight. ... We are beginning, I think, to really converge on how to operate as a team and make effective decisions so that we can ensure we have a safe space flight."
Even so, Hale stressed that NASA would not catch "go fever" and launch Discovery before it's safe to fly.

"We are going to fly when we have determined that the vehicle is ready to fly, when it is safe to fly," he said. "We're not being driven by a calendar date, we're being driven by our readiness to go fly. So when we are convinced the external tank is in a good situation, when we are convinced we have the warning devices, the OBSS and all those other things, wing leading edge sensors all installed, checked out and ready to go, when we are convinced we have an adequate repair capability, then we'll go fly."

[GioFX]

TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2005
2129 GMT (5:29 p.m. EDT)

One of the space shuttle's protective window covers fell and struck the left Orbital Maneuvering System engine pod on Discovery at launch pad 39B today. Engineers are assessing if any damage was caused by the incident. What this means for tonight's schedule, including retraction of the rotating service structure about 90 minutes from now, remain unclear at the moment.


2146 GMT (5:46 p.m. EDT)

The window cover hit the so-called carrier panel around the OMS pod. NASA is taking a new panel to launch pad 39B to replace the one hit by the falling cover. A swap-out would still permit launch tomorrow.


2149 GMT (5:49 p.m. EDT)

NASA expected to know by 7 p.m. if the replacement panel will work and whether launch can proceed tomorrow as planned.


2154 GMT (5:54 p.m. EDT)

The window cover in question is from one of the overhead windows. It fell on its own, not when workers were handling it. The cover was found after it had fallen and hit the orbiter. In addition to the carrier panel that workers plan to replace tonight, engineers are looking for any other damage.

[Frank1962]

....speriamo che non si disintegrino n'altra volta ....oddio, cmq non sarebbe neanche tanto strano: li mandano su con una navetta che ha + di 30 anni alle spalle!!

....secondo me dovrebbero ritornare ai vecchi razzi stile titan o saturn v !!

[maxsona]

Curiosità, su Marte dato che un giorno ci andremo con quale tipologia di vettore lo faremo ... ? ... con qualcosa costruito in orbita ? ... sul motore di Rubbia si stanno facendo ricerche o tuttora resta solo un idea ?

[GioFX]

questo thread è dedicato esclusivamente alla missione STS-114, per le altre questioni vi rimando al thread generale sul programma STS.

[GioFX]

1732 GMT (1:32 p.m. EDT)

SCRUB! Today's launch has been scrubbed for today due to a problem with the ECO engine cut-off fuel sensors. A problem with these sensors was noted during the fueling tests on Discovery earlier this spring.

[GioFX]

1733 GMT (1:33 p.m. EDT)

Launch director Mike Leinbach just radioed the Discovery crew to say the problem with the fuel sensors means the shuttle cannot fly today. Engineers need to assess this problem before clearing the orbiter for flight.


1734 GMT (1:34 p.m. EDT)

There is no word how long the delay will last and when Discovery's launch could be rescheduled. NASA has through July 31 to launch Discovery or else wait until September 9 due to the need to lift off and separate the external tank in daylight.


1737 GMT (1:37 p.m. EDT)

The astronauts are beginning to climb out of Discovery following today's scrub. Again, the launch has been postponed due to a problem with fuel sensors aboard the shuttle.


1743 GMT (1:43 p.m. EDT)

"The vehicle, the ECO sensors, for some reason did not behave today, so we are going to have to scrub this launch attempt. So once we develop our scrub turnaround plan we'll get that back to you. I appreciate all we have been through together, but this one is not going to result in a launch attempt today," launch director Mike Leinbach radioed Discovery commander Eileen Collins in announcing the scrub.


1750 GMT (1:50 p.m. EDT)

The problem involves the engine cutoff sensors that serve as fuel guages in the external tank.

"We really don't want the engine to be running at high speed and suddenly run out of fuel. That can lead to a devastating breakdown of the engine, even uncontained failure of the engine if that should happen. Therefore, we have four sensors on the vehicle and it requires two of those to detect a low-level fuel in order to cut off the engines early before they would run out. This only comes into play in special conditions on the ascent, not a nominal ascent, so it's essentially a backup for a backup situation," astronaut Dave Wolf said.

"Even though the odds of needing this sensor are low, very low, in the proper spirit of safety to any really feasible or projectable failure we want a full system, certainly at the point of launch."


1759 GMT (1:59 p.m. EDT)

All seven astronauts are getting into the launch pad tower's elevator the ride down to the ground. They are headed back to crew quarters to await word on when the launch will be rescheduled.


1804 GMT (2:04 p.m. EDT)

The disappointed astronauts are posing for pictures at the base of the launch pad with Discovery as backdrop.

[GioFX]

Fuel sensor glitch forces launch scrub

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: July 13, 2005

Launch director Mike Leinbach scrubbed today's planned launch of the shuttle Discovery two-and-a-half hours before takeoff time because of data indicating two of four hydrogen fuel flow sensors in the ship's external tank were not operating properly.

NASA's flight rules require all four to be operating properly for a countdown to proceed because the sensors control how the ship's main engines shut down when the shuttle reaches space. In certain failure scenarios, the engines could run the tank dry, leading to potential catastrophic failures.

It was not clear what caused today's problem, but the sensor system has encountered unusual trouble in recent weeks, possibly due to suspect transisters in an electronics "black box" in Discovery's aft compartment. The so-called "point sensor box" aboard Discovery included eight transisters from a suspect lot, sources said.

Discovery commander Eileen Collins and her six crewmates - pilot James Kelly, flight engineer Stephen Robinson, Andrew Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, Charles Camarda and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi - were in the process of strapping in when Leinbach radioed the bad news at 1:32 p.m.

"The vehicle, the ECO sensors, for some reason did not behave today, so we are going to have to scrub this launch attempt," he said. "So once we develop our scrub-turnaround plan we'll get that back to you. I appreciate all we have been through together, but this one is not going to result in a launch attempt today."

A new launch target was not immediately announced.

It was a frustrating disappointment for Discovery's crew and for thousands of tourists, area residents and the shuttle launch team, which labored virtually around the clock for two-and-a-half years to ready the shuttle for NASA's first flight since the Columbia disaster. Throughout today's smooth running countdown, the primary concern had been the weather, with rain showers popping up across the Kennedy Space Center as launch time approached.

It was doubly frustrating to mission managers who thought they had resolved earlier problems with the engine cutoff - ECO - sensors that played a role in a decision to equip Discovery with a fresh fuel tank.

NASA originally hoped to launch Discovery in mid May, but the flight was put on hold in the wake of an April 14 fueling test. During that exercise, two of the four sensors in the shuttle's original tank failed to operate properly and the flight rules require four-of-four for launch.

The cutoff sensors are used to make sure the shuttle's three main engines do not run out of hydrogen while running, which would cause a potentially catastrophic oxygen-rich shut down.

"We really don't want the engine to be running at high speed and suddenly run out of fuel," astronaut David Wolf explained from the launch control center. "That can lead to a devastating breakdown of the engine, even uncontained failure of the engine if that should happen.

"Therefore, we have four sensors on the vehicle and it requires two of those to detect a low-level fuel in order to cut off the engines early before they would run out. This only comes into play in special conditions on the ascent, not a nominal ascent, so it's essentially a backup for a backup situation."

While the odds of needing this sensor in flight are low, "in the proper spirit of safety to any really feasible or projectable failure we want a full system, certainly at the point of launch."

In the wake of the April 14 tanking test and a subsequent test in May, engineers decided to replace Discovery's external tank with one being prepared for use by the shuttle Atlantis in September. The decision was made because of the sensor issue, because of concerns about ice buildups on a liquid oxygen line and because of a suspect pressure relief valve.

Troubleshooting the ECO sensor problem, engineers replaced all of the electrical cabling in Discovery that routes data from the sensors to the shuttle's computers and tore down the point sensor box in the shuttle's engine compartment that routes the data to the computers.

The original box was taken out after the April tanking test and disassembled. A box from the shuttle Endeavour was installed for the second tanking test and while it worked normally, it experienced problems later. Engineers tested a sensor box removed from the shuttle Atlantis, which ultimately was installed aboard Discovery. One of the other units will be reassembled, tested and re-installed in Atlantis.

The original failure was categorized as an "unexplained anomaly," meaning engineers never fully resolved what triggered the failures. But they were confident the hardware aboard Discovery was ready to go.

During a news conference Tuesday, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said "ECO sensor issues are not so much a matter of the box on Discovery, we think that's good because that box has been put through an entire (testing) cycle and it's good to go. We have had more failures on some other boxes than we are comfortable with, which does lead to questions involving aging orbiter avionics."