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\u201cThey are going to talk about it this week, especially if they see any outbreaks in the Houston area. They will talk to MOD (Mission Operations Directive) about any impacts to training. If (quarantine) happens, it will probably be this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a SSP (Space Shuttle Program) standpoint, no restrictions have been placed on the travel plans for managers and engineers, a large number of whom have travelled to Florida for Thursday\u2019s STS-125 Agency FRR (Flight Readiness Review) at the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegarding the flu, and the concerns that have been in the news, we do have a lot of folks planning to travel this week and there are things going on around the Program,\u201d added Mission Management Team (MMT) chair Leroy Cain on the Stand-up report.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs a Program, we do have plans in place for these kinds of eventualities, so if you have concerns about travelling please let us know. We don\u2019t see any reason at this point why we should keep folks back from travelling, but if you feel otherwise or if you think there is something going on that we should be aware of please don\u2019t hesitate to let us know.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to pay very close attention to it and listen to the health officials, and make sure that we are all being smart about what we do. But right now, it looks like we are okay to travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
STS-125 Processing Latest:\n<\/p>\n
![\"a413\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/a413.jpg\" "\\"a413\\"")
Processing remains on track \u2013 pending the resolution of two issues (noted below) \u2013 with the highlight of the pad flow on Tuesday being the installation of the three Flow Control Valves (FCVs) on Atlantis.<\/p>\nThe valves were installed into their housing during Tuesday, with mass spec leak checks already passed. Engineers are now working the electrical retest procedure.<\/p>\n
Click here for NASASpaceflight.com articles on the FCV issue since STS-126.<\/p>\n
\u201cHST SM-4 Interface Verification Test (S07125) is scheduled to complete Thursday,\u201d added processing information on L2, outlining other work being conducted on the pad flow. \u201cS1287 Orbiter Aft Closeouts continue throughout the week and conclude with the Aft Confidence test, planned for Monday, May 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EMUs (EVA Mobility Units) were installed; testing begins Tuesday. GO2 check valve R&R (GO2 battery) in work after leak in check valve was noted. LO2 tank replenishment with two waves of tankers was completed Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinal Ordnance installation (S5009) begins Thursday evening. Launch Countdown preparations (S0007.100) will begin Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radiator Repair Latest:<\/p>\n
Following the incident involving an impact on Atlantis\u2019 left radiator panel from a torque wrench socket \u2013 which caused two dents in the face sheet in the 0.011\u201d thick aluminium face sheet and subsequent observation of a crack \u2013 engineers have been working on a repair plan.<\/p>\n
![\"a224\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/a224.jpg\" "\\"a224\\"")
While that plan is now set, it appears there are two cracks on the radiator, both of which will undergo the same repair procedure.<\/p>\n\u201cAfter a discussion with the engineering community, approved a plan to perform the standard repair at the pad which is complete removal of the damaged area, install a plug and doubler,\u201d according to engineering notes on L2. \u201cThe Hubble M&P engineer and the Vehicle manager were both consulted and approved the plan.<\/p>\n
The plan is to remove the face sheet, followed by work on the honeycomb core \u2013 which will be straightened. If this is not possible the core will be removed and a honeycomb plug will be bonded in place.<\/p>\n
The surface will then be prepared for the bonding of a double face sheet. This will require six hours of elevated temperatures via heated blankets over the area to cure the repair. The entire procedure will be carefully controlled to avoid contamination of the critical Hubble payload components.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo plugs will be made one 1 3\/8\u201d in diameter and the other 1\u201d in diameter. The doubler will go over both plugs. The paper should be written and approved by Wednesday and the work should start by Thursday,\u201d continued engineering notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the Hubble payload, a catch bag and vacuum will be used to clean as the work is done and cleanliness will be a special concern. The repair should be done by payload bay closure on May 8th.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second crack was observed via additional photography \u2013 acquired by L2 \u2013 that was taken at the pad this week. Both cracks are less than an inch in length.<\/p>\n
Despite the second crack being found, the plan remains intact to support the May 8 target for Payload Bay Door closure, which in turn will not impact the launch date target of May 11.<\/p>\n
FRCS Stud Investigation:<\/p>\n
![\"a318\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/a318.jpg\" "\\"a318\\"")
Also noted by OPO engineers last week \u2013 and reported by this site \u2013 a concern was raised on the incorrect installation of studs \u2013 one of which was broken \u2013 relating to the FRCS F5R thruster, found during post STS-119 processing.<\/p>\n\u201cOn OV-103 (Discovery), during R&R of the F5 hard on the HMF (Hypergolic Maintenance Facility), one of the studs used to hold the jet in place was broken and the net was missing,\u201d noted OPO (L2). \u201cThe team is now searching to determine what happened to the stud\/net. Root Cause Analysis is underway to understand this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
That investigation has resulted in a call to check the identical hardware on both Atlantis and Endeavour, which will involve two panels being removed from each orbiter, prior to a borescope inspection of the thruster studs for any problems.<\/p>\n
It is unlikely engineers will find any issues on Atlantis and Endeavour, and given Discovery probably flew a couple of missions with the incorrect configuration of the stud \u2013 without a problem during flight \u2013 it would take a serious problem with the hardware to result in work being called on replacing the studs.<\/p>\n
Should managers decide to take that option of replacing the studs, both Atlantis and Endeavour would have to be rolled back for destacking, prior to the completion of remedial work in their respective Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPFs). This, as stated, is unlikely.<\/p>\n
Borescope inspections on Atlantis will begin on Thursday.<\/p>\n
UPDATE: Inspections on Atlantis have found no issues with the studs \u2013 and thus is cleared for flight.<\/p>\n
With the Agency FRR meeting on Thursday, the official setting of the launch date will be undertaken. At present no constraints to confirming the realigned May 11 launch date have been noted.<\/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":"
As engineers create their repair plan for what is now observed to be two cracks in Atlantis\u2019 left radiator panel, borescope inspections have been called (see update in article) on both Atlantis and Endeavour, after a broken stud was found on Discovery\u2019s Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS) F5R thruster. Meanwhile shuttle managers have created a contingency […]<\/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":[9191,9224,8290],"class_list":["post-41117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-fcv","tag-frcs","tag-sts-125"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41117"}],"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=41117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}