Author Topic: LIVE: STS-121: July 4th Launch / Flight Day 1 (Read 193151 times)

eeergo · « **Reply #60 on:** 07/04/2006 12:31 pm »

Discovery's winking!

HKS · « **Reply #61 on:** 07/04/2006 12:34 pm »

Ahh... How cute!

I think she's looking forward to go!

Discovery also did this during rollout... She realy is the "flirty orbiter"...

psloss · « **Reply #62 on:** 07/04/2006 12:52 pm »

Apparently a circuit breaker for the SRB field joint heaters popped and needs to be replaced; a red team is going to go out to deal with that.

(The heaters are still working, but they lost redundancy.)

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #63 on:** 07/04/2006 12:52 pm »

On prepress:

"H2 prepress starts at ~T-104 seconds, so it'll be pretty much right before launch"

This is the ET people's big showstopper if it breaches LCC (Launch Commit Criteria).

psloss · « **Reply #64 on:** 07/04/2006 12:56 pm »

Well, it's usually quiet at that time of the count, so any calls aside from the normal ones from GLS (and NTD) will get everyone's attention...

psloss · « **Reply #65 on:** 07/04/2006 01:01 pm »

The flags at the countdown clock site have woken up, hope that's the sea breeze and that it's going to help today...

rdale · « **Reply #66 on:** 07/04/2006 01:02 pm »

eeergo: That's not a cloud image, that is one of the amount of water vapor in the air.

I'm pretty happy overall, that upper-level low east of the Cape is spinning a lot of moisture around but taking its time moving towards shore. The low level moisture I talked about is what's causing the clouds this morning, but as you can tell they look much worse on an overview shot (like that of the countdown clock which shows a lot of the distant sky) vs one that get more overhead (closeups of the shuttle.)

The wet computer still wants to get wet, but I think that's going to be well inland and/or south as that ULL approaches. Still looking go from my perspective, and still has to be today since once that moisture moves overhead tonight we're done.

shuttlefan · « **Reply #67 on:** 07/04/2006 01:08 pm »

I just read that there is enough time to troubleshoot the SRB heater circuit breaker issue, in the count today.

rdale · « **Reply #68 on:** 07/04/2006 01:10 pm »

shuttlefan: psloss already noted that just a few posts above.

dutch courage · « **Reply #69 on:** 07/04/2006 01:12 pm »

It's remarkable to see the clouds disappear on the KSC weather radar.

shuttlefan · « **Reply #70 on:** 07/04/2006 01:14 pm »

I was lucky enough to see the sun glare off Discovery Live on one of the news channels. Discovery seems to be saying today is her day, not mother nature's!

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #71 on:** 07/04/2006 01:20 pm »

Quote

Chris Bergin - 4/7/2006 1:39 PM

On prepress:

"H2 prepress starts at ~T-104 seconds, so it'll be pretty much right before launch"

This is the ET people's big showstopper if it breaches LCC (Launch Commit Criteria).

Here's the article outlining the relevance of this...
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?id=4575

shuttlefan · « **Reply #72 on:** 07/04/2006 01:24 pm »

If, for some unknown reason, they would not be able to repair it, would they still fly?

mong' · « **Reply #73 on:** 07/04/2006 01:25 pm »

aren't the SRB joints heater only useful when it's freeezing cold outside ?
or do you need them every time ?

psloss · « **Reply #74 on:** 07/04/2006 01:28 pm »

Remember there's a big tank filled with cryogens right next to the boosters -- air flow in the area can cool down areas on the boosters...

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #75 on:** 07/04/2006 01:29 pm »

Quote

shuttlefan - 4/7/2006 2:11 PM

If, for some unknown reason, they would not be able to repair it, would they still fly?

I'm asking. First thing I got back was they'll proceed, but need to ask a few more people.

Deleted the guesses that followed this, as guesses aren't any use.

dutch courage · « **Reply #76 on:** 07/04/2006 01:32 pm »

A heater which takes 100 amps can generate a serious amount of heat. Which parts of the SRB need to be hot?

DaveS · « **Reply #77 on:** 07/04/2006 01:32 pm »

Cumulus cloud rule has gone red:

DaveS · « **Reply #78 on:** 07/04/2006 01:33 pm »

Quote

dutch courage - 4/7/2006 3:19 PM

A heater which takes 100 amps can generate a serious amount of heat. Which parts of the SRB need to be hot?

The SRB joints. They were added post-Challenger.

psloss · « **Reply #79 on:** 07/04/2006 01:36 pm »

The joint heaters are turned off at T-1 minute.