[Space] NASA - STS Program - Space Shuttle RTF

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da AlexGatti
Ok, e di 'sti 13 lanci che ci sono di qui alla fine del 2007 non ne possono impiegare neanche uno per rimettere a posto Hubble? Non ci credo.

Per motivi di sicurezza non sono più previste missioni al di fuori da quelle dirette alla ISS (orbita inclinazione 51,6°). Le rimanenti saranno dedicate al completamento della stazione, in modo da rispettare la data del 2010 per il grounding definitivo della flotta.

[jumpermax]

Originariamente inviato da AlexGatti
Hmm, un po' come dire, "lo shuttle siamo sicuri che arriva in orbita, ma forse ci arriva fallato".
Insomma, o queste procedure di sicurezza sono oltremodo sovradimensionate in modo da rassicurare l'opinione pubblica (anche se in realtà non sono necessarie) oppure lo shuttle e veramente un tarambiccolo che sta su a fortuna e una volta che lo mandi su non c'è alcuna garanzia che torni giù intatto ne che tu lo riesca a riparare in volo.

Sicuro quanto lo può essere sedersi sopra qualche migliaio di tonnellate di combustibile appiccare il fuoco ed arrivare in orbita... la questione non risolta in questo caso è quella delle piastrelle isolanti che se danneggiate non possono essere riparate in orbita. Per cui insomma lo shuttle non potrebbe più rientrare e sarebbe necessaria una missione di soccorso...

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da AlexGatti
Hmm, un po' come dire, "lo shuttle siamo sicuri che arriva in orbita, ma forse ci arriva fallato".
Insomma, o queste procedure di sicurezza sono oltremodo sovradimensionate in modo da rassicurare l'opinione pubblica (anche se in realtà non sono necessarie) oppure lo shuttle e veramente un tarambiccolo che sta su a fortuna e una volta che lo mandi su non c'è alcuna garanzia che torni giù intatto ne che tu lo riesca a riparare in volo.

No, semplicemente per un'ispezione accurata delle termal tiles è necessario utilizzare l'ISS e il secondo Canadarm modificato, non basta quello dell'orbiter, inoltre occorre garantire all'equipaggio la possibilità di eseguire EVA (attività extra-veicolare) in tutta sicurezza.

Non è impossibile una missione shuttle per la terza e ultima Servicing Mission (SM-3, inizialmente prevista per il 2006), ma semplicemente il Congresso non la autorizzerà mai, sulla base delle considerazioni della CAIB e delle indicazioni dei responsabili STS della NASA.

Hubble sarà probabilmente parzialmente upgradato da una missione robotica. Una seconda lo spingerà in atmosfera.

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da jumpermax
Sicuro quanto lo può essere sedersi sopra qualche migliaio di tonnellate di combustibile appiccare il fuoco ed arrivare in orbita... la questione non risolta in questo caso è quella delle piastrelle isolanti che se danneggiate non possono essere riparate in orbita. Per cui insomma lo shuttle non potrebbe più rientrare e sarebbe necessaria una missione di soccorso...

Esatto.

Infatti, nel rispettare le 15 (su 29) specifiche del CAIB, la NASA dovrà tenere pronta una seconda navetta (nel caso della prima missione del RTF, la STS-114 con il Discovery), probabilmente l'Atlantis, per essere lanciata entro 10 giorni dal lancio della prima.

NASA comunque prevedibilmente chiederà al Congresso di non dover eseguire questa operazione dopo i primi due lanci.

Il terzo lancio, l'ultimo di quest'anno (previsto per settembre), sarà il primo che riprenderà la costruzione dell'ISS, mentre le prime due saranno dedicate al testing delle tecniche di riparazione in orbita e alla riparazione dell'hardware sulla ISS, nonchè al rifornimento della stessa.

[jumpermax]

gio ma si sa qualcosa sulla navetta che prenderà il posto dello shuttle? E' vero che vogliono tornare al vettore tipo saturno V ?

[AlexGatti]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
No, semplicemente per un'ispezione accurata del termal tiles è necessario utilizzare l'ISS e il secono Canadarm modificato, non basta quello dell'orbiter, e si deve garantire all'equipaggio la possibilità di eseguire EVA (attività extra-veicolare) in tutta sicurezza.

Non è impossibile una missione shuttle per la terza e ultima Servicing Mission (SM-3, inizialmente prevista per il 2006), ma semplicemente il Congresso non la autorizzerà mai, sulla base delle considerazioni della CAIB e le indicazioni dei responsabili STS della NASA.

Hubble sarà probabilmente parzialmente upgradato da una missione robotica. Una seconda lo spingerà in atmosfera.

Mah insomma secondo me equivale a dire che fin'ora siamo andati su "a culo" e ci è sempre andata bene.
Comunque per quel poco che ne so hubble non sarà upgradato ne riparato ma sarà spinto in atmosfera da una missione robotica, ovvero lo lasciano andare in malora.
La missione robotica di salvataggio era stata esclusa per motivi di costi/ difficoltà tecniche / tempistica.

Felice di essere smentito ovviamente.

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da jumpermax
gio ma si sa qualcosa sulla navetta che prenderà il posto dello shuttle? E' vero che vogliono tornare al vettore tipo saturno V ?

Il CEV (crew exploration veichle) sarà un sistema modulare con un modulo simile all'Apollo Command Module, ma la composizione della navetta con diversi moduli sarà possibile in LEO (Low Earth Orbit). Tuttavia non vedrà mai alla luce un sistema che non preveda il rientro diretto in atmosfera, dato che un "docking" è una operazione mucho rischiosa.

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da AlexGatti
Mah insomma secondo me equivale a dire che fin'ora siamo andati su "a culo" e ci è sempre andata bene.

Beh, questo ha sicuramente una base di verità. Ti ricordo che anche la routine nel settore aerospaziale è ancora molto sperimentale.

Comunque per quel poco che ne so hubble non sarà upgradato ne riparato ma sarà spinto in atmosfera da una missione robotica, ovvero lo lasciano andare in malora.
La missione robotica di salvataggio era stata esclusa per motivi di costi/ difficoltà tecniche / tempistica.

Felice di essere smentito ovviamente.

Si sta studiando una missione di supporto, ma ad oggi è ancora escluso l'uso dello shuttle.

Un'alternativa è quella, ma anch'essa costosissima e non priva di molti rischi... di "spingere" con un vettore l'HUBBLE all'orbita dell'ISS, ripararlo con una missione STS e lasciarlo ricadere nella sua orbita prevista.

[LittleLux]

Peccato che la Russia non ha fondi per ripescare il suo progetto di Shuttle (Buran, ormai abbandonato dalla fine degli anni ottanta)), che tra le altre cose pare fosse, per molti aspetti, più avanzato e versatile di quello USA....





Qualche link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/rsa/buran.html
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/rsa/pics.html

...tuttavia, forse, non è detta l'ultima parola, sperem.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/russi...neral-01m.html

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da LittleLux
Peccato che la Russia non ha fondi per ripescare il suo progetto di Shuttle (Buran, ormai abbandonato dalla fine degli anni ottanta)), che tra le altre cose pare fosse, per molti aspetti, più avanzato e versatile di quello USA....

...tuttavia, forse, non è detta l'ultima parola, sperem.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/russi...neral-01m.html

Il Buran era uno spettacolare sistema, come hai detto su molti fronti superioren allo Shuttle... tuttavia ripescarlo è impossibile, il solo esemplare operativo per il volo è stato riconvertito a museo e si trova al Gorky Park di Mosca, gli altri prototipi sono stati smantellati o distrutti.

Oltretutto sarebbe troppo costoso, e ormai per molti aspetti obsoleto. Tieni oltretutto conto che manca pure la materia prima, ovvero il vettore Energia, che esisteva un solo esemplare, prima di andare perso nel collasso dell'hangar con il secondo orbiter a Tyuratam.

[LittleLux]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
Il Buran era uno spettacolare sistema, come hai detto su molti fronti superioren allo Shuttle... tuttavia ripescarlo è impossibile, il solo esemplare operativo per il volo è stato riconvertito a museo e si trova al Gorky Park di Mosca, gli altri prototipi sono stati smantellati o distrutti.

Oltretutto sarebbe troppo costoso, e ormai per molti aspetti obsoleto. Tieni oltretutto conto che manca pure la materia prima, ovvero il vettore Energia, che esisteva un solo esemplare, prima di andare perso nel collasso dell'hangar con il secondo orbiter a Tyuratam.

Quindi niente speranze per il futuro. E' un vero peccato.

Per quanto riguarda il prossimo orbiter nasa, invece, mi pare di capire che sarà alquanto diverso dall'attuale shuttle, è corretto?

Comunque, riguardo Buran ed altri progetti, ecco il LINK , interessantissimo, sul produttore di quello shuttle.

Ciao

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da LittleLux
Quindi niente speranze per il futuro. E' un vero peccato.

Per quanto riguarda il prossimo orbiter nasa, invece, mi pare di capire che sarà alquanto diverso dall'attuale shuttle, è corretto?

[/quote]

esatto, vedi uno dei post più sopra.

[evelon]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX


esatto, vedi uno dei post più sopra.

hai qualche info specifiche (magari un confronto) sullo shuttle e sul suo futuro sostituto?

Tra l'altro mi pare che gli shuttle sono leggermente diversi tra loro.

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da evelon
hai qualche info specifiche (magari un confronto) sullo shuttle e sul suo futuro sostituto?

Ancora no, il CEV non è stato ancora scelto tra i diversi progetti, che sono ancora in fase di sviluppo.

[GioFX]

Shuttle external fuel tank mated to boosters

NASA-KSC NEWS RELEASE
Posted: March 1, 2005

NASA is marking a major step in assembling the space shuttle for its Return to Flight mission. Monday, workers successfully "mated," or attached, the redesigned external tank and twin solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The fuel tank and booster rockets will help launch space shuttle Discovery on its mission to the International Space Station, currently targeted for May 15-June 3.


An overhead crane moves the external tank inside the Vehicle Assembly Building for mating to the solid rocket boosters. Photo: NASA

The space shuttle's external tank was lifted by a giant crane and joined to the already assembled, or "stacked," boosters in the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Mating the tank with the boosters is another major step in readying the space shuttle system for flight.

Following integration and final checkout of the external tank with the SRBs, orbiter Discovery will join its propulsion components in the VAB. Discovery will roll over from its hangar, the Orbiter Processing Facility, later this month to mark the completion of Return to Flight processing. The orbiter then will be attached to the stack in the VAB.

The external tank will fly with several modifications, including two new forward bipod heaters at the forward attach fittings that connect the tank to the orbiter. NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. spent nearly two years modifying the tank to make it safer.


The external tank is moved into position for mating with the solid rocket boosters. Photo: NASA

During ET-SRB mating, the left and right boosters are bolted to the tank at both the forward, or top, and the aft, or tail, ends. At the forward end, a vertical bolt mechanism attaches each booster to the tank. On launch day, approximately two minutes after liftoff, the SRBs will separate from the ET when pyrotechnic devices fire to break the 25-inch, 62-pound steel bolts. One half of the bolt is caught in canister-like "bolt catchers" located on the tank; the other half remains with the boosters.

Discovery will also be the first flight with a modified bolt catcher, which was upgraded from a two-piece welded design to a one-piece, machine-made design. By eliminating the weld, the modified bolt catcher is structurally stronger than the original design.

Prior to orbiter Discovery joining the stack, final closeouts on the external tank will include attaching the new bolt catcher and electrical cable connections, as well as installing an aerodynamic fairing and the bi-pod struts, which are the attach points for the nose of the orbiter to the tank.

The external tank is the largest element of the space shuttle system, which also includes the orbiter, main engines and SRBs. It measures 27.6 feet wide and 154 feet tall. Despite the tank's size, the aluminum skin covering it is only an eighth of an inch thick in most areas. Yet it still withstands more than 6.5 million pounds of thrust during liftoff and ascent. The tank is the only Shuttle component that cannot be reused.

[GioFX]

Shuttle mission simulation tests post-Columbia team

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: March 4, 2005

The shuttle Discovery docked with the international space station today in a dramatic mission simulation that included presumed foam debris impacts to the orbiter's right wing leading edge and an aft rocket pod during the make-believe climb to space.


Senior managers, launch team members and reporters gather in the Firing Room to simulate liftoff of Discovery earlier this week. Photo: NASA

The simulation, which began Wednesday with a mock launch from the Kennedy Space Center, is designed to put NASA's post-Columbia management system to the test while giving the shuttle crew and mission control team a chance to sharpen their skills.

Flight directors and members of NASA's mission management team even staged faux news briefings complete with questions from public affairs officers playing the roles of reporters.

"It's been great. Everybody's played really hard," MMT Chairman Wayne Hale said late Friday. "This is like a real flight, they are playing hard and we've had a lot of emotion, which is good, that means people are taking it seriously, but it hasn't gotten out of hand. People are being reasonable in their conclusions and I think that's very good."

Said John Shannon, a senior member of NASA's mission management team: "This is like a play. This is our dress rehearsal. I'm just blown away by the fidelity of this thing, how many people are participating."

For launch, the MMT gathered at the Kennedy Space Center earlier this week for a full-fledged dress rehearsal countdown led by launch director Mike Leinbach and NASA test director Jeff Spaulding.

Five reporters, including this writer, were allowed to sit in on an early morning MMT meeting Wednesday to clear the launch team for a simulated fueling and later, observed the terminal countdown from the firing room in Kennedy's Launch Control Center.

The countdown was relatively straight forward and while a few problems cropped up that required extensive troubleshooting, the simulated liftoff occurred on time at 5:55 p.m. But seconds after launch, the simulation team began throwing problems at Discovery's crew and flight controllers in Houston, including simulated impacts by foam debris from Discovery's external fuel tank.

Columbia was brought down Feb. 1, 2003, by wing leading edge damage caused by a chunk of external fuel tank foam insulation that broke away during ascent.

Discovery's tank has been modified to prevent large pieces of foam from breaking off in flight. While it's not possible to completely eliminate foam shedding, Hale said Wednesday he's optimistic the tank will be deemed safe enough to launch after two years of work to minimize debris.

"In a perfect world, you would say the biggest thing that can come off the tank can't possibly hurt the (wing leading edge)," he said. "In a worst-on-worst kind of case, you can't say that, even after what we've done. But what we can say is in a realistic sense ... from what is reasonable to happen, we have sufficient safety margin."

To make absolutely sure the tank performs as expected, at least the first two shuttle missions will be treated as test flights. New high definition television tracking cameras will photograph Discovery's real launch in May with unprecedented resolution and other cameras on the shuttle, the tank itself and the orbiter's twin solid-fuel boosters will provide extensive photographic coverage during the climb to space.

In addition, cameras aboard two modified jets will "shoot" the shuttle through booster separation, the astronauts will photograph the tank in space and military spy satellites will snap classified photographs of the shuttle to look for signs of damage.

Sensors mounted just behind the wing leading edge panels will record the force and location of any impacts, the shuttle's crew will use laser sensors mounted on the end of a long boom to scrutinize the wing leading edges from the outside and the crew of the international space station will photograph the heat-shield tiles on the belly of the orbiter during Discovery's final approach.

The severity of any actual damage in a real flight will dictate NASA's response. Minor damage might be deemed acceptable for re-entry as is. More serious damage could raise the prospect of a spacewalk repair job and in cases where the issue was not clear cut - or the damage is obviously too severe for a repair - the astronauts could move into the space station and await rescue by another shuttle.

While no one expects any significant foam shedding during Discovery's May 15 launching, this week's simulation has forced mission managers to exercise all of the post-Columbia inspection techniques in a real-world scenario.

During Wednesday's mock launch, commander Eileen Collins had to deal with a fuel cell glitch seconds after liftoff and was told the center main engine's nozzle was leaking hydrogen. The shuttle's main engines shut down slightly early, resulting in a 35 foot per second shortfall in velocity. To save fuel, the crew was told not to perform a maneuver that would have let them photograph the external tank from an overhead window.

More worrisome to mission managers, two debris shedding events were noticed in ascent photography and radar tracking. By Thursday, the second day of the simulated mission, photography and radar analysis had identified at least nine "debris events," including damage to tiles on the shuttle's right rear rocket pod and a possible impact around leading edge panel No. 6 on Discovery's right wing.

The Discovery astronauts, working in a flight simulator at the Johnson Space Center, spent flight day two inspecting the 44 reinforced carbon carbon - RCC - leading edge panels on both wings, along with the ship's RCC nose cap, using a new boom-mounted laser system attached to the end of the shuttle's robot arm.

Aside from the use of computer graphics and animation in place of actual video from space, this writer, observing from the mission control room at the Johnson Space Center, could not tell the difference between the simulation and an actual mission as lead flight director Paul Hill led his team through the complex inspection work.

But in what might be a surprise to at least some observers, mission managers overseeing Discovery's simulated docking with the international space station Friday afternoon - two full days after launch - still did not yet know for sure whether the RCC impact had caused any damage.

Data from the laser scanner used to inspect the leading edge Thursday was inconclusive, officials said today, and close-up, targeted inspections were to be simulated Saturday. In addition, photos of the shuttle's belly taken by the crew of the space station during Discovery's final approach earlier today, showed unusual white speckles across the black heat-shield tiles that now must be investigated.

Senior managers said the pace of the simulation gave a sense of how long it will take NASA and contractor engineers to collect the data they would need in an actual flight to determine whether or not the shuttle had been damaged during launch or if repairs might be needed.

"We know we have some warning signs, we know we had some different debris events, we know we had one of those events gave us an indication on a wing leading edge sensor," Shannon said late Thursday. "That doesn't tell you if you have damage or not, it tells you potentially you had a hit in that area.

"The thing is, we go from a lot of data that's pretty low fidelity - from the imagery, from all the ground stuff, the external tank camera and the radar stuff - it's not very good fidelity but it tells you hey, something was going on and it clues you in to the next stage, which is what we're doing now and you go look carefully.

"It's going to be a little frustrating because you say OK, maybe they've got something here, here and here but it's going to take a few days to collect the data to see what is there. ... This is extremely complex."

In a real flight, the mission management team would not expect to have an impact site fully characterized and understood until flight day six. That is when the MMT would have to decide whether a shuttle could return to Earth as is, whether repairs were needed or whether a crew might have to abandon ship and use the space station as a "safe haven."

"It's really going to take us until flight day six to get all the reports, all the data, do all the analysis and come to a conclusion," Hale said. "Other than being anxious to get the answer, that's OK."

This week's simulation is working through that analysis and decision-making timeline in exhaustive detail.

"I would characterize the process as extremely realistic," Shannon said. "The systems engineering and integration guys are tracking nine different debris cases, the data collection's going on, two of them could be fairly significant. ... It's such a great, real-time prep for us to get real problems coming down, crunching them through all the people, all new processes, all the debris assessment stuff, this is all new. ... Just going through this whole cycle is so valuable."

The simulation was scheduled to end Friday evening, but the mission management team planned to work through the weekend assessing the impact data and debating all of the options they could face in a real flight.

Asked about the deliberate pace of the post-launch analysis during a real flight, John Muratore, a senior shuttle manager at the Johnson Space Center, said "my impression is this is going to be high drama for 14 days."

NASA hopes to move Discovery to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center around March 25. The launch window opens May 15 and closes June 3. The next launch window opens July 12.

"I think we're in pretty good shape," Hale said Wednesday. "We're working a number of problems on the orbiter, but that is fairly typical. ... The real issues we've got, I don't think it's orbiter processing. I think we're within the box on orbiter processing on Discovery. The real issue we've got is getting closure to the engineering analysis.

"We have to have the engineering analysis complete that proves it's safe to fly before we can go fly. If that means go park Discovery at the beach for an extra month, then so be it. Now, I don't think it's going to come to that. But we have got to prove it's safe to fly before we light the fuse."

[GioFX]

Second redesigned shuttle external tank to ship

NASA NEWS RELEASE
Posted: March 4, 2005

NASA will ship its second redesigned Space Shuttle External Tank Saturday, March 5, from Michoud Assembly Facility, near New Orleans, marking the first step toward final launch preparations for the launch of STS-121, possibly this summer. The mission, on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, is the second test flight of the Space Shuttle following the Columbia accident.


The external tank for STS-121 is moved to its shipment barge. Credit: Lockheed Martin

The tank, designated ET-121, rolled out on its transporter March 4 at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and loaded onto a covered barge for shipment to Kennedy Space Center. The trip from the Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Outlet to Florida's Banana River, which pours into the Atlantic Ocean, usually takes four to five days.

The first redesigned tank, ET-120, was shipped from New Orleans to Kennedy Space Center in December 2004. It will launch NASA's STS-114 Return to Flight mission planned for May. It incorporated several safety improvements, including an improved bipod fitting that connects the tank to the Orbit; a video camera mounted on the liquid oxygen feed line to photograph liftoff; reversed bolts on the flange of the tank's mid-section and a new process for spraying the thermal protection required there; redesign of the bellow, or "joints" for movement, along the liquid oxygen feed line, the 70-foot pipe that feeds liquid oxygen to the Main Engines; and a more defined spray procedure on the longeron, a structural support for the tank's aft, orbiter attachment struts.

In addition to the ET-120 modifications, NASA's second redesigned tank has been outfitted with temperature sensors and accelerometers, used to measure vibration, which will gather information about how it performs during flight.

Temperature sensors will be mounted on the tank's two forward "bipods." Each tank has two bipod fittings that connect the tank to the Orbiter at the Shuttle's two forward attachment struts. These sensors will monitor the temperature of the bipod web, the flat section of the bipod located between the fitting and the attachment plate.

There also will be seven accelerometers on the tank. Three will be located in the intertank, the Tank's midsection, near the bipods, to measure any vibration caused by changes in the aerodynamic load, or stress. The other four accelerometers will be located in the cable tray of liquid oxygen protuberance air load ramps and will be used to determine whether there is need for the ramps in future tank modifications.

"The instrumentation on ET-121 will confirm what our computer models tell us happens during launch and ascent," said Sandy Coleman, manager of the External Tank Project, an element of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Though computer models are invaluable, the information gained from an actual launch will give us an even better picture."


The STS-121 external tank is loaded into its shipment barge. Credit: Lockheed Martin

During a launch, the External Tank delivers 535,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants to the three Main Engines, which power the Shuttle to orbit. The Tank is covered by a polyurethane-like foam that insulates the propellants, keeps ice from forming on the Tank's exterior and protects its aluminum skin from aerodynamic heat during ascent. The Tank -- the largest element of the Shuttle system -- measures 27.6 feet wide and 154 feet tall and is the only Shuttle component that cannot be reused. The other elements include the Orbiter, the twin Solid Rocket Boosters, each consisting of four solid rocket motor segments, and the three Main Engines.

The seven-member crew of the STS-114 Return to Flight mission to the International Space Station in May is the first step in realizing the Vision for Space Exploration, which calls for a stepping stone strategy of human and robotic missions to achieve new exploration goals. The Shuttle will be used to complete assembly of the International Space Station, a vital research platform for human endurance in space and a test bed for technologies and techniques that will enable longer journeys to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The Space Shuttle Propulsion Office at the Marshall Center manages the Tank project. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., in New Orleans, is the primary contractor.

[GioFX]

Tuesday, March 29

Shuttle Discovery leaves hangar on road to launch

Space shuttle Discovery emerged from its space-age garage at the Kennedy Space Center at 2 a.m. EST (0700 GMT) this morning for the quarter-mile move to the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building where the ship will be mated with an external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters over the next few days. Discovery will return the shuttle program to flight with its launch now targeted for mid-May.

Misson Status:

http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts114/status.html


NASA Return To Flight homepage:

http://www1.nasa.gov/returntoflight/main/index.html


NASA Press Release:

Discovery Takes First Step Toward Launch Pad



In the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 29, Discovery rolled over from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. There it will be attached to its redesigned External Tank and twin Solid Rocket Boosters.

On Monday, April 4, Discovery begins its eight hour journey to launch pad 39B. Discovery's mission, STS-114, is targeted for launch in May.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment for the Space Shuttle Program," said Bill Parsons, Space Shuttle Program Manager. "This effort has taken a talented team dedicated to meticulously preparing the vehicle and implementing all the modifications for a safe Return to Flight," he added.

[GioFX]

Discovery seen from spac

SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: April 6, 2005



International Space Station commander Leroy Chiao spotted Discovery from 225 miles above Earth today and snapped this photograph of the shuttle as it was being rolled from the Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B. Credit: NASA, enhanced by William Harwood.

[GioFX]

Space shuttle Discovery arrives at launch pad

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION


April 7, 2005


The shuttle Discovery has been hauled to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, the first shuttle "rollout" since Columbia's ill-fated mission and a major milestone on the road to resuming shuttle flights in May.

The glacial, 1-mph trip to the launch pad began at 2:04:36 p.m. EDT (1804:36 GMT) Wednesday after a brief delay to discuss a hairline crack seen in the insulation covering Discovery's external fuel tank.

Engineers decided the two-inch-long crack did not require repair and a powerful Apollo-era crawler-transporter slowly hauled the shuttle and its mobile launch platform out of the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building and into a brilliant spring sky.

Looking on were scores of space center employees, reporters, tourists aboard visitor's center buses and even the crew of the international space station, which passed almost directly overhead around 4:30 p.m. EDT. If all goes well, Discovery will dock with the station two days after launch on the 114th shuttle mission.

The move was interrupted just after nightfall when the shuttle reached the launch pad ramp. A problem with the system that keeps Discovery and mobile launch platform level during ascent up the incline experienced a faulty electronics card that had to be replaced. Rollout resumed a few hours later and Discovery's launch platform finally came to rest atop the pad pedestals at 1:16 a.m. EDT this morning.

Rollout originally was planned for late March, but the 4.2-mile trip was held up because of minor processing snags and technical issues that used up most of the contingency time built into the schedule to handle unexpected problems at the pad.

By rolling to the pad Wednesday, NASA can still, in theory, launch Discovery as early as May 15. But any additional problems almost certainly will delay launch. NASA has until June 3 to get Discovery off the ground on the first post-Columbia mission or the flight will be delayed to at least July 13, the next available daylight launch opportunity to the international space station.

As engineers in Florida were preparing Discovery for its long-awaited trip to the pad, the shuttle's crew and flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston were practicing re-entry procedures in a series of morning simulations riddled with mock failures and problems.

Speaking to reporters in mission control, ascent-entry flight director LeRoy Cain said Discovery's rollout was "an important milestone because it's such a collaborative effort to get to this point."

"What I see here is the people and the machinery coming together," he said. "This is a point in time where we begin to converge all of the people with all of the machinery and we move toward a common goal of launching."

Mission commander Eileen Collins said "it's a great sight to see Discovery rolling out to the launch pad. We know we're getting close."

While some outside observers have questioned whether NASA has done enough to fully implement safety recommendations made in the wake of the Columbia disaster, Cain said he has no doubts Discovery's crew and his flight control team are ready to go.

"I'm happy to be here, I'm excited to be here," he said. "We've worked very hard to get to this point. As I said earlier, this team is as ready as any team that I have seen when we're this many days from launch. I feel very confident in our abilities. I don't look at this as closure. I look at this as a new beginning. I consider ourselves ready to go to the next milestone for return to flight."