- \n
- STS-127 LIVE UPDATES<\/li>\n
- L2 STS-127 Special Section<\/li>\n
- L2 STS-400 Special Section<\/li>\n
- Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
With four other tanks undergoing major production at the Lockheed Martin run facility, MAF find themselves in a much more comfortable position \u2013 compared to previous years since Return To Flight \u2013 despite the heavy schedule of downstream flights in 2009 and 2010.<\/p>\n
However, ET program manager Mark Bryant noted his insistence that the engineering workforce should continue to ensure the tanks leaving the facility are of the best possible quality, regardless of the high flow of tanks required to complete the current shuttle manifest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an ambitious schedule that will require continued high levels of performance from the team,\u201d said Bryant, \u201cperformance that we are demonstrating every day in producing safe, high quality tanks.\u201d<\/p>\n
SpaceX launch tickets
<\/path>Spaceflight history books <\/path>Space Shuttle <\/path>\n (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n
All four tanks used in the 2008 shuttle missions lacked any major foam losses, with STS-126\u2019s year-closing flight with Endeavour enjoying a ride uphill with what is widely regarded as the cleanest tank to have ever flown during the eight and a half minute ascent into orbit.<\/p>\n
The performance of the tank, ET-129, earned thanks for the MAF workforce from Endeavour\u2019s crew, during their post flight visit to New Orleans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to space because of the hard work of each of you. It\u2019s a team effort,\u201d said STS-126 mission specialist Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper. \u201cI was just the lucky one to take the ride up.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery job here at Michoud contributes to the success of a mission, not just the folks physically working on the tanks. From the person who prepares meals through the purchasing department, I thank you for your work and contributions to mission success.\u201d<\/p>\n
ET-129 proved to be a major effort ahead of its trip to Florida, with the tank eventually shipped ahead of its previous planned schedule in support of the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) options to accelerate STS-125, to be used for adding earlier launch opportunities for STS-126\u2019s short launch window in November.<\/p>\n
Due to the on orbit issues with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), STS-126 jumped a launch slot. However, the initial push to ship ET-129 to KSC in a timely fashion involved a three shift, round-the-clock, drive at MAF \u2013 which was also recognized by their NASA paymasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking out across the crowd, there are a lot of folks here who put in a lot of dedicated hours and a lot of hard work to get ET-129 together and prepared for its launch,\u201d said Chip Jones, NASA Michoud chief operating officer during a general assembly at the plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of NASA, I would like to personally thank you for your dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the successful turnaround into a smooth schedule for the upcoming tanks, challenges remain, not least via a potential extension of the shuttle manifest, and the requirement to create space for new tooling that will be used to build the Ares vehicles for the Constellation program.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/a222.jpg\")
ET-138 was set to be the last shuttle tank to be produced by MAF. However, with STS-134 close to being officially added to the manifest, managers have been working a plan to refurbish ET-122 \u2013 which was damaged during Hurricane Katrina, when it was hit by falling roof panels in the facility\u2019s Cell A.<\/p>\nNASA has authorized Michoud Operations to perform a limited scope of work on ET-122 through April, with engineers inspecting the tank for damage to its pressure vessels and metal substrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransportation and Handling moved the tank to Bldg 420 just before Christmas, and technicians will perform shearography to inspect for possible concrete chips in foam,\u201d noted MAF information.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnicians will also remove and replace Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen umbilicals; perform borescope inspections; strip foam from damaged areas of the Intertank; and clean its internal surfaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, the plan is to make this tank available for LON requirements associated with STS-134\u2019s mission to carry the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station (ISS) \u2013 pending funding.<\/p>\n
Also, in pre-emption of a possible extension being approved this summer, MAF have completed initial work on two additional tanks, ET-140 and ET-141, alongside a tooling plan that would allow utilization of new Ares machinery on additional shuttle tanks, as and when required.<\/p>\n
The next tank due out of MAF is ET-132, which will fly with Discovery on STS-128\u2019s logistics mission to the ISS. The tank is currently in final assembly, with \u201ceverything is proceeding nominally.\u201d<\/p>\n
L2 members<\/em><\/em>: All 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":"
External Tank (ET-131) is being safely housed in the Vehicle Assembly Building (High Bay 2E), following its arrival from New Orleans this weekend. Manufactured by the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), the team earned praise from managers and astronauts alike, following their successful fight back from schedule issues, and the phenomenal performance of ET-129. ET-131 […]<\/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":[9181,9212,7866,9038,3366,8291],"class_list":["post-41182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-et-122","tag-et-131","tag-maf","tag-sts-127","tag-sts-134","tag-sts-400"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41182"}],"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=41182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}