- \n
- Endeavour Forum Section<\/li>\n
- L2 T&R Section<\/li>\n
- Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Orbiters Discovery and Endeavour traded places back in August, Atlantis and Endeavour switched positions this week, and the next potential double-move could be sometime next month, which would signify completion of Transition and Retirement (T&R) work on Discovery at Kennedy and her readiness to be ferried to Washington, D.C. in mid-April.<\/p>\n
Atlantis will eventually take Discovery\u2019s place in Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) Bay 1, but the exact timing and route of the moves will depend on when Discovery is ready to ferry. For now, work to begin removing Main Propulsion System (MPS) hardware from Atlantis for preservation for possible Space Launch System use is slated to start in High Bay 4.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, T&R work has resumed on Endeavour in OPF Bay 2 to get her ready for her planned ferry flight to Los Angeles now planned for the Fall. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Z63.jpg\" "\\"Z6\\"")
Bart Pannullo, NASA Vehicle Manager for Space Shuttle Transition and Retirement processing, spoke with media in attendance on Wednesday for Endeavour\u2019s move back to the OPF; when asked about upcoming processing milestones, he noted that Endeavour\u2019s decommissioned reaction control system (RCS) hardware was on the way back to KSC. <\/p>\nSpaceflight news subscription
<\/path>Space tourism guides <\/path>Space Shuttle models <\/path>\n (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve actually completed processing and they\u2019re in transport right now and they\u2019ll be delivered to Kennedy Space Center on Monday,\u201d Panullo said, referring to the ship-set of Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) and Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS) pods that were decommissioned out at a facility in White Sands, New Mexico. <\/p>\n
Depending on the progress of processing work in the near-term, Panullo said that Endeavour\u2019s gutted FRCS module could be re-installed next week. He also noted that contract negotiations are still ongoing for shipment of Atlantis\u2019s RCS hardware to White Sands for decommissioning work. <\/p>\n
Discovery\u2019s RCS hardware has already been re-attached, but when her OMS pods were reinstalled, they were noticeably missing OMS engine nozzles \u2013 although the pods were also missing most of their seldom-seen internal hardware. \u201cBecause some of the nozzles aren\u2019t safe for ferry flight, they\u2019re going to be installed at the display sites, post-ferry,\u201d Panullo explained. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Z53.jpg\" "\\"Z5\\"")
With the second orbiter double-move underway and the possibility of another one, NSF also asked Panullo about what might happen with Endeavour between when she is \u201cready to ferry\u201d and her actual ferry flight. \u201cEndeavour is going to be processing pretty much up until the point it\u2019s ready to leave,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\u201cNow that\u2019s where it\u2019s different with 103 [Discovery]; 103 we\u2019re actually going to finish up processing in the middle of March and move it to the VAB for storage and then it\u2019ll sit there until it goes directly out to the MDD, the Mate-Demate Device, and that will happen in mid-April.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the target date for Discovery\u2019s ferry remains April 17, the exact plans and timing for where Discovery might be stored before her ferry flight seem to remain in flux.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Z44.jpg\" "\\"Z4\\"")
While observing work to secure Atlantis in High Bay 4 on Thursday after her move, the media group there for the photo opportunity heard a few possibilities; the ones we heard seemed to depend on when Discovery\u2019s T&R work is completed and she is ready to ferry. The earlier work is complete, the more moving around \u2013 such as just seen with Atlantis \u2013 might need to be done. <\/p>\nIf T&R work finishes much closer to the planned April 17th departure date from KSC, then there might not be much moving around. <\/p>\n
Noting another factor, on Wednesday Pannullo said \u201cthere are some other things going on with facilities,\u201d that might play into the temporary storage locations for Discovery before ferry. No final decisions have been made yet. <\/p>\n
Click here for T&R Articles: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/tag\/T&R\/<\/p>\n
The actual takeoff dates and ferry stops for Discovery and Endeavour will be subject to weather conditions, similar to the past. When asked whether there might be any changes in the weather rules, Panullo said he was unaware of any.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Z34.jpg\" "\\"Z3\\"")
In addition to work going with the orbiter vehicles at KSC, the media group also observed ferry flight hardware for Enterprise getting ready for shipment. The Approach and Landing Test Article OMS pods (or \u2018ALTA pods\u2019) were originally built for Enterprise and were used in 1977 during Approach and Landing Tests at Dryden Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base in California. <\/p>\nThe ALTA pods were subsequently used to ferry all the Shuttle orbiter vehicles at one time or another throughout Shuttle Program operations when the OMS flight hardware was either under construction at the final assembly plant in Palmdale, California, or in maintenance at KSC. <\/p>\n
Both ALTA pods were seen on Thursday attached to their transportation trailers in the VAB, sitting next to their lifting equipment. One of pods was used in a practice fit check on Endeavour last year while she was in High Bay 4. <\/p>\n
The ALTA pods should soon be shipped to Washington for installation (expected to be permanent) on Enterprise. Enterprise will be ferried out of Washington to New York City shortly after Discovery arrives in April. <\/p>\n
To read about the orbiters \u2013 from birth, processing, every single mission, through to retirement, click here for the links:
\nhttp:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/index.php?topic=25837.0<\/p>\n(Images: Via NASA and L2 content \u2013 And special photography provided by Philip Sloss, NASASpaceflight.com and Larry Sullivan, MaxQ\/NASASpaceflight.com \u2013 many thousands of super hi-res image stock available on L2\u2019s new Photo Section)<\/p>\n
(L2 and NSF are continuing to follow the orbiters through their transitional period. To join L2, click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With Kennedy Space Center workers towing Orbiter Atlantis on Thursday \u201caround the corner\u201d of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) the day after they moved Endeavour out of the same place, one might have thought it was Groundhog Day, and by coincidence it just so happened it was. Shuttle Preparing For Final Destinations: While America\u2019s perhaps best-known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3660,3789,1445,9022],"class_list":["post-40211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-atlantis","tag-discovery","tag-endeavour","tag-tr"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}