Author Topic: Delta IV-H - Parker Solar Probe - SLC-37 - Aug 12, 2018  (Read 194002 times)

Online Chris Bergin

Support NSF via L2 -- Help improve NSF -- Site Rules/Feedback/Updates
**Not a L2 member? Whitelist this forum in your adblocker to support the site and ensure full functionality.**

Offline Star One

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13982
  • UK
  • Liked: 3968
  • Likes Given: 220
Includes SPP:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/07/spacex-ula-manifests-spacex-1st-rtls-vandenberg/

- By Chris Gebhardt

Thanks for that especially for answering the priorities on the Eastern Range.

Offline enzo

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 137
  • USA
  • Liked: 118
  • Likes Given: 884
Taken June 30 - rolled out for first WDR.

Online catdlr

  • Member
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11048
  • Enthusiast since the Redstones
  • Marina del Rey, California, USA
  • Liked: 8572
  • Likes Given: 7671
NASA | 4K Video Countdown to T-Zero: Flying Faster, Hotter and Closer Than Ever to the Sun

NASA
Published on Jul 11, 2018

NASA's Parker Solar Probe and it's United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle prepare for an unprecedented mission to "kiss the Sun."

NASA launch schedule: https://go.nasa.gov/2JfklMB
About the mission: https://go.nasa.gov/2ubAwFS

The spacecraft aims to unravel 60 years' worth of mysteries surrounding the Sun’s corona. Watch this 4K video as NASA’s Launch Services Program continues the countdown to T-zero.

Visit https://go.nasa.gov/SolarProbe to learn more and watch the historic launch on NASA TV in the coming weeks.





Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Offline jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21704
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8555
  • Likes Given: 320
Hearing there might be a problem with PSP... media tour of the clean room cancelled today...

Anyone has more info?

Jacques :-)

Offline ChrisGebhardt

  • Assistant Managing Editor
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7842
  • ad astra scientia
  • ~1 AU
  • Liked: 7877
  • Likes Given: 853
From NASA...

Quote
Teams require additional time for processing NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft after discovering a minor tubing leak in the ground support equipment during final processing. The tubing is being repaired, and the spacecraft is healthy. As always, operations take precedence during launch and we needed to cancel media day activities on July 13, 2018. NASA will make every effort to provide updated imagery of the spacecraft prior to encapsulation.

Parker Solar Probe is the agency’s mission to touch the Sun. It is scheduled to launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy no earlier than Aug. 4, 2018, from Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Offline deruch

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2422
  • California
  • Liked: 2006
  • Likes Given: 5634
Thanks Chris.  Just wanted to highlight this bit to ensure people didn't miss it:
Quote
...after discovering a minor tubing leak in the ground support equipment during final processing. The tubing is being repaired, and the spacecraft is healthy....

The leak was on the spacecraft's GSE not on the spacecraft itself. 
Shouldn't reality posts be in "Advanced concepts"?  --Nomadd

Offline zubenelgenubi

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11077
  • Arc to Arcturus, then Spike to Spica
  • Sometimes it feels like Trantor in the time of Hari Seldon
  • Liked: 7344
  • Likes Given: 71418
Regarding Delta IV-H two Wet Dress Rehearsals (WDR)--Why were there two of them?

Delta-IV Heavy Undergoing Wet Dress Rehearsals as Parker Solar Probe Nears August 4 Launch, Mike Killian, July 6th, 2018
http://americaspace.com/2018/07/06/delta-iv-heavy-undergoing-wet-dress-rehearsals-as-parker-solar-probe-nears-august-4-launch/

Quote
ULA conducted a successful initial WDR on Monday, July 2, which focused on “first stage objectives” with fueling of the vehicle’s three 134-foot tall Common Booster Cores, which are powered by a trio of RS-68A cryogenic liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen burning engines.

Quote
Today (Friday, July 6), teams are conducting another WDR, a full blown countdown to a simulated liftoff, aiming “to complete all objectives including second stage tanking,” according to ULA. The rocket’s second stage is powered by a single cryogenic liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen burning RL10 engine.

In terms of the launch campaign timeline, the Delta IV-H
Quote
...was rolled out from its Horizontal Integration Facility and raised atop launch pad 37B back on April 17...
***

Question for our NSF experts:
How often is more than one WDR needed, when there's apparently no equipment or procedural failure during a launch campaign to recover from?
***

A thought:
This is probably the last Delta-IV Heavy that we'll have numerous progress reports about its progress to and through launch.
« Last Edit: 07/16/2018 08:43 pm by zubenelgenubi »
Support your local planetarium! (COVID-panic and forward: Now more than ever.) My current avatar is saying "i wants to go uppies!" Yes, there are God-given rights. Do you wish to gainsay the Declaration of Independence?

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 47936
  • UK
    • Plan 28
  • Liked: 81286
  • Likes Given: 36776
Quote
@torybruno Any update you can give us on how the 2 WDRs for Delta IV-H went? All good to go?

https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/1019197775534284800

Quote
Good. Yes, good to go

https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/1019251663641632769

Offline johnfwhitesell

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 319
  • Liked: 108
  • Likes Given: 198
Has anybody made a good analogue to the joke about landing on the moon and discovering what cheese it is?

Offline Kim Keller

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 970
  • Not OldSpace, Not NewSpace - I'm ALLSpace
  • Location: Wherever the rockets are
  • Liked: 2419
  • Likes Given: 125
How often is more than one WDR needed, when there's apparently no equipment or procedural failure during a launch campaign to recover from?

Two WDR's? Never. This flow scheduled two because this is the first East Coast flight of a D4 with the common avionics suite. That entailed a lot of changes to the ground systems controlling the GSE and the rocket. So, two runs to make sure the bugs were fumigated completely.

Offline High Bay 4

  • Member
  • Posts: 23
  • Chicago
  • Liked: 7
  • Likes Given: 85
« Last Edit: 07/18/2018 10:28 pm by High Bay 4 »

Offline Targeteer

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6106
  • near hangar 18
  • Liked: 3315
  • Likes Given: 1125
July 18, 2018
MEDIA ADVISORY M18-109
NASA Invites Media to Preview Briefing on Spacecraft that will “Touch” Sun

Media are invited to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a preview briefing on the agency’s Parker Solar Probe at 1 p.m. EDT Friday, July 20. The event will air live on NASA Television, the agency’s website and Facebook Live.

NASA now is targeting launch of the Parker Solar Probe no earlier than Monday, Aug. 6. Additional time was needed to evaluate the configuration of a cable clamp on the payload fairing. Teams have modified the configuration and encapsulation operations have continued. Teams also have successfully repaired a leak in the purge ground support tubing on the third stage rocket motor, which was discovered during final spacecraft processing late last week. The satellite will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 

Participants in the July 20 briefing will include:

    Alex Young, solar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
    Nicola Fox, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)
    Betsy Congdon, Parker Solar Probe Thermal Protection System lead engineer at APL

The event is open only to U.S. citizens who have a government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license, and proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate.

Media interested in attending must apply online by noon Thursday, July 19, at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

To participate in the briefing by phone, media must contact Sarah Frazier at [email protected] by 12:30 p.m., July 20.

Media and the public also may ask questions during the event using #askNASA.

For questions about accreditation, please email [email protected]. For other questions, contact Kennedy’s newsroom at 321-867-2468.

Parker Solar Probe will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun. The spacecraft will fly closer to the Sun’s surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation. It will be the first spacecraft to fly directly through the Sun’s corona – the part of the solar atmosphere visible during an eclipse – to answer questions about solar physics that have puzzled scientists for more than six decades.

Gathering information about fundamental processes near the Sun can help improve our understanding of how the Sun changes our space environment – such space weather can affect astronauts, interfere with the orbits of satellites, or damage onboard electronics.

Join the conversation on social media by following on Twitter and Facebook at:

https://twitter.com/NASASun

and

https://www.facebook.com/NASASunScience

-end-
Best quote heard during an inspection, "I was unaware that I was the only one who was aware."

Offline Targeteer

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6106
  • near hangar 18
  • Liked: 3315
  • Likes Given: 1125
How often is more than one WDR needed, when there's apparently no equipment or procedural failure during a launch campaign to recover from?

Two WDR's? Never. This flow scheduled two because this is the first East Coast flight of a D4 with the common avionics suite. That entailed a lot of changes to the ground systems controlling the GSE and the rocket. So, two runs to make sure the bugs were fumigated completely.

has to be the first time fumigated was used on this site :)
Best quote heard during an inspection, "I was unaware that I was the only one who was aware."

Offline zubenelgenubi

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11077
  • Arc to Arcturus, then Spike to Spica
  • Sometimes it feels like Trantor in the time of Hari Seldon
  • Liked: 7344
  • Likes Given: 71418
Launch slipping 2 more days to Aug 6 according to NASA...

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/07/18/parker-solar-probe-launch-no-earlier-than-aug-6-2018/

This launch date change to NET August 6 should result in a change of the launch window start and end, yes?

First launch window:
Scheduled:
Date - Satellite(s) - Rocket - Launch Site - Time (UTC)

2018
<snip>
July 31 - Parker Solar Probe (Solar Probe Plus) [LWS-6 Living With a Star mission-6] - Delta IV-H/Star-48BV [D-380] - Canaveral SLC-37B - 08:15-10:15
<snip>
Changes on April 9th
<snip>

Then, a delay of 4 days, resulting in an earlier launch window:
Scheduled:
Date - Satellite(s) - Rocket - Launch Site - Time (UTC)

2018
<snip>
August 4 - Parker Solar Probe (Solar Probe Plus) [LWS-6 Living With a Star mission-6] - Delta IV-H/Star-48BV [D-380] - Canaveral SLC-37B - 07:57-09:57 (or July 31)
<snip>
Changes on June 16th
Changes on June 19th

And finally, a refinement of the August 4 launch window:
Scheduled:
Date - Satellite(s) - Rocket - Launch Site - Time (UTC)

2018
<snip>
August 4 - Parker Solar Probe (Solar Probe Plus) [LWS-6 Living With a Star mission-6] - Delta IV-H/Star-48BV [D-380] - Canaveral SLC-37B - 08:17-09:02
<snip>
Changes on July 6th
« Last Edit: 07/19/2018 11:16 pm by zubenelgenubi »
Support your local planetarium! (COVID-panic and forward: Now more than ever.) My current avatar is saying "i wants to go uppies!" Yes, there are God-given rights. Do you wish to gainsay the Declaration of Independence?

Offline Newton_V

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 842
  • United States
  • Liked: 822
  • Likes Given: 129
Window open on the 6th is 07:53 GMT.  (unless there's a cutout or something I'm not aware of)

Offline ChrisGebhardt

  • Assistant Managing Editor
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7842
  • ad astra scientia
  • ~1 AU
  • Liked: 7877
  • Likes Given: 853
Briefing starting now.

Offline ChrisGebhardt

  • Assistant Managing Editor
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7842
  • ad astra scientia
  • ~1 AU
  • Liked: 7877
  • Likes Given: 853
Alex Young - Associate Director for Science, Heliophysics Department within NASA.

Sun is dynamic. Sun as ocean of particles and radiation flowing our of it that are dominated by the solar wind - which permeates the entire solar system.

PSP designed to help us better understand the solar wind and the environment the humans will have to live within on future space exploration missions.

Fundamental question about why solar wind is so fast.

...

Offline ChrisGebhardt

  • Assistant Managing Editor
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7842
  • ad astra scientia
  • ~1 AU
  • Liked: 7877
  • Likes Given: 853
Alex: Solar window goes from subsonic to supersonic flow.  Research is fundamental to understanding environment of the sun.

Sun also produces CMEs and massive solar storms that happen in the corona.

Studying this with PSP will help us better model space weather and understand how to better protect our astronauts, satellites, and space-based communications.
« Last Edit: 07/20/2018 05:07 pm by ChrisGebhardt »

Offline ChrisGebhardt

  • Assistant Managing Editor
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7842
  • ad astra scientia
  • ~1 AU
  • Liked: 7877
  • Likes Given: 853
Biggest questions for PSP:  How is the corona heated?

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
1