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At the Johnson Space Center (JSC), managers met again to finalize their forward plan of approving flight rationale, in time to support a March launch possibility. They concluded by setting a Special PRCB on March 4, to be followed by a Delta FRR two days later.<\/p>\n
Space Technology
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This plan aligns with a new NET (No Earlier Than) launch date of March 12, which will allow Discovery a couple of launch attempts prior to the Soyuz Cut Out, which is due \u2013 pending potential negotiations with the Russians \u2013 around that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cKey meetings next week include a SICB on 3\/2, PRCB on 3\/4, FRR on 3\/6 with a target launch of 3\/12,\u201d noted an e-mail sent out to shuttle managers on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan is to fly the 4\/4\/5 FCVs since they have fewer flights than those currently on the vehicle (better if fatigue is contributor) and they\u2019ve flown in these locations (flown before and didn\u2019t break so addresses the acoustic\/structural mode coupling theory).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/a229.jpg\")
\u201cThese will not be inspected with the higher fidelity inspections (i.e. they won\u2019t be polished and reinspected) due to concerns with flow balancing.\u201d<\/p>\nThe 4\/4\/5 (amount of flights) FCVs have all previously flown with Discovery, during STS-114, 121, 116 and 120, with the \u201c5\u201d valve also flying on STS-124.<\/p>\n
Ironically, that means the \u201c5\u201d valve was only recently removed from Discovery shortly after she arrived at the pad, ahead of replacement. This valve will now be reinstalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo of the valve\u2019s coming off Discovery will be inspected with the higher fidelity inspection on their poppets, the third will likely be held back as a spare. They are pursuing a potential mod to beef up at least the first elbow.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, making a March launch is still at the mercy of flight rationale, which is awaiting full results of impact testing on the key areas of the MPS downstream of the FCVs. However, this is expected to be completed in time for the Special PRCB or at least the FRR.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticle impact testing, Dyna analysis, and Monte Carlo factoring in variability in the particle velocity, particle size, and particle orientation be completed in time to review next week \u2013 this is the key piece of the flight rationale,\u201d added the memo.<\/p>\n
Should the testing find areas of concern, or if members of the FRR remain uncomfortable with the findings, STS-119 will be delayed until at least April.<\/p>\n
Back at KSC, Discovery is continuing to be prepared for a potential launch in March, pending FRR approval, holding at a pad flow that requires five days to process towards a launch date..<\/p>\n
\u201cGH2 blank off plates will be installed today in preparation for leak checks and dew point and conditioning,\u201d added Tuesday processing information.<\/p>\n
\u201cS0071 MPS\/SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engines) and OMS\/RCS ( Orbital Maneuvering System\/Reaction Control System) pressurization for flight and launch countdown will follow the flow control valve work. Current plan supports launch before the Soyuz cutout.\u201d<\/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 latest target for STS-119 is a short launch window, opening March 12, following a meeting between shuttle managers that confirmed the forward plan of replacing Discovery\u2019s three Flow Control Valves (FCVs). A Program Requirements Control Board (PRCB) meeting, followed by a Flight Readiness Review (FRR), will take place early in March to confirm 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":[9191,9123],"class_list":["post-41178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-fcv","tag-sts-119"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41178"}],"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=41178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}