LIVE: STS-116 - Flight Day 10 - EVA 4

[collectSPACE]

Speedracer - 18/12/2006  10:02 PM

What about the RPC fire alarm during retraction?

Per John Curry, it was essentially the result of a software conflict. At the time it happened, THOR was attempting to cycle a heater on, but the heater was thermostatically controlled and detecting the call to turn it on contrary to its programming, it cycled the heater on and then off so fast that it tripped the circuit, which in turn tripped the alarm. In all such cases they have someone physically check the area but when John later had the chance to meet with his team, he was informed that it was a known trap.

[collectSPACE]

Speedracer - 18/12/2006  10:20 PM

Did anyone ask about the hole in the array box?

I did, after the conference was over. Tricia Mack said she would need to see a photo to comment but was unaware of any concerns.

[collectSPACE]

Chris Bergin - 18/12/2006  10:19 PM

On the landing day question, can you ask it differently, as in "Have the MMT decided on the Thursday option as unviable" (Seen as we know for a fact it was discussed as per MER notes)? Just to get an idea as to why he seemed pretty set in saying Friday.

I didn't see your note until after everyone departed but the reason I was not more direct was that (a) John is a station director and landing is not his realm, and (b) its sometimes better not to tip your hat and see how much they are willing to volunteer.

As Jim pointed out, I did include within my question if Friday was the earliest landing day being still considered, specifically to see if it would trip a response, but as Curry stated and I mentioned above, Curry is station side.

[collectSPACE]

Avron - 18/12/2006  9:38 PM

Lessons learned from this EVA, e.g. Tools, processes

This was pretty much answered by Tricia in response to Gina's question, but for those who like tools, I have my own photographs of the four kapton wrapped devices on collectSPACE as well as a good shot of a grommet (complimenting those already provided by NASA, of course).

[jcopella]

JimO - 18/12/2006  11:20 PM

But i liked curry's comment, "I've been scared of this flight a long time."

That's the only proper attitude!!

Had the same thought.  Very human thing to say, too.

[Avron]

Another great day in LEO...

A view before the activity of EVA-4

[nathan.moeller]

Man I'm bummed that I missed all this.  I dropped by my house during my work break and my dad told me the great news about the successful retraction.  Great stuff!  I'm excited to see the station in its new config on...what...Wednesday?  Glad I got that day off Read back through the coverage from you guys and it's great so thank you all once again.  Never as great as being there live but it's the closest thing to it and that says something.  Alright...glad the major milestones for the station-building side of the mission are done...incredible work by many and they made it look easy.  Sweet deal!

FD10 highlights coming up at 1:00 AM EST.  This is what I need to top off a great day!

[nathan.moeller]

Wow these helmet cam views are something else!  I know all these were covered but I had to say something.  Too bad NTV screen grabs are down at the KSC site.  Hopefully we'll get some stills of those later!

[nathan.moeller]

Beautiful...just beautiful.  This is going to be a great learning experience as far as preparing the STS-117 guys for the 2B retraction job this coming spring.  Correct me if I'm wrong (and this probably belongs in the Atlantis threads) but, since Olivas, Reilly, Forrester and Swanson are all trained spacewalkers, are there four spacewalks in the works for this mission?  Possibly five if a hands-on SAW retraction-job becomes necessary?

[rdale]

WAY too early to look for specific changes in future missions...

[triddirt]

Thanks all for great coverage. I missed the whole thing live, but the emotions and excitement really come through in these updates. Congratulations to all the NASA folks involved.

[psloss]

nathan.moeller - 19/12/2006  1:28 AM

Beautiful...just beautiful.  This is going to be a great learning experience as far as preparing the STS-117 guys for the 2B retraction job this coming spring.  Correct me if I'm wrong (and this probably belongs in the Atlantis threads) but, since Olivas, Reilly, Forrester and Swanson are all trained spacewalkers, are there four spacewalks in the works for this mission?  Possibly five if a hands-on SAW retraction-job becomes necessary?

Keep in mind that not all missions are the same -- different orbiters, different payloads, different requirements/priorities...they may not have time and/or consummables to do four or five EVAs on 13A.  They also have to remain prepared for contingencies within the work to accomplish the primary objectives for the mission.

I'm not sure they would have baselined into this mission deleting either late inspection or an EOM (end-of-mission / "landing") day, which is what happened here based on the "real-time" situation.  Even after this experience, I'm not sure it would become part of the baseline given the programmatic "weight" that MMOD safety risk has and that a KSC landing has.

Nothing wrong with sitting down and thinking about what happened and how to do it better, and we have to give them time to do that.

[triddirt]

FD02 - Oefelein
FD03 - Oafaline
FD04 - Ovaltine™
FD05 - Offal-lean
FD06 - Oxyclean™
FD07 - Oh-Feline (Meow)
FD08 - Billie Jean
FD09 - Outhouse King

Just to get the right thread before it gets frozen. This was not as fun as Christer's language lessons but...
FD10 - Oberpfaffenhofen

Per Wikipedia..

Oberpfaffenhofen is a village which is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany.

The village is home to a major site of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) and became hence known to a wide audience when, in 1983 the first German astronaut, the physicist Ulf Merbold flew to space on board a Space Shuttle in the context of the Spacelab missions. These missions were partly supervised by Oberpfaffenhofen ground control.1

The research centre in Oberpfaffenhofen houses the DLR including the European Space Agency and Astrium's Columbus Control Center (Europe's first "capsule communicator" (Capcom) facility), and also the Fraunhofer Institutes and other scientific institutes.

Also situated in Oberpfaffenhofen is the industrial area of (the now insolvent) Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH (later part of Fairchild Dornier). The aircraft manufacturer shared the airfield with the DLR.

1 Only the scientific mission control was in Oberpfaffenhofen, the technical stayed with NASA in Houston, Texas

[Joffan]

We had a light hearted suggestion of WD40 to shift the guide wires earlier, and I'm trying to imagine a lubricant that would work in space... zero pressure, so no liquids possible I guess... extreme cold half the time, so solids become brittle... man it's a hard place to make things work.

[collectSPACE]

[DarthVader]

Very nice panorama Avron, thanks a lot for that!

[nathan.moeller]

rdale - 19/12/2006  4:26 AM

WAY too early to look for specific changes in future missions...

I know.  Just wondering what was originally planned for EVA work...three or four.  Anyway...next FD

[Avron]

DarthVader - 19/12/2006  12:50 PM

Very nice panorama Avron, thanks a lot for that!

You are most welcome