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#240
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 20:57
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Prepping for RSS retract already.
Nice, good start to the day. If anyone at KSC could also keep an eye out for that Payload Canister making a trip down to the pad, that'd be great too.
I'm hearing midnight tonight for payload cannister roll.
Great, thanks for that
Presser coming up.
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#241
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 21:08
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#242
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 21:17
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Mike Moses.
Very smooth FRR. Thanks the shuttle contractors, very proud of them.
Ares I-X was a big milestone, but from the KSC team it was a dual pad operation with two pads working for two launches two weeks apart. Did an outstanding job.
Today's review shows we are constantly learning - MEI is a good example. STS-95 we saw the drag chute door come off and we saw we have more going on in that area. Speaks about the history (no way to keep up with him
Will put in some gap fillers around the one and only tile that was above the 1.4 safety limit.
Big issue is the main structure on the stinger. Held on at four points. One showed negative margins, and we have some homework to do. Working off conservative factors/worst case situations over the life of the program. Very dynamic and won't get that envioroment every time.
Will do some inspections to check it doesn't have any big cracks. White Sands testing on a structural repair via NDE.
ET is a really good story. Plug pulls are really good on this tank. Xrays and NDE on the ramps, all good.
SRBs are good. Speaking about the bit of rubber on the engine bell.
New camera will see some really good stuff.
Wrapped up pretty good. Challenging 11 day mission with three EVAs and set the Station up with supplies.
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#243
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 21:19
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Mike L thanks Pete N for his role as launch director on previous missions.
Payload heading to pad tonight. Should get to 16th with no problems. Very easy to move to the 17th if Atlas scrubs for 24 hours. Can react to that very easily.
Glad to be back in the saddle
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#244
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 21:24
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AP Marcia on windows.
Range 16th and 17th. Delta IV on the 19th - will move a few days to the right to allow the two days. Could go as far as the 19th or maybe even 20th based on Beta Angle. No arrangements to use the full window yet, but watching the status of Delta IV.
December 6th for the December window.
Someone's show Marcia the big dent in the side of Ares I-X's booster through recovery photos. We've got a set of images in L2 (seeing some of them are also acquired by some other sites too).
Gerst says they need to talk to them about it (Ares people), not an impact to Shuttle.
Bill Harwood says he can't find Ares people.
They don't want to talk about Ares at this presser it seems!
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#245
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 21:29
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Chris G ask about the camera and pad clearance during Atlas V's launch.
Hard set for the 16th, but will take another look if they could go earlier if Atlas V can't launch on the 14th.
Mike Moses talks more about the single parachute failure on 128. In family, but unknown.
Mike L says Ares I-X got a lot out of it via the ground processing with a new vehicle.
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#246
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 21:39
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Chris G with a follow up
Asking about meteor shower related attitudes.
Gerst. Look at those things in detail and all looks fine.
And big time engineering question with the Fuel Cell KOH levels. Nice!
Mike Moses: Been seeing it since they had SSPTS online. Different power levels are being put on the cells. Couple of limits running close to the flight rules. KOH concentration is not an issue. Next batch of FCs are not old. Good review.
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#247
by
Chris Bergin
on 29 Oct, 2009 21:47
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I'd wait for John 44's recording as Mike is going 100mph with his answers - but he's still awesome.
Bill Harwood on budget.
Gerst - we'll get passback around thanksgiving. Budget gets openly discussed in Feb next year.
James Dean on December window impacting downsteam.
Mike M: Not a big impact, next mission a little bit. 131 gets close to a Beta cut out and would change it to a four day window.
Mike L: Four attempts in five days depends on the scrubs.
On Falcon 9 moving to next year.
Gerst doesn't know too much and will see how it plays out.
Marcia on December 6 opportunity.
Mike M: Dec 6-11 is the window. Russians cut it off for the 12th.
Chris G on ELC1 having to come out first.
Gerst confirms it's CG related to ELC2 coming out second.
Mike M speaks about ballast and order. Maximized upmass to the Station. Gerst speaks about how much payload is going up.
That's it.
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#248
by
psloss
on 29 Oct, 2009 22:00
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Chris G on ELC1 having to come out first.
Gerst confirms it's CG related to ELC2 coming out second.
Mike M speaks about ballast and order. Maximized upmass to the Station.
I think Mike Moses mentioned the CG "box" -- IIRC, a center-of-gravity too far forward presents issues with nose gear landing loads and can also be a problem for orbiter controllability. There may be other issues, but CG is one of reasons heavy return payloads tend to mounted to points farther back in the payload bay.
Forward CG was noted to some extent by the program after the short-circuit on STS-125 when looking at what-ifs for hypothetical "next failures":
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/05/atlantis-targets-expansive-asa-contingency-plan/
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#249
by
John44
on 29 Oct, 2009 22:09
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#250
by
robertross
on 29 Oct, 2009 22:19
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Thanks Chris for the presser play-by-play. I can't watch videos for a while (need a new computer) so it really helps reading at least.
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#251
by
psloss
on 29 Oct, 2009 22:44
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Hard set for the 16th, but will take another look if they could go earlier if Atlas V can't launch on the 14th.
I think Bill Gerstenmaier said during this Q&A that there's still a lot of analytical work at the program level to make the L-2 MMT for a 16th launch date...and so therefore, the 16th might be about as soon as is realistic, even if the hardware processing could be accelerated a little bit.
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#252
by
Ronsmytheiii
on 30 Oct, 2009 03:12
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Canister has left and is expected to arrive at 0300 hours per KSC radio, clearing pad surface for hoist operations
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#253
by
glanmor05
on 30 Oct, 2009 20:59
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So is the payload at the pad yet?
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#254
by
psloss
on 30 Oct, 2009 21:03
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So is the payload at the pad yet?
Yes, the canister arrived at the pad at about the time that Ron posted last night, a little before 3 am local. They even turned on the stadium lights to support the early part of lifting ops.
The next thing to watch for visually is the RSS will be returned to the mate position. At that point, we'll know the payload is secured in the payload changeout room and the canister has been lowered and moved away.
Edit: actually, we might see the same sequence as yesterday in reverse -- the canister leaving the pad, then the RSS move.
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#255
by
glanmor05
on 30 Oct, 2009 21:08
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Thanks psloss. So 15 hours ago. Does it normally take that long?
Is there somewhere I can look for this kind of info, without bugging you lot (a website) or is it just a matter of watching the cameras?
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#256
by
ChrisGebhardt
on 30 Oct, 2009 21:45
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1. So 15 hours ago. Does it normally take that long?
2. Is there somewhere I can look for this kind of info, without bugging you lot (a website) or is it just a matter of watching the cameras?
1. Yes.
2.
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/ -- that's the NASA OTV camera links. Some are of Pad-A.
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#257
by
rdale
on 30 Oct, 2009 23:13
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Head to livestream and the spaceflightnow channel has live video of the operations at Pad A.
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#258
by
DaveS
on 31 Oct, 2009 05:32
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Canister is now demated from the PCR. Lowering operations to commence shortly.
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#259
by
DaveS
on 31 Oct, 2009 05:41
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Canister now being lowered back onto the deck of the Canister Transporter.
