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#200
by
francoisvalenduc
on 25 Jul, 2008 13:51
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Maybe this has already been answered before but can somebody explain why the crew for the LON mission of STS 125 is a part of the STS 123 crew ? If I am not mistaking, until now, LON crews were always a part of the crew of the next planned shuttle mission.
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#201
by
psloss
on 25 Jul, 2008 14:35
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Maybe this has already been answered before but can somebody explain why the crew for the LON mission of STS 125 is a part of the STS 123 crew ? If I am not mistaking, until now, LON crews were always a part of the crew of the next planned shuttle mission.
Because the nature of the rescue mission is substantially different. STS-125 is not docking with ISS.
For an ISS shuttle rescue mission, the shuttle crew stays on the station. The suspect orbiter is undocked and re-enters (either for a possible landing or for destruction). Sometime after that, the rescue shuttle launches and docks with the station as with a typical ISS mission, the stranded shuttle crew boards the docked rescue shuttle, and the two crews return.
For STS-400, the STS-125 crew has to remain on the suspect orbiter, which has much less supplies than ISS. The rescue shuttle must launch and rendezvous with the suspect orbiter and then the STS-125 crew must board the rescue shuttle.
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#202
by
francoisvalenduc
on 25 Jul, 2008 16:23
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I know that the LON mission is extremely different than for an ISS mission and that STS-125 can't reach the ISS for a safe heaven. But I don't understand why this special LON mission couldn't be carried by the STS 123 or STS 126 crews.
So, is it a question of training for the two possible crews which could be on the LON mission (STS 123 or STS 126) ?
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#203
by
Mike_1179
on 25 Jul, 2008 16:35
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The STS-126 crew would then have to train for 3 missions. They have to train for their own mission (STS-126), the LON for STS-124 (STS-326) and the LON for the Hubble mission (STS-400).
There is not a lot of extra training time for a normal crew, so now they have to train for the extra LON while not pushing back the schedule for their own flight
If you train a crew that recently flew (like the STS-123 crew) then you have enough time to make sure they are properly trained and you're sure those in the rescue orbiter are accustomed to being in zero-g.
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#204
by
Orbiter
on 25 Jul, 2008 16:37
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I know that the LON mission is extremely different than for an ISS mission and that STS-125 can't reach the ISS for a safe heaven. But I don't understand why this special LON mission couldn't be carried by the STS 123 or STS 126 crews.
So, is it a question of training for the two possible crews which could be on the LON mission (STS 123 or STS 126) ?
I think that the STS-126 crew should be able to get to fly, i mean STS-123 crew has already flown, its time to let someone else's turn.
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#205
by
Jorge
on 25 Jul, 2008 16:46
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I know that the LON mission is extremely different than for an ISS mission and that STS-125 can't reach the ISS for a safe heaven. But I don't understand why this special LON mission couldn't be carried by the STS 123 or STS 126 crews.
So, is it a question of training for the two possible crews which could be on the LON mission (STS 123 or STS 126) ?
Correct. The STS-126 crew does not have time to train for the STS-400 mission on top of their nominal mission. Therefore a separate crew was required. In order to minimize training, a crew that had recently flown together (STS-123) was selected as the STS-400 crew.
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#206
by
Jorge
on 25 Jul, 2008 16:47
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I know that the LON mission is extremely different than for an ISS mission and that STS-125 can't reach the ISS for a safe heaven. But I don't understand why this special LON mission couldn't be carried by the STS 123 or STS 126 crews.
So, is it a question of training for the two possible crews which could be on the LON mission (STS 123 or STS 126) ?
I think that the STS-126 crew should be able to get to fly, i mean STS-123 crew has already flown, its time to let someone else's turn.
The 126 crew will get to fly 126. Flying 400 would be a very unlikely and hoped-to-be-avoided event.
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#207
by
Jorge
on 25 Jul, 2008 16:49
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The STS-126 crew would then have to train for 3 missions. They have to train for their own mission (STS-126), the LON for STS-124 (STS-326) and the LON for the Hubble mission (STS-400).
Of course, 326 is now defunct since 124 landed safely. But the principle is correct. ISS LON missions are similar enough to the nominal missions that the next ISS crew can perform them without dedicated training. That is not the case for 400. It is different enough from 126 that it requires dedicated training and the 126 crew does not have the time.
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#208
by
francoisvalenduc
on 25 Jul, 2008 17:01
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Thanks a lot for all the answers. I have yet another question about STS-400 (which I also hope won't be needed). I read in an article on this site that during the EVAs, ACES suits will be transfered between the two orbiters. So, will these suits be transferred without any special packing ? In other words, would the suits resists to the environnment of space without any special precaution ?
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#209
by
Orbiter
on 26 Jul, 2008 01:27
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Btw, Atlantis's PLDs have closed, here are some pictures.
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#210
by
psloss
on 26 Jul, 2008 01:30
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Bill Harwood has an update on launch dates:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.htmlExcerpt:
But crew training, payload processing and work to ready external tanks for flight prompted managers today to request Oct. 5 for launch of the Hubble servicing mission and Nov. 7 for the subsequent space station assembly flight. A decision on whether to actually approve those target dates is expected Aug. 14.
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#211
by
Ford Mustang
on 26 Jul, 2008 01:32
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Btw, Atlantis's PLDs have closed, here are some pictures.
And you can find the higher resolution of said pictures
here.
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#212
by
Orbiter
on 26 Jul, 2008 01:54
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Seems like Orbiter processing for Atlantis has been going smoothly, Gee, I wonder when rollover is.
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#213
by
Ford Mustang
on 26 Jul, 2008 01:57
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Seems like Orbiter processing for Atlantis has been going smoothly, Gee, I wonder when rollover is.
Per L2, I believe they are on schedule for August 15th for rollover.
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#214
by
Orbiter
on 26 Jul, 2008 02:02
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Seems like Orbiter processing for Atlantis has been going smoothly, Gee, I wonder when rollover is.
Per L2, I believe they are on schedule for August 15th for rollover.
Seems a minor Coincidence, the new Star Wars movie comes out on that day.
on Topic anyways, thats great news, I wouldn't think that the ET Issues would hold them up right?
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#215
by
cb6785
on 26 Jul, 2008 09:33
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As of Thursday SRB/ET mate is scheduled for August 3rd and Orbiter/Stack mate for August 18th
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#216
by
Ford Mustang
on 26 Jul, 2008 17:41
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Seems like Orbiter processing for Atlantis has been going smoothly, Gee, I wonder when rollover is.
Per L2, I believe they are on schedule for August 15th for rollover.
Seems a minor Coincidence, the new Star Wars movie comes out on that day. on Topic anyways, thats great news, I wouldn't think that the ET Issues would hold them up right?
As said by Chris in
this article, the GH2 R&R is expected to be within the timeline, and shouldn't hold the schedule up.
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#217
by
nathan.moeller
on 27 Jul, 2008 01:56
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Thanks a lot for all the answers. I have yet another question about STS-400 (which I also hope won't be needed). I read in an article on this site that during the EVAs, ACES suits will be transfered between the two orbiters. So, will these suits be transferred without any special packing ? In other words, would the suits resists to the environnment of space without any special precaution ?
They were originally planning to try to certify the suits for exposure to the vacuum environment, but the latest STS-400 documentation on L2 (part slide below used with special permission on the public thread) points to NASA launching new suits aboard Endeavour in special packing stored in the recumbant seats on the middeck.
The process used for certification would have cost a lot of money and it could have been a dead end, so they decided it would be much easier (and cheaper) to go ahead and launch extra suits for the STS-125 crew. It would also ease the workload during the EVAs. Those suits weigh about 85 pounds a piece, so it would be considerably easier on the crew to just leave the old ones behind on Atlantis.
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#218
by
Chris Bergin
on 27 Jul, 2008 08:21
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#219
by
DavisSTS
on 27 Jul, 2008 16:28
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Hi. Long time reader, first time poster. Wanted to post to say your reports, Chris, on the Space Shuttle are great. Been a Shuttle fan since STS-1, and no other site comes close to this site for being able to follow the latest news.
on Topic anyways, thats great news, I wouldn't think that the ET Issues would hold them up right?