Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

SpaceNut · 2005-10-25 19:59:55

NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., returned to its primary business
today, testing space shuttle main engines.
Engineers successfully test-fired an engine for 520 seconds; the time it
takes a shuttle to reach orbit. Not sure if these will be for Atlantis or for Discovery's ET tank test.

GCNRevenger · 2005-10-25 20:20:03

Big deal the reuseable SSME is a mature enough engine by now I hope! What exactly is Stennis doing thats useful? They should be dropping everything "Shuttle Upgrade" related and start on dumbed-down expendable version of SSME right away! We're going to be paying those engineers anyway, aren't we?

John Creighton · 2005-10-25 20:30:15

Big deal the reuseable SSME is a mature enough engine by now I hope! What exactly is Stennis doing thats useful? They should be dropping everything "Shuttle Upgrade" related and start on dumbed-down expendable version of SSME right away! We're going to be paying those engineers anyway, aren't we?

It is probably a safety check. Does it help much? I don’t know? Should they be doing other things instead? Maybe.

SpaceNut · 2005-10-26 08:44:32

Then there is the need for more people as seen by this where NASA's looking for employees fill more than 400 positions at the Computer Sciences Corporation for the NASA Shared Services Center. They are looking to fill from the 400 plus 200 position imediately.

Were there that many that have left after Huricane Katrina?

SpaceNut · 2005-10-26 10:36:17

These are the flights still yet to come and what is still needed to "complete the ISS".
Of couse this is all subject to change with schedueling around Huricane season and change it will if another epesode of falling foam debri occurs...

May: Space Shuttle Discovery

STS-121 to the International Space Station, carrying supplies and retesting design changes to the external fuel tank foam insulation as well as heat-shielding inspection and repair tools.

July: Space Shuttle Atlantis

STS-115 to deliver and attach the second port truss segment and a solar array set to the International Space Station. ISS mission 12A from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space shuttle missions beyond STS-115

All of these missions are under review, including the order of flights and the shuttle orbiter to be used:

STS-116 to install the third port truss segment and deliver a SPACEHAB cargo module to the International Space Station. ISS mission 12A.1 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

STS-117 to deliver and attach the second starboard truss segment and a solar array set to the International Space Station. ISS mission 13A from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

STS-118 to deliver the third starboard truss segment and a SPACEHAB cargo module to the International Space Station. ISS mission 13A.1 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

STS-119 to deliver and attach the fourth starboard truss segment and a solar array set to the International Space Station. ISS mission 15A from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

STS-120 to deliver and attach U.S. Node 2 to the International Space Station. ISS mission 10A from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SpaceNut · 2005-11-02 08:02:45

As trhe story indicates NASA's Michoud plant back in business After having been hit with the old one two of this years huricane season.

Nine weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated eastern New Orleans, the NASA plant where the space shuttle external fuel tank is built and coated with insulating foam is once again "fully operational," the plant's general manager said Tuesday.
So now, the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.-run Michoud Assembly Facility is focused short-term on finding housing for nearly half of its 2,000 employees and long-term on a possible May launch of the space shuttle.
Lockheed Martin Michoud Operations Vice President and General Manager Marshall Byrd said 600 Michoud workers lost their homes in the storm and another 300 cannot return to their houses for some time. A companywide Katrina relief fund set up for affected employees has raised $4 million, he said.

Providing them homes for those as indicated above:

Lockheed Martin has leased a hotel on Magazine Street in New Orleans for about 140 of its displaced employees. The company also is providing displaced workers with bus service to the plant.
Byrd said 1,600 Michoud employees were working at the plant as of Monday, and that number should rise to 1,900 next week.

I wonder how much of this cost will get passed onto Nasa...

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2006-02-09 14:04:31

STS-121 is Targeted at a May Launch, Shuttle Discovery will lead what is being tagged as Return to Flight 3 in a year that will hopefully see all three of NASA's Orbiters on missions. Space Shuttle Discovery will not have redesigned gapfillers installed between all 15,000 thermal protection system (TPS) tiles before mission STS 121’s expected May launch. The gapfillers are like playing cards and were originally bonded into position using a needle. The use of the needle led to incorrect adhesive application, giving a weak bond between tile and card. The harsh launch environment would then cause gapfillers to move and protrude if there was ineffective bonding. NASA continues to work towards a May launch of the space shuttle Discovery, with plans to remove the ramp on the external tank that shed the largest piece of foam during its flight in July 2005 – the first since the Columbia disaster. Griffin also confirmed NASA has found the cause of why a section of the PAL Ramp came off the External Tank during STS-114's launch. While he refused to officially state the reason, he did give an indication that previous repair work on the area was to blame. ISS cable reel mechanism will be replaced during one of the three spacewalks by Discovery crewmembers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum during the STS-121 shuttle mission later this year.

SpaceNut · 2006-02-09 23:07:52

More on what the Discovery mission will do is to deliver a
New Life Support ready for ISS use.

Rxke · 2006-02-10 03:14:48

STS-121... ...Return to Flight 3 ... ....hopefully see all three of NASA's Orbiters on missions. ...will not have redesigned gapfillers installed.... ....NASA... ...plans to remove the ramp on the external tank.... ...he did give an indication that previous repair work on the area was to blame.

Am I just having a bad day, or does this read as a monster-project, held together with band-aid?

SpaceNut · 2006-10-16 07:00:01

Carried out experiments on last flight.
Bacteria 'blasts off' ASU professor leads NASA study

Real science...

Nickerson sent two types of disease-causing bacteria and a common fungus called Candida albicans on the mission.
"This study is the first of its kind," said James Wilson, an ASU professor on Nickerson's team. "It helps us to get some critical information as to crew health safety on flights."
Infectious diseases pose a great risk to astronauts, Nickerson said, because the crew is living in close chambers and recycling their air and water.
Plus, with international crews, astronauts are carrying microbes from the flora and fauna of their own native lands, which other crewmembers may not be accustomed to, she added.
"When you add in the fact that infectious disease is the leading cause of death on Earth, you start realizing this is a problem we need to address to ensure health and safety of the crew during spaceflight," Nickerson said.
An understanding of how spaceflight affects human immune systems and disease-causing organisms could lead to innovative new ways of developing vaccines and treatments for diseases, Nickerson said.
"This study holds real potential to translate to health advantages for humans here on the ground," she said.

Now send the same experiment up there and study it over time in the station and compare results.

dicktice · 2006-10-16 19:00:37

What a difference between the last two replies! Rxke spoke of "bandaids" on Feb 10. SpaceNut said "send the same experiment up there and study it over time in the station and compare results". Funny how the nay-sayers have nothing positive to state regarding the improved Space Shuttle reliability. What takes years to build by innovators requires no imagination at all to tear down. What blindness! as to how long-term progress in past engineering fields of human endevour actually happened. The historic examples are there for the asking, to criticize and be criticized in turn, in the Wikipedia....

SpaceNut · 2006-10-16 20:13:21

The bandaids Ryke refers to is how Nasa said the tank was fixed on the first return to flight mission but there was way to much foam still coming off and it took another few tries to actually figure it all out so that less did fall off on this last.

I post alot and possibly way to much on the ISS as well as shuttle needing to be used to the fullest since we have already invest way to much into them. If it is just a science lab and nothing more we need to push alot more experiments up there that we need to get answers to once it is complete before it comes falling down.

The Shuttle fleet that remains is showing its age after each launch takes so much more time to turn it around for the next flight. The scheduel is pushing each into a hit or mission with respect to launch when needed.

Personally I would rather cut back on one shuttle mission per year and fund the Orion Ares 1 to get it built sooner followed by a few year longer use of them to finish the station plus extend the end years use as well for the station but thats probably just me.

Since the Ares V is all but ready less some new electronics and the moon lander we would be ahead of the game for 2018 landing on the moon.

SpaceNut · 2006-10-17 07:52:31

NASA shuttle managers met Monday to adjust the schedule for the remaining flights of the space shuttle, delaying three shuttle missions scheduled for launch in 2007 while sticking to the 2010 retirement date for the fleet.

According to the revised schedule, STS-117 will be delayed from February 22 to March 16, 2007; STS-118 from June 11 to June 28; and STS-120 from August 9 to September 7.

Officials said that external tank processing problems caused the delays.

dicktice · 2006-10-17 19:33:17

Even so, the 2010 termination (end of year?) wasn't actually based upon knowledge of what we now have in the way of Canadarm techniques to 100% inspect the underside of the orbiters before committing for reentry. So barring something Murphy-like, the Space Shuttle should go the course, even if it takes longer than the stated 2010 deadline. Great, now what's next, if the Shuttle allows breathing time to develop the next generation space transportation system, up to LEO and beyond?

GCNRevenger · 2006-10-18 16:18:41

Yes, 2010 is an arbitrary deadline from the prospective of Shuttle, so why not 2012? Or 2014? Or 2017...? Why not?

Simple, we have other things to do. Shuttle costs alot of money to keep flying, and NASA wants to use the facilities presently dedicated to it for other things (VAB space for Ares, hangers for Orion, modified launch pad towers, Michoud's assembly line, etc etc etc).

Space science on the ISS is no longer the ultimate justification for NASA's spaceflight program(s), and canceling Shuttle is a natural consequence of this change in priorities. As long as Shuttle is soaking up around $4Bn a year, every year, it is not practical to really do anything else without a big budget increase, which isn't happening.

So, the desire and attitude for "just a little bit longer" and "don't be so arbitrary" or "but we've invested so much" plus "but it works now, why change" etc etc etc are all based on trying to adhere to the old justification, which no longer applies. In fact, its dangerous to NASA's continued exsistence.

Really though, why not 2010? Is there a good reason not to mothball Shuttle then? The VSE is going to take long enough as it is to get started, and it will never really start in earnest until Shuttle is gone. The ISS? Why? What is it good for? If to study human physiology, it can do that now just fine. What are we getting for our additional tens of billions we'll spend on it? If the answer is "not much," then we ought to avoid spending any more money than is required by the politics. The ISS will be done enough to keep our "partners" off our backs by 2010, and so that should be the end of it, ship them off to museums.

cIclops · 2006-10-19 01:25:47

Yes, 2010 is an arbitrary deadline from the prospective of Shuttle, so why not 2012? Or 2014? Or 2017...? Why not?

IIRC 2010 is the deadline for recertification required by the CAIB.

SpaceNut · 2006-10-23 20:05:39

The remaining 14 shuttle flights are dedicated to completing the space station by the time the fleet is grounded in 2010.

15 if a Hubble servicing mission is approved, it would have to be squeezed into the space station construction schedule sometime in early 2008.

SpaceNut · 2007-01-03 08:44:58

As the year closed while Nasa continued with its return to safe shuttle flight with more shuttle name to flight designator changes. Shuttle Discovery actually took Atlantis place and vise versus. Next up will be in March with Atlantis STS-117.

Then the next flight of Atlantis will be designated STS-120 to go in september 2007

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#126 2005-10-25 19:59:55

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#127 2005-10-25 20:20:03

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#128 2005-10-25 20:30:15

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#129 2005-10-26 08:44:32

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#130 2005-10-26 10:36:17

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#131 2005-11-02 08:02:45

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#132 2006-02-09 14:04:31

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#133 2006-02-09 23:07:52

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#134 2006-02-10 03:14:48

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#135 2006-10-16 07:00:01

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#136 2006-10-16 19:00:37

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#137 2006-10-16 20:13:21

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#138 2006-10-17 07:52:31

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#139 2006-10-17 19:33:17

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#140 2006-10-18 16:18:41

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#141 2006-10-19 01:25:47

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#142 2006-10-23 20:05:39

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

#143 2007-01-03 08:44:58

Re: Shuttle ST-121 Atlantis

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