Space Shuttle Status Report

[remcook]

It's counting the days now...

[Astronuc]

With Hurricane Pounding Florida, Astronauts Arrive Early
Discovery Crew Will Be First in Space Since Columbia Disaster in 2003
By MARCIA DUNN, AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (July 9) - The seven astronauts who will make the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster arrived early at the launch site Saturday, beating Hurricane Dennis by a day.

Commander Eileen Collins and her crew flew in by NASA corporate jet in the evening, and were greeted by Kennedy Space Center's director and nearly 100 journalists.

Less than five miles away stood space shuttle Discovery, being prepped for a Wednesday liftoff.

Ready for STS-114        

[spacecat27]

I hope they get outta here on Wednesday- now looking like yet another hurricane (Emily) will be making next weekend miserable. 

[Astronuc]

It's still go.

Discovery and its crew of seven were set to blast off at 3:51 p.m. EDT (1951 UTC) on a flight to the international space station.


The lightweight plastic cover on one of Discovery's cockpit windows came loose while the spaceship was on the launch pad, falling more than 60 feet and striking a bulge in the fuselage, said Stephanie Stilson, the NASA manager in charge of Discovery's launch preparations.

No one knows why the cover - held in place with tape and weighing less than 2 pounds - fell off, she said. The covers are used prior to launch to protect the windows while the shuttle is on the launch pad, then removed before liftoff.


Two tiles on an aluminum panel were damaged, and the entire panel was replaced with a spare; Stilson called it a minor repair job.

Space agency managers held one last meeting Tuesday to address lingering technical concerns and later pronounced Discovery ready to fly.

"We have done everything that we know to do," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said afterward.

Discovery will be setting off on the 114th space shuttle flight in 24 years with a redesigned external fuel tank and nearly 50 other improvements made in the wake of the Columbia tragedy.


During their 12-day flight, Discovery's astronauts will test various techniques for patching cracks and holes in the thermal shielding.

The crew members also will try out a new 50-foot boom designed to give them a three-dimensional laser view of the wings and nose cap and help them find any damage caused by liftoff debris. That is on top of all the pictures of the spacecraft that will be taken by more than 100 cameras positioned around the launching site and aboard two planes and the shuttle itself.

[Astronuc]

This morning

[greenleaf1]

Those photos give me goose-bumps.  Here's hoping for a safe voyage and a beautiful experience for those lucky souls aboard her!

[Astronuc]

Those photos give me goose-bumps.  Here's hoping for a safe voyage and a beautiful experience for those lucky souls aboard her!

They give me goosebumps too!

Nuts!  Standby, Houston!  Mission scratched - no new launch data yet. 

A faulty fuel gauge on Discovery's external tank forced NASA to call off Wednesday's launch of the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster 2 1/2 years ago. The space agency did not immediately set a new launch date. The decision came with less than 2 1/2 hours left in the countdown, as the seven astronauts were almost done boarding the spacecraft. Up until then, rain and thunder over the launch site appeared to be the only obstacle to an on-time liftoff.

 

Better safe, than sorry.

Top pic - Closeup of Discovery on Pad39
Bottom pic - a reminder of how small we are!

[SpaceAstronomer]

You think with all of these delays that NASA would have got something right by now.  They have had more than enough time to do whatever they needed to get the Shuttle ready and allow everything to be in perfect working order.  Did you know that the Space Shuttle's initial design spec was to allow it to be flown every week?

Furthermore, with 114 missions flown, the majority of them have taken around a quarter of a year to prepare for while this one has taken more than a year since the first initial opportunity was March 11, 2004 after the CAIB report.  Come on!  The engineers at NASA are supposed to be the best and the brightest!  If they could get the vast majority of the last 113 missions working perfectly, then this one should not be so tough.  Of course they have made some revisions, but these revisions are supposed to improve things.

I am starting to get frustrated at these continued delays.  Besides, human space flight has hardly any scientific value anymore and is the most expensive part of NASA's budget.  NASA spends a huge portion of its $16 billion budget (give or take) on the Space Shuttle, International Space Station and related missions accounts for approximately half of NASA's entire budget with the rest being allocated to developing the Crew Exploration Vehicle, Human/Robotic Technology, Exploration Missions and Aeronautics and Other Science Activities.

Robotic missions have proven to be the most scientifically "profitable" and thus I think robotic missions deserve a larger cut of the budget.  I think the Space Shuttle should be completely scrapped as well as the International Space Station for around ten years (it'll just float in space for a decade) and the money saved should go to progressing the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and funding propulsion research, life support research, exotic research (such as artificial gravity/simulated gravity), robotic missions, and etc.  After the Crew Exploration Vehicle is developed and flown on a few missions, the International Space Station can receive its budget again.

Just my thoughts.

, SpaceAstronomer

[LunarOrbit]

NASA should take as long as they need to sort out any problems. Rushing to launch is exactly what we don't need.

[SpaceAstronomer]

NASA should take as long as they need to sort out any problems. Rushing to launch is exactly what we don't need.

Rushing to launch?  They have had more than a year to prepare for this and do whatever they needed.  I am not saying they should rush it, but it is about time they got their butts in gear and got everything right?  They have had delays after delays.  I am not saying they should rush things, but they certainly shouldn't go at it at an snail's pace.  I am not saying that this current issue shouldn't be delayed, because it should, but I am saying that by now you would have thought NASA would have gotten everything sorted out and ready.  Heck, things should've been ready last month, but they weren't.

, SA

[Astronuc]

SpaceAstronomer - while I share the frustration over the shuttle program, Lunar Orbit is absolutely right.  NASA has to be safe.

The shuttle is one of the most complex pieces of technology that we have, and all those thousands of pieces have to work.

Hopefully we will get there soon - and safely.

The shuttle and ISS will be phased out, but while it works, we might as well use it.

CEV is not going to ready for a while.  

 

[SpaceAstronomer]

Well I am thinking that human space flight is unneccessary at the moment.  It is nothing but a monetary blackhole.  We are gaining nothing from it when we can always automatically launch satellites into space.  We have little to gain from the Space Shuttle and International Space Station scientifically.  I think the Shuttle fleet should be grounded to allow for an absence of humans in space for several years, like aforementioned in a previous post.

, marsbound2024

[Astronuc]

The way things have been going, that is true.  It seems ridiculous to build a lauch site (Kennedy) for cryogenic rockets in a environment as humid as Florida in the summer time.  But that's what we've got to deal with.  There's got to be a better way.

[Astronuc]

NASA Eyeing Cause of Fuel-Gauge Problem (AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -   NASA technicians are hoping to get a better idea Thursday about whether they'll be able to fix a sensor problem at the pad or have to return the space shuttle Discovery to the hangar for more extensive repairs.

The problem with a fuel sensor forced managers to scrub Wednesday's planned launch, just 2 1/2 hours left in the countdown and further delaying NASA's return to space travel after the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Thousands of people had descended on Florida's     Kennedy Space Center for the launch, including families of the seven astronauts killed when Columbia disintegrated.

Similar fuel-gauge problems had cropped up during tests in April but technicians and officials thought they had been fixed.

Shuttle managers had no idea whether Wednesday's trouble was in the gauge at the bottom of Discovery's fuel tank, a stretch of cabling and wiring, an electronics box inside the shuttle or something else entirely.

And they found themselves on the defensive, explaining why they pressed ahead with the launch when the same type of potentially fatal problem cropped up during a fueling test just three months ago and was accepted as an "unexplained anomaly."

Some engineers had pushed for further testing at the pad before committing to a liftoff, but were overruled by top managers who concluded that the replacement of cables, the electronics box and the tank itself was ample.

"We felt like we had a good system," deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said at a grim-faced news conference Wednesday.

more - NASA Eyeing Cause of Fuel-Gauge Problem

[Retrospector]

I guess that the basic reasons for having the launch pads at Cape Canaveral are that it is about as far South as US territory goes, allowing for maximum boost from the Earth's rotational velocity for an eastward launch, and the fact that spent stages can drop into water for such a launch.

The humidity must be a problem for rockets with cryogenic propellants. A colder site has its own issues. Recall the freezing temperatures and the first shuttle disaster, almost 20 years ago.

IMO if it weren't for the ISS, there would not be as much hurry to get the shuttle going again.