[Space] NASA - STS-115 - ISS 12A (Atlantis)

[GioFX]

Da SpaceFlightNow.com:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...60828rollback/

Rollback preps ordered for Atlantis

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 28, 2006

In what amounts to a "perfect storm" of high winds, high stakes and international drama, tropical storm Ernesto is now predicted to hit southern Florida as a possible category two or three hurricane early Wednesday, passing within a few miles of the Kennedy Space Center later that day.

NASA managers early today ordered engineers to begin preparations for rolling shuttle Atlantis off the launch pad and back to the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building, eliminating any chance of launching the shuttle Tuesday.

While its movement over land will decrease Ernesto's strength, the current track likely will bring tropical storm-force winds to Florida's space coast by Wednesday morning and possible category one hurricane-force winds by Wednesday night. Here is the National Hurricane Center five-day forecast.

NASA managers met this morning at 7 a.m. to discuss the storm and quickly decided to begin preparations to roll Atlantis off the launch pad, a move that would take 42 hours to complete. Rollback can be called off at any point between now and Tuesday afternoon if the storm changes strength or direction.

NASA's safety rules forbid moving the unprotected orbiter off the pad in winds higher than 40 knots. On Sunday, when the storm's track was well west of the space center, NASA managers expected 40-knot winds early Wednesday morning, giving them time to complete a rollback, if necessary, by Tuesday evening.

NASA managers considered ordering a rollback Sunday night but deferred a decision to today believing they had time before the onset of 40-knot winds. By deferring a decision, NASA kept open the possibility of launching Atlantis Tuesday on a space station assembly mission if Ernesto's track or strength dramatically changed. That option is now closed.

Atlantis' launch window closes Sept. 7, based on a desire to launch in daylight for photo documentation of the shuttle's heat shield and external tank and because of conflict with launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the space station's next crew.

While the shuttle can launch as late as Sept. 13 from a lighting standpoint, any launch past Sept. 7 would force the Russians to delay the Soyuz launch and, more important, delay the return to Earth of the station's outgoing crew. A shuttle launch on Sept. 7 would result in a pre-dawn landing for the returning Soyuz.

Every day past Sept. 7 would move the landing earlier in the day and Russian managers want to avoid a dead-of-night touchdown because the recovery team will be conducting its first operation under new civilian management.

A rollback likely would use up NASA's available launch window, barring a concession form the Russians to delay the Soyuz launch. Even if Ernesto passes without causing major damage, it would take NASA at least eight days to ready the ship for flight after rolling back out to pad 39B.

If Atlantis remains at the launch pad, either because of high winds preventing a rollback or because the storm changes strength or direction, NASA managers believe it's unlikely any launch attempts could be made before Sunday at the earliest.

Space station program manager Mike Suffredini planned to open discussions with the Russians today about the possibility of a launch past Sept. 7, but it's not yet known whether that's a real possibility.

As for relaxing the lighted launch requirement to open up more opportunities after the Soyuz flight, Bill Gerstenmaier, chief of spaceflight for NASA, said Sunday the agency considers photo documentation of the shuttle's tank and heat shield a high priority.

[GioFX]

1500 GMT (11:00 a.m. EDT)

Cape Canaveral is now under a hurricane watch.

The 11 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center indicates Ernesto is down to 40 mph sustained winds as it interacts with Cuba. But it is expected to regain hurricane strength after emerging over water before striking Florida.

[GioFX]

Da Spaceflightnow.com:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...ck/index3.html

Crawler problems add hours to rollback time

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 28, 2006


The transporter to haul Atlantis back to the Vehicle Assembly Building nears launch pad 39B today. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News

Problems with one of NASA's ponderous crawler-transporters will force engineers to take the shuttle Atlantis to the far side of the Vehicle Assembly Building Tuesday if a rollback from the launch pad is ordered because of tropical storm/hurricane Ernesto. The change in plans will add three hours or so to the time necessary to get Atlantis out of harm's way.

If rollback is, in fact, ordered, NASA will be in a race against the clock to get Atlantis moved before any thunderstorms develop along Florida's space coast. NASA safety rules forbid moving a shuttle "stack" in winds above 40 knots or if lightning is present within 20 nautical miles.

At the launch pad, a shuttle and its propellant-loaded solid-fuel boosters are protected from the weather by a lightning protection system and rain barriers that effectively surround the orbiter. No such protection is available during a roll to or from the pad.

NASA has not yet committed to hauling Atlantis off pad 39B, but Ernesto's projected track and the prospect of tropical storm- or hurricane-force winds Wednesday could leave the agency with little choice. But a final decision is not required until Tuesday morning, when a crawler-transporter picks up the shuttle's mobile launch platform.

NASA had planned to move Atlantis into high bay 3 in the VAB, which faces the launch pad, after moving another mobile launch platform out of the way. A crawler-transporter moved that MLP out of the bay earlier today, but had to put it back after hydraulic problems developed.


A partially-stacked solid rocket booster for shuttle Discovery's STS-116 launch leaves the VAB today. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News

The only available bay for Atlantis, high bay 2, is on the opposite side of the VAB. Because more turns and maneuvering are required to reach high bay 2, Atlantis' trip, if ordered, will take up to three hours longer to complete. It is scheduled to begin around 9 a.m. and take about 11 hours to complete.

The forecast for Tuesday calls for winds out of the southeast at 8 knots in the morning, increasing to 14 to 20 knots in the afternoon. After 8 p.m., the winds will jump to 17 to 25 knots, still well below the 40-knot limit. There is a 30 percent chance of rain showers in the morning with a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms, a forecast that currently extends to 5 p.m. Tuesday. Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., the chance of showers increases to 40 percent with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms. Between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., the rain chance goes up to 60 percent with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms and after 10 p.m., the probability of rain increases to 70 percent with a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms.

"They would like to be moving as soon as they can in the morning so they can be in the barn by eight o'clock," said NASA spokesman George Diller.

If an electrical storm develops during the roll back to the VAB, the safety plan calls for the crawler crew to stop the move and leave the transporter until the storm passes.

[GioFX]

il maltempo mi tiene ancora qui a casa. Partirò con un giorno di ritardo...

dato che son qui, le ultime dalla Florida:

NASA decides to roll Atlantis off pad

NASA has decided to roll back to protect shuttle Atlantis from severe weather associated with Tropical Storm Ernesto, a move that likely eliminates any chance of a September launch to resume construction of space station. First motion of the crawler is imminent. The trip should take most of the day. More to come.

[Marilson]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX

il maltempo mi tiene ancora qui a casa. Partirò con un giorno di ritardo...

dato che son qui, le ultime dalla Florida:

NASA decides to roll Atlantis off pad

NASA has decided to roll back to protect shuttle Atlantis from severe weather associated with Tropical Storm Ernesto, a move that likely eliminates any chance of a September launch to resume construction of space station. First motion of the crawler is imminent. The trip should take most of the day. More to come.

è la prima volta che visiti la florida e il kennedy space center?

[GioFX]

Da SpaceFlightNow.com:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl.../060829ernesto

Ernesto forces shuttle Atlantis off the launch pad

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 29, 2006

With tropical storm Ernesto threatening Florida, NASA managers today reluctantly ordered engineers to proceed with plans to move the shuttle Atlantis back to the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building, a move that likely will delay the flight to late October.


Atlantis takes the slow journey back from launch pad 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now News

Launch director Mike Leinbach made the decision shortly before 9:45 a.m. after a final weather briefing and a last-minute discussion about the possibility of riding out Ernesto at the launch pad.

By keeping Atlantis at the pad, NASA could, in theory, be ready for launch by Sunday or Monday assuming the storm caused no major damage. But with forecasters predicting 50-knot winds Wednesday with gusts to 65 knots, Leinbach and other senior managers decided to err on the side of caution.

Engineers operating a powerful crawler-transporter then jacked up Atlantis' mobile launch platform and began the slow trip to the VAB at 10:04 a.m.

The 4.2-mile trip from the launch pad to high bay 2 on the west side of the Vehicle Assembly Building was expected to take about 10 hours to complete. That's two hours faster than originally expected because of a decision to run the crawler at its top speed of 1 mph when possible. But the average speed will be less.

The slow speed is not surprising given the enormous mass of the shuttle and its mobile launch platform. The two-story MLP, which measures 160 feet by 135 feet, weighs 9.25 million pounds. With an unfueled space shuttle attached, the weight climbs to 12 million pounds.

The original plan called for moving Atlantis to high bay 3 on the east side of the VAB closest to the launch pad. That would have reduced the travel time to about eight hours. But problems with NASA's only other crawler prevented engineers from moving another MLP out of the way Monday. As a result, Atlantis will have to make a longer trip to the far side of the VAB.

The forecast for today's move calls for an increasing chance of showers as the day wears on with the odds of thunderstorms climbing to 30 percent between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., there's a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms, 60 percent between 10 p.m. and midnight.

At the launch pad, the shuttle is shielded by a very effective lightning protection system. A 100,000-amp lightning strike at the pad last Friday caused no major damage. But during the roll back to the VAB, the shuttle is exposed to the elements and NASA hopes to avoid thunderstorms if at all possible.

Today's decision to roll the shuttle back to the VAB was a critical milestone for NASA because it all but eliminates any chance of launching before the Sept. 7 end of the shuttle's current launch window.

The end of the launch window is defined by NASA's desire to launch in daylight for photo documentation of the shuttle's heat shield and external tank and by Russian plans to launch a Soyuz rocket by Sept. 18 to deliver a fresh crew to the international space station.

Based on lighting alone, Atlantis could launch as late as Sept. 13. NASA would need at least eight days to ready the shuttle for flight after a roll back out to the launch pad after Ernesto passes and if lighting alone was the limiting factor, at least a few launch attempts would be possible.

But any launch past Sept. 7 would force the Russians to delay the Soyuz beyond Sept. 18, resulting in a dead-of-night landing for the space station's outgoing crew. The Soyuz recovery team is operating under new civilian management for the first time and so far, Russian space managers, citing flight safety, have refused to move the launch date past the 18th.

If that holds up, NASA will be forced to delay Atlantis' launch on a long-awaited space station assembly mission until a two-day window that opens Oct. 26. The next lighted window after that is a one-day opportunity Dec. 23.

NASA managers already are discussing ways to expand the October window slightly, by either relaxing some of the lighting requirements or changing station operations to loosen temperature constraints.

As it now stands, a launch by Atlantis in October almost certainly would delay a planned Dec. 14 flight by the shuttle Discovery to mid January. That, in turn, would delay three critical post shuttle-undocking spacewalks by the station crew to February in a ripple effect that could have implications for other downstream flights.

But in the near term, Ernesto is the center of NASA's focus as engineers haul Atlantis back to the VAB and prepare the launch pad and other facilities for tropical storm-force winds Wednesday.

[GioFX]

Live del roll-back su NASA TV Media Channel:

http://www.nasa.gov/ram/145591main_Digital_Media.ram

[Marilson]

azz giofx ti giuro che avevo capito che stavi li!

[GioFX]

Atlantis is returning to Launch Compex 39B!! I heard that from a USA employee who is a member of another forum I'm visiting. No specific reason yet.

[GioFX]

Rollback cancelled!

NASA has cancelled its plans to shelter shuttle Atlantis in the vehicle assembly building and is returning it to the launch pad. Check our status center for live updates.

[GioFX]

Da SpaceFlightNow.com:

Atlantis no longer seeks shelter and returning to pad

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 29, 2006

Launch director Mike Leinbach, buoyed by a more favorable forecast for tropical storm Ernesto, ordered engineers to stop the shuttle Atlantis' trip back to the Vehicle Assembly Building today and instead to return to the ship to the launch pad.

The National Hurricane Center now expects Ernesto to bring sustained winds of 45 knots to the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, with gusts to 60 knots. That's within NASA's safety limits and the protection provided by wind screens and the massive rotating service structure that surrounds the shuttle on the pad.

Atlantis' rollback began at 10:04 a.m. after a long debate about the forecast and whether to ride out the storm at the pad. In the end, Leinbach decided predictions of 65-knot gusts were too much and the slow move began.

Then at 2:45 p.m., the massive crawler-transporter stopped in its tracks, loud speakers along the crawlerway announced the decision to reverse course and at 2:45 p.m., the shuttle began moving back toward pad 39B. Engineers expect to put it back in place by 8 p.m. and to extend the rotating service structure by 8:30 p.m. to provide some level of protection.

[GioFX]

Atlantis was about a mile from VAB when the decision was taken to reverse course. The shuttle started back to the launch pad at about 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT).

[GioFX]

Scusatemi ma mi son accorto di aver postato precedenti messaggi nel thread indice!

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da Marilson

azz giofx ti giuro che avevo capito che stavi li!

LOL no Marilson, magari!

[GioFX]

Da SpaceFligtNow.com:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...60829postbrief

Atlantis could be ready for launch attempt by Sept. 6

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 29, 2006

If shuttle Atlantis weathers tropical storm Ernesto without any major problems, and if engineers can complete hurried preparations, NASA may be ready to make a launch attempt as early as Sept. 6, one day before the shuttle's launch window closes, officials said late today.

Launch Director Mike Leinbach said earlier that if the shuttle was moved from its launch pad, it would take eight days to ready the ship for takeoff from the point it was returned to the firing stand.

"If we were in the VAB (vehicle Assembly Building) and had to roll out to the pad to get to our first launch attempt, that was eight days," he said. "We'll already be at the launch pad, that saves a half day right there. We'll also kick off as much of the launch pad connections as we can get done tonight, that saves more time.

"Any kind of launch dates are predicated on how long we'll be cleared from the space center (because of Ernesto)," he added. "We're assuming it'll only be tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening and we should be able to get back into the space center Thursday. If that's the case, the plan rolls out to an attempt September the sixth or September the seventh. We're finalizing that now, we do not have a firm date. But it's in the sixth/seventh kind of time frame."

Leinbach and other senior managers decided early today to move Atlantis off the launch pad and back to the VAB because of concern about high winds from Ernesto. At the time, forecasters were predicting sustained winds of 50 knots as the storm passed by the Kennedy Space Center with gusts to 65 knots.

NASA's launch pad safety limit is 70 knots and shuttle managers, deciding it was too close to call, erred on the side of caution and ordered engineers to start moving Atlantis off the pad. The 4.2-mile trip began at 10:04 a.m. and was expected to take about 10 hours to complete.

But later in the day, the forecast changed. While south Florida was expected to get hit by 55-knot winds and gusts up to near hurricane strength, the space center was expected to see 45-knot winds with gusts to 55 Wednesday night, well below the launch pad's 70-knot limit.

After discussing the weather with forecasters and other senior managers, Leinbach and LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, ordered an unprecedented rollback reversal. At 2:45 p.m., NASA's ponderous crawler-transporter began creeping back toward the pad. If all goes well, Atlantis and its mobile launch platform will be "hard down" at the pad shortly after 8 p.m. A massive rotating service structure will be moved into place around the shuttle shortly thereafter and wind screens will be extended.

The wind screens and the RSS virtually surround the space shuttle at the pad, protecting the orbiter from wind-borne debris and rain. A lightning protection system shields the orbiter from electrical activity. The external fuel tank, at least the side away from the shuttle, is pretty much exposed to the elements.

"We followed the data, we met our criteria and I feel very good about the decision," Leinbach said. "There's no trepidation in my mind at all about the decision. This is the right way to go. It was a good exercise in time, we protected both options."

It remains to be seen whether NASA can, in fact, ready Atlantis for a launch attempt as early as Sept. 6. If so, a standard three-day countdown would begin this Sunday afternoon and engineers would begin pumping hydrogen and oxygen rocket fuel into the shuttle's external tank around 2:30 a.m. next Wednesday for a launch attempt at 12:29 p.m.

"The plan to get back to a launch attempt once we return from the storm is really very straight forward," Leinbach said. "We'll go through a launch pad validation process, that's about a day-long test or so, that's where we do all the connections, data, power and gases, connections from the launch pad to the mobile launch platform. We will be opening the payload bay doors and giving our payload friends a battery boost.

"Then on day two, we will reconnect our ordnance, we need to pressurize our MPS (main propulsion system) and our RCS (reaction control system) tanks. We depressurized those for the roll back, so we'll repressurize those. Then we'll get into our launch countdown. It's going to be a full three-day standard launch countdown."

Pad processing will not take as long as usual because many tasks have already been completed. Rocket fuel for the shuttle's maneuvering jets is already on board, the payload - a new solar array truss for the international space station - is already in the cargo bay and the crew has already completed a dress-rehearsal countdown.

"So those things do not have to be re-performed and that saves us a heck of a lot of time," Leinbach said. "So the short answer is, I feel good about it. I can't give you a firm date yet. When we have a better plan, I'm sure we'll advertise it to you."

The current Sept. 7 end of the shuttle's launch window is the result of three factors: The need to launch into the plane of the space station's orbit; the desire to launch in daylight for photo documentation of the shuttle's heat shield and external tank; and the need to complete the docked phase of the mission before launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the station's next full-time crew.

For Atlantis to launch past Sept. 7, the Russians would have to agree to a Soyuz launch delay that, in turn, would force the outgoing crew of the station to land in pre-dawn darkness, something the Russians don't want to do.

Earlier today, Mike Suffredini, space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said more discussions were planned but as of today, Sept. 7 was the cutoff. Cain seemed to imply at one point that Sept. 8 might already be on the table, but that could not be confirmed.

[GioFX]

ALL HURRICANE WATCHES FOR FLORIDA DISCONTINUED!

Non c'è più timore di un cat 1, rimarrà una tropical storm come previsto, ottima decisione quella di aspettarla al pad! Dai che la prox sett si lancia.

Io vado ragazzi, mi raccomando!

Octane mi fido!

Ciao!

[Octane]

il tempo quest'estate ha proprio

[Octane]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX

LOL no Marilson, magari!

gia'! mica male la Florida!!

(uragani e tempeste tropicali a parte )

[Marilson]

io ho avuto la fortuna immensa di andarci l'anno scorso, sono stato ad orlando.. e ovviamente al ksc. Ho anche avuto il cagotto di una tropical storm, cmq c'è da dire che lì ad agosto ogni sera piove fortissimo..

[Octane]

da NASA.gov

Atlantis Weathers Ernesto at the Pad


Atlantis rolls on the crawler transporter. Image above: Atlantis heads back to Launch Pad 39B where it will ride out Tropical Storm Ernesto. Photo credit: NASA
+ View Larger Image

Atlantis is at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center to weather Tropical Depression Ernesto in place. Mission managers are confident in the ability of the rotating service structure to protect the vehicle on the pad. Mission managers are considering Sept. 6, 7 and 8 as potential launch dates, depending on how Ernesto affects the center.

Emergency operations teams are set to begin initial damage assessments of NASA's Kennedy Space Center starting at 2 a.m. EDT Thursday, after Ernesto has moved past the center. As of now, the center is expected to reopen Thursday morning.

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Leroy Cain, launch integration manager, explained that when the decision was made Tuesday morning to roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, the "forecast was just not quite good enough."

During a morning meeting, however, Launch Director Mike Leinbach introduced the option for stopping the rollback if the forecast improved, and the team implemented that option during the afternoon when the 11 a.m. EDT forecast showed enough improvement.

The decision came as the projected path for Tropical Storm Ernesto skirted further west than first expected, allowing a sufficient decrease in winds to permit the shuttle to ride out the storm at the pad. The team made the determination at 2:40 p.m. and Atlantis began the return trip to the pad. Its trek to the Vehicle Assembly Building atop the crawler-transporter had started at 10:04 a.m.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ain/index.html





da Spaceflightnow.com

NASA reconsiders its daylight launch rule
If the shuttle Atlantis fails to get off the ground before the Sept. 7 end of its current launch window - a scenario that could delay the flight to late October - NASA managers may reconsider an earlier decision to only launch in daylight.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...060829windows/

Atlantis could be ready to launch by next week
If shuttle Atlantis weathers tropical storm Ernesto without any major problems, and if engineers can complete hurried preparations, NASA may be ready to make a launch attempt as early as Sept. 6, one day before the shuttle's launch window closes, officials said late Tuesday.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl...0829postbrief/

Shuttle launch window extended to Sept. 8
NASA and Russian space managers agreed today to extend the shuttle Atlantis' launch window by one day, to Sept. 8, to bolster the U.S. space agency's chances of getting the weather-delayed shuttle off the ground this month.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttl.../060830window/