- \n
- STS-133 LIVE UPDATES<\/li>\n
- L2 STS-133 Special Section<\/li>\n
- Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Up next for Discovery will be the pressurization of her Main Propulsion System (MPS) \u2013 also known as S0071 operations \u2013 with Call To Stations (CTS) on the schedule for Sunday afternoon, while the S0007 Launch Countdown pre-test briefing was held on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cET vent line closeout and ET\/IT (Intertank) access arm retract were completed Thursday. Preps for S0071 Hyper\/MPS pressurization are in work. CTS is planned for 1400 on Sunday. S1287 aft closeouts continue; flight door installation should occur late Friday evening,\u201d added the NTD report.<\/p>\n
\u201cOV-103 \/ SRB BI-144 \/ RSRM 112 \/ ET-137 (Pad A): S0007 launch countdown preps continue. CTS for launch countdown is currently planned for 1430 on Monday. Weekend Work: S1287 Aft Closeouts (if required), S0071 Hyper\/MPS pressurization.\u201d<\/p>\n
STS-133 Specific \u2013 Including ET Stringer Issue \u2013 Articles: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/tag\/sts-133\/<\/p>\n
Preparations on the pad itself are also proceeding without issue, as the GO2 system recharge was completed, ahead of a SCAPE (Self-Contained Atmospheric Protection Ensemble) operation is planned for Friday at the oxidizer farm to remove and replace a flodyne meter, a transducer, and a pressure relief valve.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/A319.jpg\" "\\"A3\\"")
With the one day delay to Ariane 5\u2019s successful launch of ATV-2, a late discussion was required on the potential impacts of Discovery\u2019s February 24 launch date \u2013 given the European resupply craft is due to dock with the orbital outpost just hours before Discovery is due to launch \u2013 around the time of tanking.<\/p>\nIt was expected STS-133 would be pushed back one day to February 25, avoiding the small potential of a problem during ATV-2 docking \u2013 one which would impact Discovery\u2019s arrival just a few days later \u2013 likely resulting in a scrub during Discovery\u2019s tanking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team continues to target Thursday, 2\/24 for the launch of STS-133. The ISS program is working options to preserve the 24th, and the official launch date will be set at the FRR today,\u201d was again noted on Friday, backing up the internal notes that managers were working towards the avoidance of a one day delay to Discovery\u2019s launch date.<\/p>\n
Should ATV-2 suffer from an issue during docking \u2013 an issue directly affecting Discovery\u2019s docking \u2013 STS-133 would standdown for 48 hours until the 26th, as opposed to a 24 hour scrub turnaround.<\/p>\n
With the FRR approving the launch date, notes from the L-5 FDO (Flight Dynamics Officer) trajectory data review for the prime launch date of February 24, 2011, noted some interesting areas of debate relating to ATV-2 delay and the target launch date of STS-133.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis data assumes an ATV thruster test (ISS reboost of 0.5 mps) on FD2 (Flight Day 2 for STS-133 (2\/25\/11)) prior to the NC2 burn. Since ATV launched 1 day late and will now dock on 2\/24, this ATV test burn may not occur on this date. This trajectory is valid whether or not the ATV test burn occurs. If the magnitude of the test burn increases to 1 mps, this data is also still valid,\u201d the FDO notes (L2) added.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/A342.jpg\" "\\"A34\\"")
\u201cThe EOM (End Of Mission) deorbit opportunities are ascending approaches. An orbit adjust (OA) burn is not modeled in this data, however, an OA would be required to obtain two KSC opportunities on EOM + 2. The OA will be planned during real-time operations and will also consider the requirements for the BLT DTO.\u201d<\/p>\nBLT DTO \u2013 the Boundary Layer Transition Detailed Test Objective \u2013 measures the effects of increased heating from an early boundary layer transition as the orbiter returns to Earth. The DTO was set to debut on STS-126, before being deferred to STS-119.<\/p>\n
Discovery is riding with a 0.5 inch protrusion \u2013 which is the largest to fly on the BLT DTOs thus far. She is also being tasked with another entry-related DTO on behalf of Orion via a \u201cCatalytic Coating\u201d which has been applied to two of Discovery\u2019s Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles, providing Orion \u2013 and shuttle \u2013 engineers with refined aeroheating data.<\/p>\n
The FRR also noted that discussions are continuing into a flyaround of the ISS \u2013 with Discovery docked \u2013 by a Russian Soyuz.<\/p>\n
(Numerous articles will follow, once again reviewing the External Tank modifications and other items of interest from the FRR \u2013 50 STS-133 FRR \u2013 and numerous ET-137 specific \u2013 presentations are available on L2. L2 members refer to STS-133 live coverage sections for internal coverage, presentations, images and and updates from engineers and managers \u2013 which will ramp up into full Flight Day coverage during the mission. Images used, via L2 and acquired PRCB presentations).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As had been expected over the last 24 hours, managers at the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) approved the February 24 launch date target for Discovery\u2019s final trip into space on the STS-133 mission. With flight rationale for the modification to the External Tank (ET-137) stringers the main discussion, ATV-2\u2019s docking \u2013 just hours before Discovery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29568,"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":[9051],"class_list":["post-40525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-sts-133"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40525"}],"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=40525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}