RedSky - 17/9/2006 9:51 AM
dutch courage - 17/9/2006 8:46 AM
Is it me or are the angles of the Beta gimbles of 2A and 4A different?
I noticed that yesterday. I kept thinking: rotate one of those a few degrees so they'll be even and look better in the fly around. But I guess its not important.
At the status briefing, Phil Engelauf said they are feathered for the different approaches (orbiter on the U.S side, Soyuz and Progress on the Russian side). (Until the SARJ can be used for tracking after 12A.1.)
Will the undocking be uploaded high res like the launch?
astrobrian - 17/9/2006 10:57 AM
Will the undocking be uploaded high res like the launch?
That's what I'm trying to find out. There was supposed to be some HD streaming capability added to the ISS on this mission:
http://www.crystalpc.com/news_details.asp?News_Id=47I have noticed that occasionally the ISS crew shoots onboard video with a widescreen camera which I assume is an HD camera. It sounded this morning as if they might have been seeing the video in HD on the ground.
Replaying a bit more undocking video from the ISS...from the port side of the truss.
Spiff - 17/9/2006 8:28 AM
This entire week the shuttle has been at the 'aft' end of movement, now they turned the entire complex around with the shuttle seperating 'forward'
2 questions:
1) When did they do that?
2) Why did they do that?
1) Don't have the flight plan in front of me, but probably between the Group B powerup and the entry into the undocking timeline.
2) The undocking/flyaround trajectory and procedures were designed with the orbiter separating along the +Vbar (orbiter 'forward'). The 'orbiter aft' attitude during the week of docked ops was done to reduce orbital debris risk to the orbiter.
--
JRF
Flight Day 9 MMT presentation on L2 notes no problems in works (bar silly things like camcorders)
Chris Bergin - 17/9/2006 7:40 PM
Flight Day 9 MMT presentation on L2 notes no problems in works (bar silly things like camcorders)
This has to be the cleanest STS flight on record.
Avron - 17/9/2006 8:36 PM
This has to be the cleanest STS flight on record.
Maybe. It's been a clean flight, but I don't know that there's enough historical documentation on the site to say by which measure(s), though.
How has this mission been cleaner than the last one?
psloss - 17/9/2006 8:49 PM
Avron - 17/9/2006 8:36 PM
This has to be the cleanest STS flight on record.
Maybe. It's been a clean flight, but I don't know that there's enough historical documentation on the site to say by which measure(s), though.
How has this mission been cleaner than the last one?
Granted.. by measure no.. but just based on what is been present by the MMT/ press confs. We hear.. there really is nothing to report in terms of issues ... no issues with APU's, as an example vs the fun and games of the last mission i.r.t. leaks .. mmt presentation is one page.. looks great.. really well done by all who have made it happen with an approx 30 year old vehicle design.
Avron - 17/9/2006 9:24 PM
Granted.. by measure no.. but just based on what is been present by the MMT/ press confs. We hear.. there really is nothing to report in terms of issues ... no issues with APU's, as an example vs the fun and games of the last mission i.r.t. leaks .. mmt presentation is one page.. looks great.. really well done by all who have made it happen with an approx 30 year old vehicle design.
Up to this point, both flights have been clean, which speaks to the preparation by the program. This flight had bigger challenges during countdown...perhaps comparable work done on the fuel cell coolant pump motor.
On-orbit, it does seem like the ops/support teams have some momentum coming off the last flight so recently.
I think it's due to the building of lessons-learned and experience processes over the last 3 years or so - the lessons learned from Columbia, as well as more attention to detail and preparations from OPF through pre-launch processing; more attention to troubleshooting, and an overall conservative analysis for mission management; and the willingness to not only listen to and take heed of dissenting viewpoints, but to have the top management (up to the administrator himself) acknowledge their responsibility to make the final decisions with full knowledge of what the consequences might be.
MKremer - 17/9/2006 10:35 PM
I think it's due to the building of lessons-learned and experience processes over the last 3 years or so - the lessons learned from Columbia, as well as more attention to detail and preparations from OPF through pre-launch processing; more attention to troubleshooting, and an overall conservative analysis for mission management; and the willingness to not only listen to and take heed of dissenting viewpoints, but to have the top management (up to the administrator himself) acknowledge their responsibility to make the final decisions with full knowledge of what the consequences might be.
Some of it is also due to lessons-learned over the life of the program...that's why I wondered 'by which measure(s)' -- by some measures, perhaps even some of the same measures, there were "clean" flights pre-51L and pre-107, too...
psloss - 17/9/2006 9:41 PM
Some of it is also due to lessons-learned over the life of the program...that's why I wondered 'by which measure(s)' -- by some measures, perhaps even some of the same measures, there were "clean" flights pre-51L and pre-107, too...
I have no doubt that the OPF and pad techs, and even lots of management, back then did their level best to give each orbiter, ET, and SRB as much TLC as possible, to the best of their ability procedurally, all the way to launch. But, compared with what is known now that they didn't know or pay a lot of attention to then, I do think many of the clean flights (or flights considered 'clean' in those times) were due more to fortunate happenstance than to all the preparation and inspection details they know are critically important now.