The Damage Assessment Team (DAT) are working hundreds of images taken during the orbiter\u2019s RPM (Rbar Pitch Maneuver) on Flight Day 3 \u2013 with full clearance from a Focused Inspection (FI) now gained. Clearance for re-entry will take around another day. Also, images of the External Tank (ET-132) via the ET Umbilical Well camera show the tank lost hardly any foam during its ride with Discovery on Friday night.<\/p>\n
STS-128 Latest:<\/p>\n
Discovery and her crew are now into the first full day of docked operations, following Sunday\u2019s docking with the International Space Station (ISS), with Monday highlighted by the berthing of the Leonardo Multi-purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) on to the ISS\u2019 Harmony Node.<\/p>\n
![\"neptec\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/neptec.jpg\" "\\"neptec\\"")
\u201cFlight Day 1, 2 & 3 Activities (Complete): Day 1: PLBD\u2019s are opened and KU-band antenna is deployed, RMS activation, Umbilical Well and Handheld External Tank photo and TV downlink. Day 2: OBSS Thermal Protection System survey, EMU checkout, ODS Ring Extension, OMS Pod Survey and Rendezvous Tools Checkout,\u201d outlined a mission latest on L2.<\/p>\n
\u201cDay 3: Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver Photography of TPS by Expedition 20 Crew, Rendezvous and Docking to Harmony Module. Hatch opening and Welcoming, Stott and Kopra exchange Soyuz Seatliners and Stott joins Expedition 20 crew and Kopra joins STS-128 crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlight Day 4 Activities (Planned): Unberthing of Leonardo Multi-purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) from Orbiter cargo bay and installing on the Earth-facing port of the Harmony Node. Leonardo system activation and hatch opening. Spacewalk 1 (EVA-1) procedure review and campout in Quest airlock by Olivas and Stott.\u201d<\/p>\n
As has been the norm for recent missions, the orbiter is performing well, with only a handful of issues \u2013 all holding no mission impact \u2013 being worked by the Mission Evaluation Room (MER).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Space tourism guides (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cMER\u2019s: MER 01 (pre-launch): MPS LH2 Inboard Fill & Drain Valve Loss of Closed Indication On. MER 02: F5R Thruster Injector Temp Drop. MER 03: RMS (Remote Manipulator System) Unexpected Capture MSW During End Effector checkout.<\/p>\n \u201cFunnies: APU 3 (Auxiliary Power Unit) EGT 2 Erratic (Trending). All APU parameters are nominal on-orbit. All heaters are operating nominally on the \u2018A\u2019 circuits. A TMBU was uplinked at GMT 242\/00:03:57 to change the APU 3 Turbine Exhaust Gas Temperature No. 2 (MSID V46T0340A) PASS FDA limit from 1160 F to OSH (off scale high).<\/p>\n \u201cThis was done to avoid possible nuisance alarms on-orbit given the slightly erratic performance seen during ascent.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing the manifold closure, the F5R injector temperature measurements, after approximately 7 hours at off-scale low (OSL) values, were observed to rise to over 200 degrees. The difference between the fuel and oxidizer injector temperatures continues to indicate that the thruster heater is operating.<\/p>\n \u201cAnalysis continues on the injector temperature values which on ground displays were observed to be less than zero, negative injection temperatures were unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n Specific presentations (all available on L2) have been created on all the MER \u201cfunnies\u201d \u2013 a word used to describe an off-nominal element of the mission \u2013 and will be outlined in full via an upcoming article, including several evaluation presentations on DAP ALT (Digital Autopilot Atitude Control), based on Discovery\u2019s unavailable vernier thrusters.<\/p>\n Also noted was the condition of Pad 39A following Discovery\u2019s launch. Damage to the flame trenches \u2013 which is usual \u2013 appears to only be minor, which aids the pad\u2019s turnaround for November\u2019s STS-129 mission.<\/p>\n \u201cPad Report: No major damage or debris was found at pad A. The ICE team inspections noted mostly light damage in the flame trench to the east and west flame deflectors and to the north flame trench wall. The ICE team will release their full report soon.\u201d<\/p>\n TPS:<\/p>\n The DAT engineers found no items of concern with Discovery\u2019s TPS \u2013 which is likely to remain the case as they carry out a peer review to doublecheck the state of the orbiter\u2019s heatshield via the RPM photography.<\/p>\n The nine minute maneuver \u2013 which involves the orbiter being commanded through a 360 degree back-flip \u2013 was debuted on STS-114\u2019s Return To Flight mission, following months of planning by shuttle experts at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and has been hailed as one of the major steps forward in ensuring the health of an orbiter prior to clearance being given for re-entry.<\/p>\n The FD3 RPM images are an addition to the opening FD2 Inspections carried out mainly on the orbiter via the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS). Data from the opening inspections cleared Discovery for re-entry from a \u201clevel II\u201d standpoint, with all Reinforced Carbon Carbon (RCC) panels cleared by the start of Flight Day 4.<\/p>\n According to the latest DAT presentation, only 354 areas \u2013 or regions \u2013 of interest were found, which is one of the lowest on record.<\/p>\n \u201cAll ascent threats to the LESS have been cleared through FD2 imagery. LESS\/RCC team cleared all early inspection regions of interest Level 1 completed at 09:40 Sunday, Level 2 completed at 19:00 Sunday, and final PRT disposition was completed at 21:40 Sunday,\u201d noted the DAT presentation on L2.<\/p>\n \u201cNo ROI (Region Of Interest) exhibited any damage characteristics and the ROI totals were within expectations. From the early inspections (program) is GO for entry and has accepted these results to use as the late mission imagery baseline.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Damage Assessment Team (DAT) has reviewed all imagery associated with the Starboard MPLM \u2018keep out zone\u2019,\u201d added DAT. \u201cNo damage was noted and so there is no requirement for focused inspection in this area. The DAT will continue to review all other RPM imagery and populate the TIIMS database throughout the night.\u201d<\/p>\n Such has been the clean appearance of the majority of Discovery\u2019s TPS, managers were also able to entirely clear Discovery from a Focused Inspection by late on Monday night.<\/p>\n \u201cDamage Assessment Status: No Focused Inspection required on the starboard wing. TPS DAT is still assessing the remainder of the vehicle for FI requirements,\u201d added the Flight Day 4 Mission Management Team (MMT) presentation on L2.<\/p>\n \u201cFocused Inspection meeting planned for 10:00 PM (Central). All RCC has been cleared for entry.\u201d (Clearance came 7pm Central time).<\/p>\n Small areas of cosmetic damage can be seen on the RPM photography (dump of raw images in L2), such as around the port ET door \u2013 which again is not unusual from a historical standpoint.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the \u2018damage\u2019 avoids the downstream path of the tile with the protrusion, and thus should hold no detrimental effect on the data gathering from the DTO.<\/p>\n As to what caused the damage is still being worked on, with TPS liberations from the External Tank \u2013 the usual source of TPS damage on the orbiters \u2013 appearing to show hardly any signs of foam loss, per ET Umbilical Well photography (L2).<\/p>\n The only confirmed area of foam loss is a small divot under the ET\u2019s bipod.<\/p>\n No obvious signs of foam loss can be seen from the intertank, which was also investigated post-127 \u2013 leading to \u201cpull tests\u201d being conducted on the tank. The positive results that came back from the tests in the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) and out at the Pad have proven to be accurate reflection of ET-132\u2019s TPS health.<\/p>\n This also boosts the current theory that the intertank losses from ET-131 was a one-off contamination event, when dust managed to find its way on to the structure of ET-131 during its assembly process at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), which resulted in a reduction of the adhesive properties between the foam and the tank\u2019s structure.<\/p>\n L2 members<\/em><\/em>: Documentation \u2013 from which the above article has quoted snippets \u2013 is available in full in the related L2 sections, now over 4000 gbs in size.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Damage Assessment Team (DAT) are working hundreds of images taken during the orbiter\u2019s RPM (Rbar Pitch Maneuver) on Flight Day 3 \u2013 with full clearance from a Focused Inspection (FI) now gained. Clearance for re-entry will take around another day. Also, images of the External Tank (ET-132) via the ET Umbilical Well camera show the […]<\/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":[9209,9205,7935],"class_list":["post-41005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-rpm","tag-sts-128","tag-tps"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41005"}],"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=41005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"RP5\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/RP5.jpg\" "\\"RP5\\"")
\u201cF5R injector temperature measurement out of range (FRCS Manifold 5 is isolated). In order to isolate the Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS) Vernier thruster F5R leak observed on FD 1, the Manifold 5 isolation valves were closed on the morning of FD 2 at 241\/18:47:03 GMT (0\/14:47:26 Mission Elapsed Time [MET]).<\/p>\n![\"RP4\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/RP4.jpg\" "\\"RP4\\"")
The RPM \u2013 Rbar denoting along the radius vector of the ISS, downward \u2013 allowed the ISS crew to perform a high resolution photo survey of the lower surface TPS tiles to screen for ascent debris damage.<\/p>\n![\"RP6\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/RP6.jpg\" "\\"RP6\\"")
Moving on to the RPM imagery evaluations, the DAT had already cleared Discovery from the need for a Focused Inspection on an area known as the \u201ckeep out zone\u201d \u2013 on the Starboard area of the orbiter.<\/p>\n![\"RP3\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/RP3.jpg\" "\\"RP3\\"")
A couple of streaks can also be observed either side of the Boundary Layer Transition (BLT) Detailed Test Objective (DTO) \u2013 which Discovery is carrying out for a second time.<\/p>\n![\"RP2\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/RP2.jpg\" "\\"RP2\\"")
All the LH2 and LO2 Ice Frost Ramps (IFRs) appear to be in good condition, with no signs of missing foam, as observed during STS-127, leading to a large scale investigation into the health of both ET-132 and ET-133\u2019s ramps.<\/p>\n