[Space] NASA STS-114 (ISS)

[Banus]

Originariamente inviato da gpc

Ho troppo sonno per andare a prendere il vocabolario Cos'è esattamente un "blanket"?

"Copertura". Prendi babylon

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da gpc

Ho troppo sonno per andare a prendere il vocabolario Cos'è esattamente un "blanket"?

Letteralmente è "coperta", ma in codesto contesto ( ) trattasi di rivestimento.

[gpc]

Capito, capito, grazie...

[GioFX]

Fourth spacewalk ruled out

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

NASA's mission management team today ruled out another shuttle repair spacewalk, this one to fix a damaged insulation blanket, saying a detailed analysis showed Discovery's crew can safely return to Earth as is.

"We have good news," astronaut Julie Payette radioed from mission control a few minutes past 1 p.m. "The MMT just got to the conclusion that the blanket underneath (the commander's) window is safe for return. There is no issue."

Concern about the damaged 20-inch-long, 4-inch-wide insulation blanket just below Discovery commander Eileen Collins' left cockpit window was the only remaining question mark about the shuttle's condition prior to re-entry and landing Monday at the Kennedy Space Center. Engineers earlier cleared the shuttle's heat-shield tiles and wing leading edge panels after an impromptu repair job Wednesday in which two protruding "gap fillers" were plucked from the ship's belly during the crew's third, and now final, spacewalk.

The blanket in question forms an interface of sorts between heat-shield tiles surrounding the cockpit windows and thermal insulation blankets that protect much of the shuttle's upper fuselage.

Engineers concluded earlier that the damaged blanket posed no threat during the high-speed, high-heating parts of re-entry. Rather, the concern was that the top layer of the blanket could rip away at lower velocities, when the shuttle has fallen into the thicker regions of the atmosphere, fly back and impact the back end of the space shuttle.

Deliberately damaged blankets similar to the one aboard Discovery were tested overnight in a wind tunnel at NASA's Ames Research Center in California to help engineers and aerodynamicists calculate when during entry debris might rip away, what sort of trajectory it might follow and whether an impact could cause serious damage to the shuttle's rear wing elevons, rudder/speed brake or aft rocket pods.

But the wind tunnel tests, along with additional analyses, showed the blanket posed no significant threat to Discovery's return to Earth.

"We have new analysis that shows debris transport would be no issue and we came to the same conclusion with the Ames (wind) tunnel tests," Payette told the crew today. "So basically, no EVA 4 (fourth spacewalk)."

"Thanks, no EVA 4," Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi replied from orbit. "That's, I would say, good news."

In Crawford, Texas, President Bush today praised the crew's repair work Wednesday, saying "like a lot of Americans, I was amazed at the procedures that took place to repair the craft. It was pretty remarkable."

"I believe that the mission is important," he said. "And I know that the mission directors will make the right decision about how to proceed. Ours is a country that values the safety of our citizens, particularly those we ask to take risks in space. And there will be a lot of deliberation, a lot of thought, that goes into the decision as to whether or not those brave souls should return on that vehicle."

Earlier today, the Discovery astronauts and their colleagues aboard the international space station paid tribute today to the 21 astronauts and cosmonauts who lost their lives in spacecraft mishaps, saying the benefits of space travel outweigh the risks and that America "must not be bridled by timidity."

Taking turns reading prepared scripts while downlinking video of a long pass across the Indian Ocean, the combined shuttle-station crews remembered the crews of Columbia, Challenger, Soyuz 1 and 11 and the Apollo 1 victims of a launch pad fire that forced NASA to redesign its Apollo moonships.

"Certainly, space exploration is not easy and there has been a human price that has been paid," said Wendy Lawrence. "As we step out into these new frontiers, we find that it is very unforgiving of our mistakes. The lives lost over 30 years ago with the earliest steps taken by the crews of Apollo 1, Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 showed us that and after, the crew of Challenger reaffirmed the need to be ever vigilant of the risk."

Charles Camarda then took over, saying "tragically, two years ago we came once more to realize that we had let our guard down. We became lost in our own hubris and learned once more the terrible price that must be paid for our failures."

"In that accident, we not only lost seven colleagues, we lost seven friends. Their families never shared any homecoming. Those seven were driven by the fire of the human spirit within, they believed in space exploration, they knew the risks, but they believed in what they were doing. They showed us that the power of the human spirit is insatiable. They knew that in order for a great people to do great things, they must not be bridled by timidity."

"To the crew of Columbia, as well as the crews of Challenger, Apollo 1, and Soyuz 1 and 11, and to those who have courageously given so much, we now offer our enduring thanks," said Discovery pilot James Kelly. "From you, we will carry the human spirit out into space and we will continue the explorations you have begun. We will find those new harbors that lie out in the stars of which you dreamed.

"We do this not just because we owe it to you, but we do it because we also share your dream of a better world. We share your dream of coming to understand ourselves and our place in this universe. And as we journey into space you will be in our thoughts and will be deeply missed."

Collins closed the brief memorial with a verse from Laurence Binyon's poem, "For the Fallen:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

For the record, here's a list of the 21 men and women who have lost their lives in spacecraft accidents:

Apollo 1, 01/27/67: Launch pad fire
Commander Virgil "Gus" Grissom
Edward White
Roger Chaffee


Soyuz 1, 04/24/67: Re-entry parachute failure
Vladimir Komarov


Soyuz 11, 06/29/71: Capsule depressurization during entry
Georgy Dobrovolsky
Viktor Patsayev
Vladislav Volkov


Challenger, STS-51L: 01/28/86: Booster failure during launch
Commander Francis "Dick" Scobee
Pilot Michael Smith
Mission Specialist Judith Resnik
Mission Specialist Ronald McNair
Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka
Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis (private sector engineer)
Spaceflight Participant Christa McAuliffe (school teacher)


Columbia, STS-107: 02/01/03: Left wing plasma intrusion during entry
Commander Rick Husband
Pilot William McCool
Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla
Mission Specialist Laurel Clark
Mission Specialist Michael Anderson
Mission Specialist David Brown
Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (Israel)


In an Op-Ed piece published by the Houston Chronicle, legendary Apollo flight director Gene Kranz, known for the "Apollo 13" screenplay line "failure is not an option," echoed Camarda's concerns about timidity in the face of danger. In a strongly worded piece, Kranz decried critics who have suggested retiring the shuttle program in the wake of renewed concerns about external tank foam debris.
"For the risk-averse, the only acceptable thing to do now is retire the shuttle program immediately and wait for the divine arrival of the next generation of spacecraft," he wrote. "I am disgusted at the lack of courage and common sense this attitude shows.

"All progress involves risk. Risk is essential to fuel the economic engine of our nation. And risk is essential to renew America's fundamental spirit of discovery so we remain competitive with the rest of the world."

Kranz said Discovery's flight has been "remarkably successful" so far, despite the unexpected release of a large piece of foam insulation during launch. Overall, Kranz said, the shuttle tank shed 80 percent less foam than previous missions and "only in the news media, apparently, is an 80 percent improvement considered a failure. Rather than quit, we must now try to reduce even more the amount of foam that comes off the tank."

"There are many nations that wish to surpass us in space," he wrote. "Does the 'quit now' crowd really believe that abandoning the shuttle and the international space station is the way to keep America the pre-eminent space-fairing nation? Do they really believe that a new spacecraft will come without an engineering challenge or a human toll? The path the naysayers suggest is so out of touch with the American character of perseverance, hard work and discovery that they don't even realize the danger in which they are putting future astronauts - not to mention our nation."

President Bush did not directly address the risks of spaceflight, but he made it clear he believes his new moon/Mars initiative will reinvigorate the space program.

"It is important for our fellow citizens to understand that we're going to take the NASA mission beyond the current mission," he said. "The plan right now is to phase out the shuttle by 2010 and then begin to put a strategy in place that will use the moon as a launching spot for further exploration. ... The people I've talked to inside NASA are excited about the mission, the reinvigoration of the vision of exploration.

"And I appreciate the administrator (Michael Griffin) working on getting that strategy in place so that when the decision is made to finally get rid of this phase of exploration we'll be ready to take on the new phase. That's important for the American people to understand, that, one, exploration is important. Two, there'll be some good coming out of exploration. And three, that we've got a new vision embraced by NASA and its pioneers."

[gpc]

GioFX, ti hanno evocato nel thread sulla veridicità delle missioni lunari... Io ti ho avvisato per dovere di cronaca, ma sappi che ho sconsigliato il tuo intervento per la tua salute

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da gpc

GioFX, ti hanno evocato nel thread sulla veridicità delle missioni lunari... Io ti ho avvisato per dovere di cronaca, ma sappi che ho sconsigliato il tuo intervento per la tua salute

arrivo!

[GioFX]

Da Space.com:

Discovery Completes Cargo Transfer at ISS

By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 5 August 2005
9:10 a.m. ET

HOUSTON – After delivering tons of new equipment and, supplies and fresh food to the International Space Station (ISS), the crew of the space shuttle Discovery packed up their cargo pod and returned it to the shuttle’s payload bay for the trip back to Earth.

Discovery astronaut Wendy Lawrence, an STS-114 mission specialist, and pilot James Kelly deftly placed the Italian-built Raffaello cargo module back into its berth aboard the shuttle after a week of unpacking supplies for the ISS and stowing trash, unneeded equipment and the personal effects left onboard the station by previous crewmembers.

The move sets the stage for Discovery’s departure from the ISS, which is scheduled to begin Saturday at 3:22 a.m. EDT (0722 GMT). The shuttle and its STS-114 crew are scheduled to land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Aug. 8.

Altogether, Discovery hauled about six tons (12,107 pounds) of new equipment up to the International Space Station (ISS), though only 3,768 pounds were tucked away onboard Raffaello, which is one of four Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules used to ferry supplies to the station aboard U.S. shuttles. Discovery also carried about 1,394 pounds of cargo earmarked for the ISS in its middeck. The rest of the cargo, a new control moment gyroscope, spare parts platform and their related cables, were installed outside the ISS over the course of three spacewalks.

Discovery is the first shuttle to resupply the ISS since the Endeavour orbiter docked at the station on Nov. 25, 2002. The loss of the Columbia orbiter and its seven-astronaut crew on Feb. 1, 2003 prompted NASA to ground its three remaining shuttles and spend two and half years redesigning shuttle external tanks and developing new tools for orbiter safety. Columbia was brought down by a 1.67-pound piece of external tank foam that pulled free during launch and damaged the orbiter’s heat shield.

In the interim, only Russian Progress cargo ships and Soyuz spacecraft delivered fresh crews and supplies to the ISS.

After Discovery’s launch, at least three pieces of external tank foam – the largest weighing about a pound – fell from the orbiter’s external tank, disappointing the shuttle’s astronauts and mission managers who had hoped they had solve d the problem. Shuttle officials grounded future launches until they understand and solve the new foam loss problem.

To prepare for another potential delay between shuttle resupply flight to the ISS, STS-114 mission controllers gave Discovery and the space station crew an extra day of docked operations to allow more time to collect spare parts and other items around the shuttle to leave onboard the orbital laboratory.

Laptop computers, additional water, spare exercise equipment parts and tools were among the added few hundred pounds that Discovery’s crew pulled from

“The most important thing, I think, are the laptop computers,” said Mark Ferring, lead ISS flight director during the STS-114 mission, earlier this week. “We’re going to steal most of those computers that the shuttle has.”

Laptop computers are the sole display and control devices aboard the ISS, and some of the station machines have experienced screen problems, station officials have said.

Batteries, spacewalk and cabin tools and water were also on the docket for the additional transfer, Ferring said.

Later today, Discovery astronauts will wield both the station and shuttle robotic arms to hand off the orbiter’s 50-foot (15-meter) inspection boom for stowage inside the payload bay.

[GioFX]

Da Space.com:

Shuttle Discovery Prepares to Come Home

By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 5 August 2005
10:49 a.m. ET

HOUSTON—Following a hectic week docked at the International Space Station (ISS) where a few historic “firsts” were performed in space, the shuttle Discovery is being prepared to come home.

“We’re ready to go,” said Paul Hill, Discovery’s lead STS-114 flight director, during a briefing here at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

The only major concern, aside from the typical risks associated with flying the shuttle—effectively a 100-ton glider during reentry—back to Earth, is weather at Kennedy Space Center where it will land at 4:46 a.m. EDT ( 0746 GMT) Aug. 8, Hill said.

“We are highly confident in this entry,” veteran astronaut Eileen Collins, Discovery’s STS-114 commander, said earlier this week. “I think we’re going to have a clean entry.”

Discovery is set to undock from the ISS Saturday at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT) then back about 400 feet away, where it will slowly circle the orbital laboratory with the station with shuttle pilot James Kelly at the helm.

“The only reason we’re doing it is to take pictures of the space station,” Hill said. “There’s no technical reason other than the fact that we can see all the way around. We’re going to take the time to snap some pictures from some angles we haven’t seen since the last orbiter was there.”

Discovery is the first shuttle to visit the space station since 2002, and NASA’s first orbiter to fly since the Columbia disaster. Columbia’s STS-107 mission, commanded by astronaut Rick Husband, ended in tragedy about 16 minutes before landing when the orbiter broke apart during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003 while flying over Texas. Investigators pinned the accident on wing damaged cause during Columbia’s launch, when a piece of foam debris fell form the orbiter’s external tank and pierced its heat shield.

Many of the new tools and methods used by Discovery’s crew are a direct result of the Columbia accident.

The astronauts repeatedly used a laser camera-tipped inspection boom extension for the shuttle’s robotic arm to scan their ship’s thermal protection system, and ISS crewmembers photographed the orbiter’s heat tile-covered belly during a backflip maneuver prior to docking on July 28.

The shuttle is now fit for landing after an in-flight repair to pluck two protruding strips of filler material from its belly tiles during a first-ever spacewalk and conclusions that a damaged thermal blanket should not pose a hazard during landing, the shuttle is fit for landing, mission managers said.

“But there is no such thing as no concern,” Hill said. “Just making it past the milestone where we lost STS-107 is not enough.”

Hill said that the lost Columbia astronauts have been a constant presence in his mind and those of his flight team, even as mission controllers focused on returning Discovery and its STS-114 crew home safely.

“During the crew commemoration yesterday, they were on our minds a lot,” Hill said. “During de-orbit I’m sure I’ll have a thought or two about Rick Husband and his crew. At wheel stop, I think a lot of us are going to think a lot about the STS-107 crew as well as the STS-114 crew at landing.”

[GioFX]

Discovery does victory lap after departing station

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 6, 2005

The shuttle Discovery undocked from the international space station early today, wrapping up a successful repair and resupply mission. With pilot James Kelly at the controls, Discovery pulled away directly in front of the lab complex and then flew a loop around the station for a spectacular photo survey.


Discovery flies above the station following undocking. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

In what may be the most stunning video ever shot of the lab complex, Discovery's cameras captured the station flying serenely against the backdrop of central Asia like some great bird, its huge solar arrays stretching across the scene like wings as the snow-capped Himalayas came into view below the limb of the Earth.

Earlier, in a brief farewell ceremony inside the station's Destiny lab module, shuttle commander Eileen Collins thanked the station's two-man crew "for being such great hosts."

"We thank them for being part of such a successful mission," she said of station commander Sergei Krikalev and flight engineer John Phillips. "We're so happy to have spent the time up here with them. ... And with that, we're going to say a short goodbye and do a fly around of their space station and get them some great pictures and do a photo survey and add some final memories."

Krikalev thanked the shuttle astronauts in turn along with ground support crews, saying "it's really a big event for us because we were waiting for this flight for several years, more than three years already. And fortunately, everything goes smooth. We want to say thank you and wish you a good, soft landing."

Phillips then took the microphone for a final word: "Thank you so much for being wonderful guests, it's really been a pleasure. And no, we're not glad to see you go. We'd love to have you stay a little longer. As Sergei says, have a great flight and a soft landing. We look forward to seeing you back in Houston."

The two crews exchanged hugs and handshakes before the shuttle astronauts floated out of the station and hatches between the two craft were sealed. Undocking occurred at 3:24 a.m. EDT (0724 GMT) as the spacecraft sailed more than 220 miles above the Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

Kelly guided Discovery to a point 400 feet directly in front of the space station before beginning a slow loop around the outpost at 3:51 a.m., flying over the top of the lab then directly behind and below it before departing the area after a full lap.

[razziadacqua]

Oh ma mi qui mi collego a NASA tv e mi ritrovo lo shuttle che se ne và bel bello per i fatti suoi!!!

ma quando si è staccato perchè non mi avete avvisato? :°D
No ma ora voglio capire quando atterra?ora?qui stan facendo vedere una ripresa infrarosso del cielo...sembra...cape canaveral!veedo la piattaforma!e tante luci lampeggiare!cazzo fà atterra ora!??!?!

AHHhH!!!no capito ora!""""che pirla!!erano delle immgini in diretta dallo shuttle!!!!dell emisfero buoio!!!!!belloooo!!!!

[GioFX]

Entry and Landing Timeline

[GioFX]

Video da vedere assolutamente:

Left SRB separation

Right SRB separation


Immagini da vedere:

Flight Day - 12

[gpc]

Potevi postarle questa mattina che ora sono in grps fino a fine mese!?

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da gpc

Potevi postarle questa mattina che ora sono in grps fino a fine mese!?

[GioFX]

Discovery landing postponed by bad weather

Low clouds that could hamper commander Eileen Collins' view of the runway on final approach have forced a delay in this morning's landing. The shuttle will circle the Earth one more time and target a deorbit burn at 5:15 a.m. for landing on the Kennedy Space Center three-mile runway at 6:22 a.m. EDT.

[GioFX]

ANOTHER DAY IN SPACE! Unstable weather conditions and low clouds aren't going to cooperate at Kennedy Space Center this morning, forcing space shuttle Discovery to remain in orbit for an additional day. Tomorrow's first landing opportunity would be 5:08 a.m. EDT at the Cape.

[GioFX]

NASA will activate the backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The space agency intends to get Discovery back on Earth tomorrow at either Kennedy Space Center or Edwards.

Here are all possible landing times, including targets for White Sands, N.M. (in EDT)


ORBIT...DEORBIT......LANDING...SITE

Tuesday, Aug. 9

217.....04:05 AM.....05:08 AM...Kennedy Space Center
218.....05:37 AM.....06:39 AM...White Sands, NM
218.....05:41 AM.....06:43 AM...Kennedy Space Center
219.....07:11 AM.....08:13 AM...Edwards AFB, CA
219.....07:13 AM.....08:14 AM...White Sands, NM
220.....08:47 AM.....09:48 AM...Edwards AFB, CA

[Quincy_it]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX

Entry and Landing Timeline

Bellissimo il "Toilet Deactivation".
E se a qualcuno scappa, che fa?

[GioFX]

Da Spaceflightnow.com:

Shuttle landing delayed 24 hours

BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: August 8, 2005

Uncertainty about dynamic weather at the Kennedy Space Center forced entry flight director LeRoy Cain to pass up two landing opportunities today and to keep the shuttle Discovery's crew in orbit an extra 24 hours.

An initial landing opportunity was passed up because of low clouds near the Shuttle Landing Facility and while conditions appeared to improve while Discovery went back around the planet, forecasters could not guarantee acceptable conditions for the second landing opportunity at 6:22 a.m.

Less than 15 minutes before the 5:15 a.m. rocket firing that would have committed commander Eileen Collins and her crew to re-entry, Cain decided to wave off for the day.

"As you can imagine from our silence down here, there continues to be a low layer (of clouds) varying between 300, 400 and 500 feet, it's been few and scattered all evening and again, the one word that describes all this all night has been 'unstable,' astronaut Ken Ham radioed Collins from Houston.

"Our current observed weather is actually 'go,' it's few at 500, broken at 15,000 and the forecast is in the same neighborhood, 800 scattered, broken at 15,000, which is technically 'go' as well. However, we just can't get comfortable with the stability of the situation for this particular opportunity. So we're going to officially wave you off for 24 hours."

"OK, Houston, we copy that," Collins replied. "It will be a wave off for today."

Landing now is targeted for around 5:07 a.m. Tuesday at Kennedy, weather permitting.

Cain said Sunday that if Discovery failed to get back to Florida today he would activate NASA's backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. - and possibly White Sands, N.M. - and bring the shuttle down, on one coast or the other, Tuesday.

The forecast for Kennedy calls for just a few clouds at 2,000 feet and 10,000 feet, scattered clouds at 25,000 feet with a slight chance of showers within 30 nautical miles. Winds will be out of 220 degrees at three knots with peaks to five knots, well within NASA's crosswind limits.

At Edwards, the outlook is for few clouds at 10,000 feet, scattered clouds at 25,000 feet and winds from 220 degrees at four knots peaking to seven knots. White Sands is expecting a slight chance of showers and broken cloud decks at 10,000 and 25,000 feet.

Here are all possible landing times for Tuesday and Wednesday (in EDT):


ORBIT...TIG..........LANDING....SITE

Tuesday, Aug. 9

217.....04:01 AM.....05:07 AM...Kennedy Space Center
218.....05:33 AM.....06:39 AM...White Sands, NM
218.....05:37 AM.....06:43 AM...Kennedy Space Center
219.....07:06 AM.....08:12 AM...Edwards AFB, CA
219.....07:09 AM.....08:13 AM...White Sands, NM
220.....08:44 AM.....09:47 AM...Edwards AFB, CA

Wednesday, Aug. 10

232.....02:50 AM.....03:53 AM...Kennedy Space Center
233.....04:25 AM.....05:28 AM...Kennedy Space Center
234.....05:55 AM.....06:58 AM...Edwards AFB, CA
234.....05:57 AM.....06:59 AM...White Sands, NM
235.....07:31 AM.....08:32 AM...Edwards AFB, CA
235.....07:33 AM.....08:34 AM...White Sands, NM

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da Quincy_it

E se a qualcuno scappa, che fa?

se la fa addosso, mi sembra ovvio...