[Space] NASA - STS-119 - ISS-15A (Discovery)

[GioFX]

NASA STS-119 - ISS Assembly Mission 15A



Benvenuti nella discussione ufficiale dell'STS-119, missione di costruzione ISS 15A.

La missione ha come obbiettivo primario l'installazione del segmento S6 di babordo con il relativo (ed ultimo) set di pannelli solari.


Dati Missione

Lancio previsto: 15 marzo 2009 - 07:43 PM EDT (16 marzo 2009, 00:43 ora italiana)

Atterraggio previsto: KSC, 28 marzo 2009 ore 03:14 PM EDT (08:14 ora italiana)

Missione Programma STS: STS-119 (125° volo Shuttle, 36° volo OV-103)

Missione Programma ISS: 15A

Orbiter: Discovery (OV-103)

Launch Pad: 39A

Durata: 14 giorni (SSPT)

Inclinazione/Altitudine: 51.6°/122 miglia nautiche

Payload principale:

• Integrated Truss Segment S6

Equipaggio

• Commander Lee Archambault
• Pilot Dominic A. Antonelli
• Mission specialist 1 Joseph M. Acaba
• Mission specialist 2 Steven R. Swanson
• Mission specialist 3 Richard R. Arnold
• Mission specialist 4 John L. Phillips
  
• Launching ISS Expedition 18 Crew Member: Koichi Wakata
• Landing ISS Expedition 18 Crew Member: Sandra Magnus

Assembly Mission 15A


(Cliccare sulla foto per vederla in alta risoluzione)



Altre informazioni

SpaceFlightNow.com Mission Coverage homepage: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts119


Mission Quicklook (SpaceFlightNow.com)

[non disponibile]


Master Flight Plan (SpaceFlightNow.com

http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/st...lightplan.html


Press Kit

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/304681main_S..._Press_Kit.pdf


Execute Packages

[non ancora disponibile]


Previsioni Meteo - Lancio (KSC)

http://www.patrick.af.mil/shared/med...070517-025.pdf


NASA TV

Programma

PDF: http://www.nasa.gov/tvschedule/pdf/tvsked_rev0.pdf

URL: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasat..._Schedule.html


NASA TV - Real Media: http://www.nasa.gov/ram/35037main_portal.ram

NASA TV - Windows Media: http://www.nasa.gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows.asx

NASA TV - Real Audio: http://www.nasa.gov/ram/55643main_NASATV_Audio_Only.ram

[Ukronia]

Eccomi, sperando che questa volta parta
Ciao

[Octane]

Originariamente inviato da Ukronia

Eccomi, sperando che questa volta parta
Ciao

Mi associo!

[GioFX]

SpaceFlightNow.com:

Countdown on schedule, weather forecast looks good

The shuttle Discovery's countdown to launch Wednesday is proceeding smoothly, officials said today, with no technical problems of any significance at the launch pad and excellent weather expected throughout the week. Forecasters are calling for a 90 percent chance of acceptable weather Wednesday and Thursday, decreasing slightly to 80 percent "go" on Friday.

"The weather looks very good for launch, I'm very happy to say. Right now we're just looking at a really nice upper-level ridge that's been holding off the weather, the fronts that tend to come into the U.S. right now," said Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer at the spaceport. "There's one in the central U.S., it'll stay there, it will be blocked by this high pressure ridge. So for Florida, the weather looks really good. Nice mild conditions, warm temperatures.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...9/090309count/

[GioFX]

SCRUB!

Shuttle Discovery launch scrubbed by hydrogen leak

This evening's planned launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been called off due to a hydrogen leak experienced during fueling of the external tank.

NASA spokeswoman Candrea Thomas says there was a leak somewhere around a ground umbilical carrier plate between support equipment and the shuttle. The launch team is draining the liquid hydrogen tank and plan to cycle a valve as part of troubleshooting.

This delay will be at least 24 hours.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...19/status.html

---

Sembra ci sia stata una perdita di idrogeno liquido durante il riempimento dell'ET. Hanno deciso la sostituzione di una valvola nell'interfaccia MLP-Shuttle. Lancio posticipato di almeno un giorno.

[Ukronia]

Speriamo che risolvano alla svelta il problema, perché sarebbe spiacevole una missione accorciata.
Ma sono le stesse valvole che hanno fatto slittare il lancio fino ad oggi?

Speriamo che gli ultimi lancio dello shuttle non siano sempre così, anche se negli ultimi due anni è già la seconda missione che subisce così gravi ritardi per le famose o meglio famigerate valvole.

EDIT: leggendo su forum astronautico riportano che non sono le famigerate valvole che abbiamo imparato a conoscere in questi mesi, ma fanno parte del sistema di caricamento dell'idrogeno dell'external tank.

Speriamo che si parta domani.

Io comunque sto aspettando con trepidazione luglio, quando partirà la nuova avventura, con il progetto constellation.

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da Ukronia

EDIT: leggendo su forum astronautico riportano che non sono le famigerate valvole che abbiamo imparato a conoscere in questi mesi, ma fanno parte del sistema di caricamento dell'idrogeno dell'external tank.

Si esatto, son due cose diverse... il problema che ha lungamente ritardato il lancio era dovuto alle valvole che servono ad equalizzare la pressione dell'idrogeno, localizzate all'altezza dell'interfaccia tra l'ET e l'orbiter.

Il problema di oggi invece è dovuto ad una perdita di idrogeno gassoso nell'interfaccia tra l'ET e la valvola di ventilazione, chiamata GUCP (Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate), situata nell'intertank dell'ET tra il serbatoio di quest'ultimo e quello d'ossigeno.

Speriamo che si parta domani.

Purtroppo è appena stato spostato a NET domenica 15 giovedi alle ore 07:43 PM EDT (00:43 ora italiana di lunedì 16). A quanto pare è possibile quindi che si proceda alla sostituzione della valvola, attività che più tempo. Certo che c'è il forte rischio di un accorciamento di 2 giorni.

edit: dimenticavo che c'è infatti la partenza della Soyuz il prossimo 26 marzo!

[GioFX]

Da SpaceFlightNow.com:

Launch of shuttle Discovery scrubbed by leak

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: March 11, 2009

NASA's Mission Management Team plans to meet at 5 p.m. to discuss the potential impact of a gaseous hydrogen leak that interrupted the shuttle Discovery's fueling today and forced mission managers to order a scrub. Engineers are preserving the option of a possible launch try Thursday, at 8:54:31 p.m., if the MMT concludes the problem can be resolved in time. As of this writing, it's not clear what might be required to resolve the issue.

"NASA officials scrubbed Wednesday's attempt at 2:37 EDT to launch space shuttle Discovery after a slight leak was detected in a gaseous hydrogen (GH2) vent line," NASA said in a statement. "The vent line is at the intertank region of the external tank and is the overboard vent to the pad and the flare stack where the vented hydrogen is burned off. The launch team is resetting to preserve the option of attempting a Thursday night liftoff at 8:54 p.m. EDT depending on what repairs are needed and what managers decide. The Mission Management Team is meeting at 5 p.m. today to discuss the issue."

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...9/090311scrub/

[Rand]

>With the tank now drained, it will take 24 hours to boil off the remaining LH2 in order to inert tank. Engineers will then again access and look for gross misalignment of QD (Quick Disconnect). Afterwards, engineers will perform a decay check, remove the QD and inspect flight seal.

In around two days time, work will then move towards the installation of a new flight seal, head of decay checks and the reconnection of the vent line.

"In the reinstallation of the flight seal, there is a 30 hour retorque requirement, that pushes us to a Monday launch. The team is looking to examine if there is some wiggle room in the 30 hr torque requirement, then we could potentially get a Sunday launch attempt," noted a MMT memo acquired by L2.<

Leinbach: We got into our ET loading on time. Everything was going fine, it's an automated sequence for both systems. When we are about 98% on the fuel, we go from fast fill to slow fill. During that, we open the vent valve, that's when we noticed the hydrogen on the ground. We cycled that valve, in the past, it went away, usually a transient issue, or ice buildup.. this time, it didn't. We know we have some hardware compromise, we cycled it 8 or 9 times. We are sure we have some hardware issues, we are not sure where it is, but I can tell you it's 99.9% sure it's on the GROUND side, not the FLIGHT side. We didn't see anything between the intertank and the locking points, so it's clearly a ground side. We were talking with the team, and the best course was to NOT fly, and then drain the tank. We declared a scrub, and went into a 24 hour turnaround. When we started into it, we cycled it again, and it continued to leak. We'll know over the next few days where it is at. We're done with the draining, and we are inerting the tank. It'll take about 20 hours to boil off, before we can even get our hands on it. Plan is tomorrow, we will troubleshoot it in the afternoon. We'll look at the QD, and more than likely opening the valve itself. We'll come back tomorrow afternoon and gather back with the program, and then sometime Friday, we'll have more details on the hardware itself.

The leak was outside of the vehicle, and we violated the safety leak level. There was no harm to the vehicle.

Mike Moses: We heard the prelim plan, and the right thing is to let that team go ahead and work on what they need to see. There are some things in there we can hopefully get better on, like retorque tests, but we have time to do that.. and we'll remeet tomorrow as an MMT to talk about that schedule. We're trying hard to get to the 15th, but if we can't, it'll be the 16th.

First off, we told the crew and management team to reset themselves for a NET Sunday launch. I don't know the specifics of the crew, but they'll have it a little easy as we aren't going day by day now.

Station, we had talked about that today too. The ISS team and the Mission Operations team is looking pretty good. We're definitely going to take a look at that throughout the days. We can have a LATEST launch of March 17th. We don't want the Shuttle there while the Soyuz is docking. It's just too busy of a time for the crews, with a handover and EVAs, so that's a no-go. We moved some of the EVA activities to the stage, and they ARE able to do that. The biggest two bits are handing over the truss and installing it, then deploying the SAW. With this flight and crew, we can do that in the time needed, and the rest during the stage. The only thing that we don't like is that we are making the 119 crew shorter.. they have trained so hard that they know what to do inside and out. We are having the STS-119 crew to do some get ahead tasks (breaking torque bolts on the batteries) in prep for STS-127.

Another bit would be a FD4 Rendezvous. A launch on Sunday would be a FD3 docking, and the 16th would be a FD4 docking, with only one, maybe two EVAs. We would meet our mission objectives, the S6 install, with either one.

The other problem is an Atlas, sitting behind us. We had negotiated with them (they launch the 14th) to give us range, and it doesn't look like all that talking will pay off.. we basically just got off the phone with them, and we really want to wait until tomorrow to see. If we can't go for Monday, we'll ask the Atlas crew if they can go ahead of us, and we'll go after them.. but that's basically how it's going to play together, but I can't tell you where the balls are going to fall. Should be straight forward enough.

Bill Harwood: Did this valve effect your pressure inside the tank as the fuel boils off? Was it leaking in the disconnect? How does this relate to the pressure?

Leinbach: It is the system that maintains the pressure in the tank, yes, as we are filling up. Hydrogen begins to boil off as it is loaded, which causes pressure. We went through that during the early parts of tanking, we opened the valve, and didn't see any leaking before. It's external to the flight element, it's nothing internal, it was outside the tank. We have leak detectors outside the area just for this case, and all the information picked it all up at the same time. Very easy thing to diagnose.. we don't know what the problem is until we get our hands on it. No problem with over pressurizing the tank, or under pressurizing the tank.

Estratti presi da qui

[GioFX]

Da SpaceFlightNow.com:

Pad technicians trying to fix hydrogen vent line leak

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: March 13, 2009;
Updated after news conference

As expected, engineers troubleshooting the hydrogen vent line leak that grounded the shuttle Discovery Wednesday were unable to detect any problems using helium at ambient temperatures, officials said today. While no obvious "smoking guns" have been found, engineers are hopeful that replacing the seals and internal components in the shuttle-vent line interface will resolve the problem and clear the way for launch.


The hydrogen vent arm connects the pad tower to the backside of Discovery's external fuel tank. Credit: NASA TV

-

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl.../090313update/

[GioFX]

NASA begins second launch attempt for Discovery

The space shuttle launch team will take another shot at sending Discovery into orbit Sunday. NASA believes the leak in the gaseous hydrogen venting system has been fixed, though officials won't know for sure until Discovery is fueled. A sunset blastoff of the 125th shuttle mission is scheduled for 7:43 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center.


http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...19/status.html

[GioFX]

Nessuna perdita questa volta!

No hydrogen leak detected during today's fueling

The space shuttle launch team fueling Discovery says the leak in the gaseous hydrogen venting system did not reoccur today. Replacement of hardware at the pad appears to have fixed the leak. A sunset blastoff of the 125th shuttle mission is scheduled for 7:43 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center.


http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...19/status.html

[Rand]

Ottimo

Prima della riempitura è stato avvistato un pipistrello appeso all'ET:

Stowaway spotted

A bat has been spotted clinging to the backside of Discovery's external tank, about a quarter to a third of the way from the bottom.

Mission managers expect the bat will fly away once the tank gets cold enough after being filled with cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, now underway.

"If it doesn't," says NASA spokesman Mike Currie, "the bat is not expected to be a debris problem."

[GioFX]

LOL @ bat!


1948 GMT (3:48 p.m. EDT)
T-minus 3 hours and counting. The countdown clocks are ticking again after the planned two-and-a-half hour built-in hold. Clocks will proceed to T-minus 20 minutes when the next hold is scheduled. A final hold occurs at the T-minus 9 minute mark to synch up with the 7:43:46 p.m. EDT launch time.

[GioFX]

Segnalo che da questa missione si può seguire anche il nuovo Live Coverage di SpaceFlightNow.com:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...19/status.html

[+Benito+]

Bello il live coverage! Spero non ritardino ancora visto che già il lancio è previsto all'una di notte!
P.S. la tipa che commenta si chiama Candrea Thomas?! OMG


P.S. 2 : come mai quando il tipo con il modellino dell'STS in mano ha inziato a dire che la causa della perdita del columbia è stato un pezzo di schiuma che ha colpito l'ala creando un BIG BIG HOLE improvvisamente da "on air" si è passati a "off air"?

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da +Benito+

Bello il live coverage! Spero non ritardino ancora visto che già il lancio è previsto all'una di notte!
P.S. la tipa che commenta si chiama Candrea Thomas?! OMG

è anche abbastanza , solo che fa un pò troppi strafalcioni IMHO.

P.S. 2 : come mai quando il tipo con il modellino dell'STS in mano ha inziato a dire che la causa della perdita del columbia è stato un pezzo di schiuma che ha colpito l'ala creando un BIG BIG HOLE improvvisamente da "on air" si è passati a "off air"?

LOL

[GioFX]

2155 GMT (5:55 p.m. EDT)
The odds of acceptable weather officially improved to 100 percent. The weather team says there's no chance of violating the launch rules today.

[Rand]

Su NASA TV stanno facendo vedere la "mattonella" del TPS modificata per il primo degli esperimenti per "far scattare" i boundary layer

[GioFX]

2249 GMT (6:49 p.m. EDT)
T-minus 9 minutes and holding. Countdown clocks have gone into the planned 45-minute, 44-second built-in hold. Today's launch is targeted for 7:43:44 p.m. EDT, a slight change two seconds earlier than previously advertised because of the latest orbital tracking of the space station.