**The most comprehensive collection of Shuttle, Ares, Orion and ISS related presentations and mission documentation, plus expansive daily processing documentation and updates are available to download on L2<\/em><\/font> **<\/em><\/font><\/font><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Special STS-118 L2 Section now live, filled with documentation, processing memos, mission notes, videos, handbooks, checklists, and our very special live updates of actual live NASA mission notes direct from mission control, allowing you to follow the mission at the same time as NASA, along with real NASA\/USA engineers helping update and explain status live. All totally unavailable anywhere else on the net.<\/font><\/p>\n <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n **LIVE: FLIGHT DAY SPECIFIC COVERAGE**<\/font><\/em> (Including links to all NASA Video \u2013 press conferences and mission milestones \u2013 for free).<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Article:<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n MMOD strikes are commonplace for orbiting spacecraft, although Endeavour is docked in a position that normally provides her with a large amount of protection, with the debris shields of the ISS facing in the direction of travel. <\/p>\n Debris in space is one of the biggest threat to an orbiter, second only to launch and re-entry. The largest recent impact was in Atlantis\u2019 cargo bay<\/font> during STS-115, when a small piece of another expended vehicle punched a hole through a radiator panel \u2013 although it was only spotted after landing safely. <\/p>\n This impact, spotted during the opening hours of Flight Day 9, was evaluated by controllers on the ground. Memos at the time of the impact being spotted pointed towards the possible use of the LCS (Laser Camera System) on the OBSS for a closer look. This appears to have been cancelled after the \u2018nick\u2019 was classed as minor.<\/p>\n \u2018Requesting if LCS can image the MMOD window strike, which was described by the crew as being approximately 1mm deep,\u2019 noted one memo. \u2018Forwarded request for info to the Neptec (of the OBSS) flight support team for input.\u2019<\/p>\n The LCS on the OBSS is the same system that took a close up 3D image of the tile damage on Endeavour\u2019s belly, damage that is still awaiting a decision on if to repair or not, likely to be made at Thursday evening\u2019s Mission Management Team (MMT). Managers are waiting on verification of thermal analysis and the final Arc Jet testing models to \u2018cure\u2019. No repair is currently favored. <\/p>\n The whole basis of whether to repair or not rotates around just how much processing Endeavour will have to undergo once she\u2019s back in her OPF (Orbiter Processing Facility). <\/p>\n A repair would be favored, for experience and a reduction of repair work in the STS-123 processing flow, but the risks associated with a first-of-its-kind EVA \u2013 and the potential hazard of making matters worse \u2013 continue to reduce the chances that an on orbit repair will be carried out. NASA insist the orbiter and the crew are in no danger, if they decide against a repair. <\/p>\n According to overnight evaluations, many risks are being traded with a repair EVA, including tool collision with Endeavour\u2019s TPS (Thermal Protection System), the repair changing the thermal dynamics of the repaired area, the lack of vacuum-certified use of the T-RAD (Tile Repair Ablator Dispenser) repair technique, along with the risks of having a spacewalker on the end of the OBSS (Orbiter Boom Sensor System) in the repair area of Endeavour\u2019s belly.<\/p>\n This is undergoing a huge level of risk analysis, with one example of the memos flying around the related NASA departments including questions such as: \u2018EVA Safety and Team 4 asking if collateral damage to orbiter TPS from inadvertent release of EVA tools is being tracked.\u2019 <\/p>\n Two more tests have been conducted at Arc Jet on gaining more data on how the damaged area will perform during re-entry. Wednesday evening saw astronaut Scott Parazynski simulating a repair on the tiles, along with a test on another mock-up \u2013 called the \u2018Case 2 thermal math model\u2019 \u2013 used to verify thermal analysis. <\/p>\n The results may talk the better part of Thursday, due to a 24 hour cure time for the test articles. <\/p>\n So far, all the test articles and thermal analysis has shown that the damaged area did not breach the baseline safety requirements for Endeavour\u2019s structure \u2013 which has been consistent with NASA\u2019s evaluations over the past few days. <\/p>\n To ensure the test articles proved Endeavour\u2019s ability to re-enter safely, the Arc Jet test articles were put through a \u2018more severe\u2019 re-entry simulation, partly because of the make-up of the facilities test equipment and partly to aid confidence in the results via added margins. <\/p>\n \u2018Differences between test article and flight: Test article is 1.0\u201d thick vs. 1.12\u201d thick. Test environment has thinner boundary layer and hence higher cavity heating factors. Flow (streamline) is ~10 deg off of flight. Structure thickness of test article is thinner than flight tbar (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153smeared\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thickness),\u2019 noted an expansive Thermal Analysis presentation.<\/p>\n \u2018Fully turbulent inflow at the turbulent condition is more severe than flight. The 2\u00e2\u20ac\u009d channel nozzle wall allows for possible shock reflections. Pressure in test is lower than flight. Heat rates for the damaged configuration were slightly lower than the baseline test. The heat load was lowered to account for the thinner tile on the test article by adjusting the duration of the heat pulse.<\/p>\n \u2018Aluminum temperature responses were benign. Baseline: average peak ~300 F. Damage: maximum peak ~340 F. Bondline temperatures. Baseline: maximum peak: 670 F. Damage: maximum peak: 857 F. Damage to tile down stream of damage region \u2013 likely initiated by high, very local heating on aft cavity lip.\u2019<\/p>\n The MMT meeting has been put back to 3pm Central, to allow extra time for the continued evaluations.<\/p>\n Refer to L2 for expansive presentations on the tile damage (new additions today) and for hi res MMOD impact images.<\/em><\/p>\n L2 members<\/font>: All documentation \u2013 from which the above article has quoted snippets \u2013 is available in full in the related L2 sections, updated live.<\/em><\/p>\n **STARLIGHT: NEW STS-117 MISSION REVIEW MUSIC VIDEO**<\/font><\/em><\/font> <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n **ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE: BRAND NEW STS-117 MISSION REVIEW MUSIC VIDEO \u2013 AS SEEN BY THE STS-117 CREW!!**<\/font> -. **NASASpaceflight.com Job Opportunities**<\/em><\/font><\/em> <\/font><\/em><\/p>\n <\/font><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA are still in the midst of evaluating the viability of carrying out a repair on the damaged tile area on Endeavour \u2013 with overnight testing of mock-ups of the damage and continued risk trade-offs of carrying out the repair EVA. A decision will be made later today. Meanwhile, Endeavour\u2019s crew have taken images of […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-41625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41625"}],"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=41625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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