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The specially-converted Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and related ferry hardware, such as the aerodynamic tailcone that fits on the aft-end of the orbiter, are currently at Dryden, ready for a possible Shuttle landing there. Dryden also has the facilities necessary for turnaround, such as the Mate Demate Device, which is used for deservicing the orbiter and lifting onto the SCA. <\/p>\n
Prior to launch, the team at Dryden ensures that the facilities, vehicles, and aircraft there are ready to support a Shuttle landing. Required, preventative maintenance and pre-landing checkout work are managed so that they don\u2019t interfere with landing support, which usually begins two weeks before launch.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Shuttle and Flight Ops Support Office at Dryden is headed by George Grimshaw, Susan Ligon, and Lance Dykhoff. Contractors that maintain the assets there include United Space Alliance, Lockheed Martin, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Kay & Associates.<\/p>\n
STS-131 Specific Articles: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/tag\/sts-131\/<\/p>\n
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Maintenance and Mission \u201cFlow\u201d:<\/p>\n
Most of the facilities and equipment at Dryden have their own maintenance schedules, which are worked around Shuttle mission support.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent pieces of equipment have different preventative maintenance schedules, (such as) annual, quarterly, bi-annual \u2013 whatever it might be \u2013 those are scheduled at certain times of the year,\u201d explained George Grimshaw, Chief of the Shuttle and Flight Ops Support Office at Dryden. \u201cIf we know that we have a mission, (if) we\u2019re \u2018in flow\u2019 for a mission, which is fourteen days before a launch, what we\u2019ll try to do is try to schedule that earlier, or if need be we can always request a waiver on that piece of equipment.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A41.jpg\" "\\"A4\\"")
Grimshaw noted that some annual maintenance for the Mate Demate Device (MDD) is normally done in January, but given the timing of the STS-130 mission in early February, that work was done early.<\/p>\n\u201cThe one that we try to get every January is the MDD and doing the load testing on the cranes for that,\u201d he added. \u201cThis year we knew we had the mission coming in February; I think it\u2019s more toward the middle or the end of January when that (MDD preventative maintenance) is due. Our guys were starting to work and get all that together over Christmas vacation. That way when we came back to work, everything would be set in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s sling testing that has to go on, because if the slings are \u2018out of cert,\u2019 then you obviously can\u2019t use those for lifting with the cranes. So they were getting all of that stuff done ahead of time, so we could hit that (testing) first thing in January and have it done and out of the way before we went into flow \u2013 so we knew the MDD was up and ready to go and we weren\u2019t trying to do that at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Grimshaw noted, fourteen days before scheduled launch, a freeze goes into effect to avoid changes that might prevent the site from being ready to support the upcoming mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we enter that fourteen days before launch (time period), then there\u2019s an IT freeze that comes on, a range freeze, and a facilities freeze \u2013 so facilities doesn\u2019t do any digging or any type of work that could possibly cause any type of infrastructure problem that would put us out of position to support (the upcoming mission),\u201d Grimshaw explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIT is the same way \u2013 IT does not push (computer software) patches or do upgrades. And the range, they freeze their assets as well. They can support other projects, but they can\u2019t do anything that would put them out of a configuration to support Shuttle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Site Readiness for Landing:<\/p>\n
Ahead of landing, a Site Readiness Report is prepared for the NCC \u2013 who arrives on site from the Kennedy Space Center prior to launch with a team of about thirty people.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A52.jpg\" "\\"A5\\"")
\u201cWhat I do is what I call our Site Readiness (Report), which is a document that I take around to all the areas \u2013 security, facilities, IT personnel, Air Force personnel, Public Affairs personnel, Photo Lab, Video, Comm, the Director \u2013 everybody in the whole center has something to sign, stating they are ready to support Shuttle operations,\u201d noted Susan Ligon, Deputy of the Shuttle and Flight Ops Support Office.<\/p>\n\u201cIn that (report), I have four areas that I send out copies of what we did last time, saying \u2018this is what we reported out last time, please update and correct any dates, configuration, and get back to me by such-and-such a date.\u2019 I have to have that completed, signed, and approved by George before the NCC arrives on site.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily this time he comes in on Sunday (April 4) so I have a couple of days extra. What I do is I send it out to our personnel for the MDD, the hangar, deluge, and fire alarms, they check the dates and say \u2018yes, that\u2019s correct\u2019 or \u2018no, we have this problem\u2019 and they email it back to me and then I incorporate that into the Site Readiness.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ligon also explained the contractor responsibilities for reporting their readiness for landing support.<\/p>\n
\u201cLockheed (Martin) has a very large portion of it \u2013 all the runway lights, PAPIs and ball-bar, MSBLS (Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System) systems on all the runways,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey report out when they were checked, when they were flown against, when they were operationally done, functional check, all the little ins, ands, ors and buts about it and they put dates on them. I incorporate that into my spreadsheet. Kay and Associates, they also have the same thing \u2013 they report all their equipment, they are required to do PEs, annuals, inspections, according to their requirement documents that they have through the Shuttle Program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferry flight preparations:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A61.jpg\" "\\"A6\\"")
Both NASA 911, one of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), and Tailcone Number 2 are ready to support Monday\u2019s launch.<\/p>\nEarlier this week, NasaSpaceflight.com got a chance to see both SCAs \u2013 which happened to be parked together \u2013 and the tailcone at Dryden. NASA 911 is currently supporting ferry operations for Shuttle Orbiters (several videos of the tour \u2013 around the facility,around and inside the SCAs and hangers \u2013 are available on L2.)<\/p>\n
At present, the aft attach ball mounts are not installed on the NASA 905 aircraft; however, it can be brought back to ferry condition, when necessary.<\/p>\n
Rick Brewer, Team Leader for Computer Sciences Corporation (the company that maintains the SCAs) at Dryden, said that the aircraft are generally flown at least once a month to provide proficiency training for flight crews. Typically, Brewer said that training flights will carry between two and four pilots and one to three flight engineers. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A7.jpg\" "\\"A7\\"")
Tailcone 2 is currently set up in the Shuttle Hangar at Dryden, along with a few other convoy vehicles parked in the hangar at the time \u2013 such as the NASA Convoy Commander vehicle, the White Room, the Tow vehicle, and the Cooling vehicle.<\/p>\nThe tailcone consists of six pieces that are assembled at Dryden for ferry flights that originate there.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got your left-hand side, your bottom-center, your right-hand side, you\u2019ve got your left-hand OMS, your upper-center, and your right-hand OMS,\u201d explained Phil Burkhardt, Program Manager for United Space Alliance at Dryden (USA is the prime Shuttle contractor.)<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what happens is, we bring in the fixture over here that we call \u2018the grey whale.\u2019 We assemble the upper section on top of it and we assemble the lower section here on top of what we call our 704 stand.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A9.jpg\" "\\"A9\\"")
\u201cThe first piece will be the lower section, that will be on here (704 stand) and it will be pinned, and then you will usually put on your right-hand side panel and your left-hand side panel, you put all your bolts in and do all your torques, all your cross-members and such, then you\u2019ll go over and build your upper portion.<\/p>\n\u201cObviously you\u2019ll have your grey whale \u2013 your fixture \u2013 you\u2019ll assemble your upper section, by installing the center section on top of the grey whale, and then your left-hand OMS will go on and then your right-hand OMS, and then you\u2019ll put all the bolts in on that. And then you lift that upper section with the crane and it will come up over and mate to the lower section.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a ferry flight and after the tailcone has been removed from the orbiter, it is disassembled, placed in boxes, and shipped back to Dryden via ground transportation. Tailcone 1 is also currently at Dryden, although in pieces in the tailcone shipping boxes, disassembled.<\/p>\n
The \u201ctemp\u201d runway:<\/p>\n
As with STS-130, should a nominal end-of-mission landing occur at Edwards for STS-131, it would happen on the \u201ctemporary\u201d concrete runway, Runway 04L\/22R \u2013 also known as the \u201cinside runway.\u201d The main concrete runway, Runway 04R\/22L (the \u201coutside\u201d runway), is undergoing another period of maintenance. NASA has almost all the navigation aids to support both runways, with the exception of the MSBLS unit on the Runway 04 end.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A102.jpg\" "\\"A102\\"")
\u201cOnce we got everything set up and we got additional equipment from Kennedy, we only have to move the MSBLS system from the (Runway) 04 end back-and-forth,\u201d Grimshaw said. \u201cWe have systems on the 22 end that stay in place that don\u2019t move back-and-forth, we have spare PAPIs and ball-bar lighting. Even after we move back (to the main runway), the inside runway will remain intact, we\u2019re not going to move that stuff off of there, unless we have to move something off for maintenance. It will stay up as a \u2018just-in-case\u2019 type of thing.<\/p>\n\u201cThe other thing with that is, with that equipment already out there, if you were to need a spare because something on the main runway (was broken), it\u2019s already there, you can just drive over and pull what you need. And that way we\u2019re not jockeying pieces of equipment around. It\u2019s already set up, it\u2019s already NOTAM-ed, and the Air Force is already aware of it, and it just makes more sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, we weren\u2019t supposed to move back this time, and then we did, and so we were glad that we (left the equipment on the temp runway), because (with) the MSBLS system, every time you move one, you have to have FAA (the Federal Aviation Administration) come in and certify it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A111.jpg\" "\\"A11\\"")
As noted by NASA, the current plan is to switch back to the main concrete runway before STS-132\u2019s current schedule. <\/p>\n\u201cOur plans right now are, we (STS-131) land on the 18th (of April), the MSBLS guys come back in and start their move on the 19th, we\u2019ll have it relocated and back on the main runway in time for the STAs (Shuttle Training Aircraft),\u201d Grimshaw added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 132 crew will come back and fly (the STAs) on the 26th of April and then we send some data back to the landing folks back at KSC, they\u2019ll get that to the FAA and then on the 1st and 2nd of May, the FAA will come out and fly the certification and we\u2019ll be ready to go for STS-132.\u201d <\/p>\n
Grimshaw also explained that they will recertify the MSBLS systems for both ends of the main runway before STS-132 is officially cleared to land, should that option be required.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Since) it\u2019s a two-year recert, (and the 04 end) is going to come due (because of the move), we might as well do both ends, and now moving back to the other runway, even though the 22 system is good until I think May of 2011, we decided we\u2019re going to do both ends of the runway when we move back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the airplane here, if something should happen and the program should slip past May of next year, then we won\u2019t have to worry about bringing them back out here again and certifying the other end of the runway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flooded PAPI lights before STS-130:<\/p>\n
An example of the challenges the Dryden team is sometimes faced with occurred before the last mission, STS-130 \u2013 when the PAPI lights found themselves under water at the end of runway 22.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/A32.jpg\" "\\"A3\\"")
\u201c(On) the last mission, the lakebed was wet and the PAPI lights on the temporary runway \u2013 well, both runways, both 22 runways \u2013 were under water,\u201d Grimshaw noted. \u201cThere are two sets of PAPI lights for the Runway 22 end of both concrete runways. Those lights are located 6500 and 7500 feet from the end of the runway threshholds \u2013 out on the dry lakebed.<\/p>\n\u201cSo we have this water and I reported back to them (Landing Support Office at JSC) that the lakebed is \u2018red\u2019 \u2013 we have no access out to those PAPI lights \u2013 and I\u2019m trying to find the airboat (previously used by predecessor Charlie Baker). Those guys said \u2018well, we don\u2019t know,\u2019 and talking to my counterpart, Dean Schaaf back at KSC, and he\u2019s not sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were trying to figure out where this thing is at and I get an email from Norm Knight (ascent\/entry flight director at JSC) that says \u2018George, I need positive confirmation that we will have PAPIs up and operating before launch.\u2019 Of course I can\u2019t go back to him and say \u2018well I can\u2019t give you that\u2019 \u2013 so I told him right now we\u2019re in a search to try and find the airboat, we have no access to the lakebed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo days before scheduled launch, we found the airboat, we got it here, and got it out on the lakebed, and the guys found that one set of them (the PAPI lights) was inoperative. They came out Saturday morning (February 6th) and fixed all that. During this whole time, I\u2019m sending emails to different people \u2013 to the ferry flight manager, Don McCormack at JSC, to the LSOs (Landing Support Officers), to Norm Knight, and to Dean (Schaaf) on what our status is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were having some sort of (management) activity the Friday before launch and Norm was there, so I was emailing, giving him updates \u2013 \u2018airboat arrived\u2019, \u2018airboat is out on the lakebed\u2019 and everything else, so that if he needed any real time reporting, he could provide that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was obviously appreciated, as the Dryden team recently received a group achievement award from JSC for their work to get the inner PAPI lights on Runway 22R ready to support the mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until Saturday at about noon that I was able to give him the confirmation that the PAPI lights are up and operating and everything was good to go,\u201d added Grimshaw. \u201cAnd of course they came in on Sunday (morning) and were postponed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NASA and contractor workforce at the shuttle\u2019s backup landing site, the Dryden Flight Research Center, are completing preparations this week to support Monday morning\u2019s launch of STS-131. If the Californian option is required, Discovery will land on the temporary concrete runway 22\/04 \u2013 which became the topic of a managerial debate during STS-130 due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[9184],"class_list":["post-40826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-sts-131"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40826"}],"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=40826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}