With Flight Day 14 marking the STS-126 crew\u2019s final day onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the performance of Endeavour during her docked mission has been almost issue-free mission, which has allowed the Mission Management Team (MMT) to focus their attentions on other elements of the mission.<\/p>\n
Endeavour is being put through the final requirements ahead of undocking, receiving the \u201cLeonardo\u201d Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) back into her payload bay, which followed a water dump and a Fuel Cell purge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Orbiter took control of the mated stack at 330\/16:11:02 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) [10\/15:15:23 Mission Elapsed Time (MET)] and the 17 degree maneuver to water dump attitude began at 330\/16:11:31 GMT (10\/15:15:52 MET),\u201d noted MMT status on L2.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 17 degree maneuver back to the Torque Equilibrium Attitude (TEA) began at 330\/17:04:30 GMT (10\/16:08:51 MET) and the ISS assumed control of the mated stack at 330\/18:16:00 GMT (10\/17:20:21 MET). The Orbiter was in attitude control for approximately 2 hours, 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe third on-orbit fuel cell purge began at 330\/02:06 GMT (10\/01:10 MET). During the 120-hour purge interval the approximate voltage decay was 0.13 Vdc for fuel cell 1, 0.12 Vdc for fuel cell 2, and 0.12 Vdc for fuel cell 3.\u201d<\/p>\n
Endeavour was also involved in a DTO (Detailed Test Objective) on orbit, relating to a heater modification on the Main Landing Gear (MLG). The results have proven to be positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cResults from the MLG tire thermal conditioning test using the MLG brake line heaters B and C were presented to the Mission Management team,\u201d noted the MMT status. \u201cBased upon existing data, the conclusion is that tire temperature response to the operation of the heaters is significant enough to recommend use on upcoming flights when needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
A total of 18 MER (Mission Evaluation Room) problems have been listed for this mission \u2013 which is extremely low \u2013 all of which will be listed in a post flight review article.<\/p>\n
NASA mission patches (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n On Station, one of the critical elements of hardware that was delivered by Endeavour \u2013 the Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) \u2013 appears to be working as advertised, following on orbit modifications.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously shutdown due to centrifuge speed and high motor current. Installed 2 additional hard-mount fasteners on FD11, checkout post-IFM delayed due to MTL hose not fully seated,\u201d noted an MMT presentation. <\/p>\n \u201cFirst run: UPA successfully operated for 5 hrs w\/nominal shutdown. 3.5 hours into the run, crew reported \u201cwashing machine\u2019\u201d sound with current increase and motor speed decrease. Event cleared after 30 sec<\/p>\n \u201cSecond run: Successfully operated for 4 hr 15 min w\/supply tank depletion. Third run: Start-up delayed by a reoccurrence of previously noted check valve failure indication \u2013 suspect sticky valve, subsequent start-up nominal.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, the assembly did not require returning to the MPLM for troubleshooting back on Earth, although managers held open the option to take return it via placement in the middeck, so as not to delay Wednesday\u2019s re-berthing of the MPLM.<\/p>\n \u201cThe MMT reviewed the MPLM return option for the UPA and the ISSP reported that they did not require this option to be worked further based on the current status of the UPA,\u201d noted the first MMT status.<\/p>\n \u201cThe MMT agreed to continue to review and support development of the option to return the UPA distillate assembly via the Shuttle A\/L (Airlock) or middeck with the decision on that option to be at the next MMT.<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, based on current status this is considered unlikely to be implemented and there are technical challenges on stowage orientation that are still being worked for this contingency.\u201d<\/p>\n However, later on Wednesday, confidence in the system allowed for the final decision \u2013 to leave the assembly on the ISS \u2013 to be taken. \u201cThe ISS Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) is functioning adequately, and will remain on the ISS. The Middeck\/Airlock stowage analysis effort was discontinued.\u201d<\/p>\n STS-126\u2019s crew carried out four EVAs during the docked phase of the mission, highlighted by work conducted on the Station\u2019s Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJs) \u2013 which has proved to be successful, according to initial results (follow up will be provided for the undocking article).<\/p>\n The only issue that the MMT have looked into via the EVAs related to increased levels of CO2 \u2013 still well within safety limits \u2013 inside spacewalker Shane Kimbrough\u2019s EMU suit, which will become part of the mission\u2019s post flight IFA (In Flight Anomaly) review.<\/p>\n \u201cOne action was assigned for post-flight to review how EVA training and met(abolic) rate expectations can be more formally understood for the on console team\u2019s management of the EVAs and resource determination (LiOH vs METOX, etc).<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral points during the EVA had the crew take a break and levels reduced. Managed METOX usage to have crew back in airlock by 6 hrs PET. Officially called for \u2018Terminate EVA\u2019 due to a CO2 peak during ingress (resulted in no formal change to ops). Will work this action and report back to a joint program forum.\u201d<\/p>\n The MMT also continued to evaluate the Micrometeoroid Orbital Debris (MMOD) strike to Endeavour\u2019s window 6, which continues to be classed as safe to re-enter with. The discussions on Wednesday related to potential fragment paths, should the thermal pane crack during high pressure loading of the latter stages of re-entry (presentations on L2).<\/p>\n As the docked stage of the mission coming to a close, the STS-126 crew and the ISS crew will share a Thanksgiving meal prior closing the hatches between the two vehicles on Thursday, ahead of Friday\u2019s undocking \u2013 which places Endeavour on track for a Sunday landing.<\/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":" With Flight Day 14 marking the STS-126 crew\u2019s final day onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the performance of Endeavour during her docked mission has been almost issue-free mission, which has allowed the Mission Management Team (MMT) to focus their attentions on other elements of the mission. Endeavour is being put through the final requirements […]<\/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":[567,9197,9219],"class_list":["post-41251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-eva","tag-mmt","tag-sts-126"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41251"}],"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=41251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}See Also<\/h4>\n
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