-
#200
by
MKremer
on 24 May, 2007 19:04
-
psloss - 24/5/2007 1:43 PM
(And for what it's worth, I've heard, second-hand, that having the public watching "over-the-shoulder" for a lot of the time can get a little, uh, unnerving to some people who work in front of all those cameras.)
That's too bad - I would think most techs would be both excited and proud their operations and work could be seen by the 'general public' (especially for jobs that are rarely, or if-ever, recognized by the media or PAO folks)... I know I was the several times I had photos/video taken of me working (in my former life (long ago) as a hardware tech then as a system admin).
-
#201
by
psloss
on 24 May, 2007 19:08
-
MKremer - 24/5/2007 3:04 PM
psloss - 24/5/2007 1:43 PM
(And for what it's worth, I've heard, second-hand, that having the public watching "over-the-shoulder" for a lot of the time can get a little, uh, unnerving to some people who work in front of all those cameras.)
That's too bad - I would think most techs would be both excited and proud their operations and work could be seen by the 'general public' (especially for jobs that are rarely, or if-ever, recognized by the media or PAO folks)... I know I was the several times I had photos/video taken of me working (in my former life (long ago) as a hardware tech then as a system admin).
Apologies for the tangent, but I should have emphasized the "a lot of time" part. I didn't get any sense of not being proud about being seen at work so much as having to be on camera
all-day, every-day.
-
#202
by
MKremer
on 24 May, 2007 19:27
-
psloss - 24/5/2007 2:08 PM
Apologies for the tangent, but I should have emphasized the "a lot of time" part. I didn't get any sense of not being proud about being seen at work so much as having to be on camera all-day, every-day.
Acknowledged. I'm assuming this is SSPF work... if so, then, as far as most any watcher is concerned they're just seen as anonymous people wearing blue bunny-suits (and it's almost impossible to tell male from female via the camera views).
-
#203
by
Chris Bergin
on 25 May, 2007 10:37
-
Word from USA guy at work right now is all issues are resolved right now, with three contingency days this weekend incase anything pops up.
-
#204
by
Chris Bergin
on 25 May, 2007 17:27
-
NASA TV Sets Interviews for Next Shuttle Mission Flight Director
The lead flight director for NASA's first space shuttle mission this year, STS-117, will be available for satellite interviews from 6 - 8 a.m. CDT Friday, June 1.
STS-117 Lead Space Station Flight Director Kelly Beck, raised in Cahokia, Illinois, will oversee a flight of space shuttle Atlantis. The flight continues construction of the International Space Station and brings a new crew member to orbit to begin a five-month stay and will return home a station resident who has been in orbit since December. Atlantis is targeted for launch at 6:38 p.m. CDT June 8 on an 11-day mission.
Beck will lead a team of flight directors, flight controllers, support personnel and engineering experts that will staff mission control in Houston, 24/7 during the mission. The ground control teams and spaceflight crews have used past missions' experiences, both challenges and successes, as a guide for this next step in space station assembly. At least three spacewalks will be conducted during Atlantis' flight.
Beck's interviews will be conducted live via the NASA Television analog satellite. To participate, media must contact Tim Hinson at NASA's Johnson Space Center newsroom, 281-483-5111, no later than 2 p.m. Thursday, May 31.
-
#205
by
DaveS
on 25 May, 2007 22:24
-
Atlantis's side hatch closed for the weekend:
-
#206
by
jacqmans
on 26 May, 2007 03:12
-
Mission: STS-117 - 21st International Space Station Flight (13A) -
S3/S4 Truss Segment Solar Arrays
Vehicle: Atlantis (OV-104)
Location: Launch Pad 39A
Launch Date: Targeted for June 8, 2007
Crew: Sturckow, Archambault, Reilly, Swanson, Forrester, Olivas and
Anderson
Inclination/Orbit Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles
At Launch Pad 39A, operations are proceeding on schedule for a June 8
launch. This week, the hypergolic propellants were loaded into the
orbiter and solid rocket boosters. Extra Vehicular Mobility Unit Nos.
1 and 2 (space suits) were installed in the orbiter airlock.
Functional testing of the external fuel tank camera is complete, and
the lens cover has been installed. Loading of the liquid oxygen and
liquid hydrogen storage tanks, which will provide fuel for the
shuttle's external fuel tank, is complete.
A Flight Readiness Review, a two-day meeting to assess preparations
for Atlantis' mission, will be held on May 30-31.
-
#207
by
Gekko0481
on 26 May, 2007 10:19
-
jacqmans - 26/5/2007 3:12 AM
This week, the hypergolic propellants were loaded into the
orbiter and solid rocket boosters.
The SRBs use hypergols as well?
-
#208
by
DaveS
on 26 May, 2007 10:59
-
Gekko0481 - 26/5/2007 12:19 PM
jacqmans - 26/5/2007 3:12 AM
This week, the hypergolic propellants were loaded into the
orbiter and solid rocket boosters.
The SRBs use hypergols as well?
Technically this is correct. The Hydraulic Power Units(HPUs) use raw hydrazine to provide the hydraulic pressure needed to operate the Thrust Vector Control system on the SRBs.
-
#209
by
mkirk
on 26 May, 2007 14:10
-
DaveS - 26/5/2007 5:59 AM
Gekko0481 - 26/5/2007 12:19 PM
jacqmans - 26/5/2007 3:12 AM
This week, the hypergolic propellants were loaded into the
orbiter and solid rocket boosters.
The SRBs use hypergols as well?
Technically this is correct. The Hydraulic Power Units(HPUs) use raw hydrazine to provide the hydraulic pressure needed to operate the Thrust Vector Control system on the SRBs.
I would like to emphasize that the hydrazine that is used for the orbiter auxiliary power units (APUs) and the solid rocket booster hydraulic power units (HPUs) is anhydrous hydrazine which is different than the monomethyl hydrazine used by the reaction control system (RCS) and orbital maneuvering system (OMS).
For the APUs and HPUs the anhydrous (meaning waterless) hydrazine is injected across a Shell 405 catalyst which decomposes the hydrazine into a hot gas that is used to drive the turbine within the power unit.
For the OMS and RCS, monomethyl hydrazine is mixed with nitrogen tetroxide in the respective combustion chambers to provide a “hypergolic reaction” (i.e. no ignition source required) and engine thrust. What is nice about having the same propellant for both the OMS and RCS is that you can interconnect the OMS tanks to the RCS to provide them with additional fuel for nominal flight operations and aborts. However, the RCS tanks cannot feed the OMS engines because the larger engines would quickly overwhelm/starve the small RCS tanks causing structural damage to the tanks.
Mark Kirkman
-
#210
by
Gekko0481
on 26 May, 2007 15:32
-
Wow, you learn something new everyday. On another note, does anyone have any idea what's in the image below? Its a capture from a webcam on this site:
Link, and its been showing what I assume to be part of the FSS of 39A for the past few days, but I don't recall seeing the white box thing before.
-
#211
by
on 27 May, 2007 02:20
-
Will workers get memorial day off or will there still be people at the pad working?
-
#212
by
mkirk
on 27 May, 2007 02:23
-
Since the hypergolic load was completed without any issues almost eveyone got the weekend off.
Mark Kirkman
-
#213
by
shuttlefan
on 27 May, 2007 13:27
-
Will they work all through next weekend, being it's the last weekend before the first launch attempt?
-
#214
by
on 27 May, 2007 16:03
-
They will work through regular pad processing until launch
-
#215
by
Gekko0481
on 27 May, 2007 16:12
-
Camera's zoomed out a bit since my last post, and it appears that that white box thing is now on the RSS if it wasn't before. Any ideas?
-
#216
by
shuttlepilot
on 27 May, 2007 16:27
-
No, this thing is still in the same place on RSS.
-
#217
by
Gekko0481
on 27 May, 2007 16:34
-
Any ideas what it is?
-
#218
by
Chris Bergin
on 27 May, 2007 17:21
-
STS 117 / OV 104 / Pad A
OV 104 Powered down.
Next power up 1st shift tuesday
Hyperloading complete
OMS fuel
SRB HPU servicing complete
APU servicing complete
No planned work this weekend
Work will pick up with S0007 launch countdown preps on Tuesday May 29th
-
#219
by
STS Tony
on 28 May, 2007 03:30
-
Seems very smooth so far still. Good.
