{"id":41227,"date":"2008-12-25T01:46:22","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T17:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/review-notes-excellent-performance-of-sts-126s-reusable-solid-rocket-motors\/"},"modified":"2008-12-25T01:46:22","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T17:46:22","slug":"review-notes-excellent-performance-of-sts-126s-reusable-solid-rocket-motors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/review-notes-excellent-performance-of-sts-126s-reusable-solid-rocket-motors\/","title":{"rendered":"Review notes excellent performance of STS-126\u2019s Reusable Solid Rocket Motors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As NASA\u2019s triumphant 2008 year comes to a close \u2013 a year that saw four Space Shuttle construction flights to the International Space Station (ISS)&nbsp;\u2013 engineers around the United States are working hard to ensure a safe and successful 2009, starting with the launch of Discovery\u2019s STS-119 mission in February, via lessons learned from STS-126.<\/p>\n<p>\nAmong the items scrutinized after last month\u2019s STS-126 mission were the twin Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM), with all information pointing to an In-Flight Anomaly (IFA) free flight for this critical vehicle component.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll RSRM countdown parameters were within LCC\/OMRS limits and within family,\u201d notes the RSRM presentation, available for download on L2. \u201cPerformance of both RSRM motors and all ATK BSMs were within family and met all CEI limits.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"widget-title penci-border-arrow\">See Also<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Shuttle Fleet Updates<\/li>\n<li>L2 STS-126 Special (3,600mb)<\/li>\n<li>Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, four squawks have been identified, two on each RSRM, including Scratches in the Dovetail Groove of the 270\u201d OPT and Corrosion on Igniter Chamber of the Left Hand RSRM and Material in BSM CDFI\/Igniter Adaptor Port and Abnormal Wash Erosion on Nozzle Nose Cap on the Right Hand RSRM.<\/p>\n<p>The first LH RSRM squawk noted by the Program Requirements Control Board (PRCB) presentation relates to three scratches on the dovetail (secondary) O-ring groove of the 270-degree OPT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScratches were in a diagonal orientation extending from the outboard groove bottom radius but did not cross the entire O-ring footprint area,\u201d notes the presentation.<\/p>\n<p>The scratches were found by using a 5-mil brass shim; however, engineers were unable to characterize the depth of the scratches or determine if raised pieces of metal were present during initial disassembly and inspections at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n<p>The presentation goes on to say that the scratches were caused during the assembly of the LH RSRM and were no concern for flight.<\/p>\n<p>Aerospace industry analysis<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>NASA mission updates<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>Spaceflight news subscription<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>\n<p>     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n<p>The second LH RSRM squawk is corrosion on the igniter chamber. The corrosion was found on 20 of the 36 igniter chamber bolt holes and spot corrosion was found on the chamber face.<\/p>\n<p>The RSRM presentation states that a \u201creview of process suggests that solvent used during cleaning in assembly may have been left behind when joint was mated leading to the corrosion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Previous tests by engineers reveal that \u201cwet holes don\u2019t affect bolt torque.\u201d As a result, there is no expected, or observed, effect on RSRM performance.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8342\" style=\"black 5px solid;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/a219-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/a219-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/a219.jpg 311w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">For the other RSRM, the first squawk noted by the PRCB for the RH SRB is material in the BSM CDFI\/Igniter adapter port.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForeign material was found in capture feature of the 0\u201d CDFI\/Igniter port of a RH forward BSM,\u201d notes the PRCB presentation.<\/p>\n<p>Analysis of the material shows that it consists mainly of magnesium, copper and oxygen with small amounts of carbon, aluminum, silicon, chlorine, and potassium.<\/p>\n<p>A similar substance has been observed previously on static test RSRM in Utah.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese constituents correlate with the slag\/combustion by-product of the CDFI,\u201d notes the presentation.<\/p>\n<p>According to the PRCB, the condition is inherent to the design of the igniter adapter capture feature. Furthermore, the presentation notes that this material build-up is expected on future flights.<\/p>\n<p>The final squawk, and the only one that may be elevated to an IFA after further analysis, is abnormal wash erosion on the nozzle nose cap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbnormal wash erosion was observed on the OD surface of the RH Nose Cap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This type of erosion has been seen on previous flights and static tests. A further investigation of this issue will be conducted in Utah during the nozzle disassembly process which will begin after the start of the new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As NASA\u2019s triumphant 2008 year comes to a close \u2013 a year that saw four Space Shuttle construction flights to the International Space Station (ISS)&nbsp;\u2013 engineers around the United States are working hard to ensure a safe and successful 2009, starting with the launch of Discovery\u2019s STS-119 mission in February, via lessons learned from STS-126. [&hellip;]<\/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":[8925,7806,9219],"class_list":["post-41227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ifa","tag-srb","tag-sts-126"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41227"}],"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=41227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}