Author Topic: Endeavour's total flight time  (Read 9474 times)

Offline shuttlefanatic

  • Launches: 61-C, 91, 100, 119, 133, 134, 135. Landings: 26, 28, 32, 36, 41, 40, 44, 42, 58, 64, 66, 67, 76, 92, 100, 124, 126, 128.
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 456
  • SSP MET 11056d 21h 57m Flight time 1330d 16h 18m
  • San Diego, CA
    • Final thoughts...
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Endeavour's total flight time
« on: 07/18/2011 01:45 am »
I've been trying to pull together the total flight time of the orbiters, and as far as I can tell, there's a 3 day discrepancy in Endeavour's total flight time.  The brief version: NASA sources say 299 days.  I think it's 296 days 3 hours and change.  Can anyone reconcile the difference?  A typo that got propagated?

Mods: this might belong in Shuttle Q&A, but I started the thread here since the main question is regarding Endeavour.

The long version:
The following NASA sources all claim 299 flight days for Endeavour:
STS-134 Landing Press Release: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=21480.msg750046#msg750046
STS-134 mission page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts134/launch/index.html
Endeavour fact sheet: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/565903main_2011.06.30_ENDEAVOUR.pdf
Shuttle fact sheet: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/566250main_2011.07.05%20SHUTTLE%20ERA%20FACTS.pdf

Bill Harwood comes up with 296d 03h 18m (http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/flightdata/statistics.html#ORBITERSTATS).  At this point, I've actually keyed in launch and landing times from several sources (Space Shuttle: The First 100 Missions, Bill Harwood's site, NASA's individual mission web pages, and Wikipedia) and recomputed the METs myself, and I think 296 is the correct number.  There's a few minutes of slop due to differences in calculating METs to main gear touchdown vs. wheels stop, but nothing to account for 3 entire days.

The 3 days further propagates into the total shuttle program flight time statistic in the fact sheet linked above: They compute 1320d 01h 32m through 134 missions, but it would appear the number should be 1317d 21h 50m.  (Again, give or take a few minutes due to MGTD vs WS timing.)

There must be a definitive source for this data.  I found the "Space Shuttle Flight Data and In-Flight Anomaly List" (JSC-19413), but the most recent version online at NTRS (http://www.sti.nasa.gov/STI-public-homepage.html) is from 1996, so it's not too useful.

Can anyone else confirm that NASA needs to rewrite Endeavour's history? :)




Offline AnalogMan

  • Member
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3450
  • Cambridge, UK
  • Liked: 1631
  • Likes Given: 55
Re: Endeavour's total flight time
« Reply #1 on: 07/18/2011 09:00 am »
If you haven't looked already the "MER Mission Events List" reports on L2 have detailed timings (I'm assuming you still have access to L2).  This covers all flights from STS-1 to STS-134.  You can find them here:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20620.0
« Last Edit: 07/18/2011 09:01 am by AnalogMan »

Offline shuttlefanatic

  • Launches: 61-C, 91, 100, 119, 133, 134, 135. Landings: 26, 28, 32, 36, 41, 40, 44, 42, 58, 64, 66, 67, 76, 92, 100, 124, 126, 128.
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 456
  • SSP MET 11056d 21h 57m Flight time 1330d 16h 18m
  • San Diego, CA
    • Final thoughts...
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Endeavour's total flight time
« Reply #2 on: 07/18/2011 11:57 am »
If you haven't looked already the "MER Mission Events List" reports on L2 have detailed timings (I'm assuming you still have access to L2).  This covers all flights from STS-1 to STS-134.  You can find them here:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20620.0
:o  Thanks for the pointer; I would never have found these otherwise.  Totally awesome!

I was having trouble sleeping this morning, and now I'm going to be number crunching to satisfy my curiosity....  I'll update when complete...

Offline SMS

  • Regular
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3247
    • Astronauts & their spaceflights
  • Liked: 2208
  • Likes Given: 249
Re: Endeavour's total flight time
« Reply #3 on: 07/18/2011 09:20 pm »
I have the same remarks...

Here are my data about Endeavour's total flight time:
http://lk.astronautilus.pl/loty/stsen.htm ;)

All shuttle's total time is here:
http://lk.astronautilus.pl/loty/sts.htm !

Good luck,
« Last Edit: 08/14/2011 07:41 pm by SMS »
---
SMS ;-). "Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas." - A. Einstein

Offline shuttlefanatic

  • Launches: 61-C, 91, 100, 119, 133, 134, 135. Landings: 26, 28, 32, 36, 41, 40, 44, 42, 58, 64, 66, 67, 76, 92, 100, 124, 126, 128.
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 456
  • SSP MET 11056d 21h 57m Flight time 1330d 16h 18m
  • San Diego, CA
    • Final thoughts...
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Endeavour's total flight time
« Reply #4 on: 07/19/2011 06:02 am »
Ok, I've concluded it is really hard to get what would seem to be a straightforward statistic worked out properly.  The MEL defines MET to be SRB ignition to main gear weight on wheels (MGWOW).  But, there are two values for MGWOW, and sometimes they're different by several seconds.  And it seems sometimes the listed MET uses the earlier of the times, and sometimes the later, and sometimes, incorrectly uses the nose gear TD or wheels stop time.

I went through each and every one of the MELs, scripted up some stuff and came up with the following:

Using the earlier touchdown time, through STS-134:
62/7:56:37     Challenger
300/17:39:55  Columbia
364/22:25:26  Discovery
293/18:27:28  Atlantis
296/3:18:15    Endeavour
1317/21:47:41  Total

Using the official MET, corrected for obvious errors, through STS-134:
62/7:56:44
300/17:40:02
364/22:25:52
293/18:27:34
296/3:18:26
1317/21:48:38

Using the later touchdown time, through STS-134:
62/7:56:45
300/17:40:10
364/22:26:24
293/18:28:12
296/3:18:38
1317/21:50:09

The errors I found in the official MET's:
STS-50 - calculated using wheels stop time
STS-98 - calculated using contact time, not MGWOW
STS-100 - calculated using nose gear touchdown
STS-114 - calculated using wheels stop time.
STS-133 - calculated using wheels stop time.

Bottom line, in my book, Endeavour flew 296 days, 3 hours, 18 minutes or so, not 299 days.

Offline SMS

  • Regular
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3247
    • Astronauts & their spaceflights
  • Liked: 2208
  • Likes Given: 249
Re: Endeavour's total flight time
« Reply #5 on: 07/21/2011 09:27 pm »
From http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/07/atlantis-kennedy-an-emotional-finale-for-shuttle/ =>

"Endeavour (OV-105): 25 missions; 299days 3hrs 19mins in space; 4,671 orbits of Earth; 122.8 million miles travelled; 3 satellites deployed; 12 space station dockings and one space station rendezvous and grapple; 148 crewmembers."

299 days ??? 3 hrs 19 mins !!!!


---
SMS ;-). "Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas." - A. Einstein

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
0