**The most comprehensive collection of STS-117 onwards related presentions and mission documentation, plus expansive daily processing documentation and updates are <\/em>available to download on L2<\/em><\/font> **<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n L2 Members can follow live evaluations with memos and presentations as they are produced via our special STS-117 Special Section. Live as-it-happens NASA information.<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n STS-117: LIVE LAUNCH DAY AND FLIGHT DAY 1<\/font><\/em> \u2013 FLIGHT DAY 2 \u2013 LIVE<\/font> \u2013 <\/em>FLIGHT DAY 3 \u2013 LIVE<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n Flight Day 3 preview According to the ISS On Orbit Status report \u2013 published daily on L2 \u2013 Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin has been preparing the ISS crew for the RPM, which included making sure their cameras won\u2019t run out of battery charge at the critical time.<\/font><\/p>\n Spaceflight news subscription (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n The Russian commander worked on recharging a total of 10 batteries for the DCS digital still cameras ahead of the RPM.<\/p>\n \u2018Of the 10, eight will be used for the Orbiter RPM photo shoot on Sunday and two are for the first 13A spacewalk, EVA-1, on Monday (6\/11, starting at ~2:53pm EDT).<\/p>\n \u2018Also in preparation for the upcoming high-pressure P\/TV (Photo\/Video) activity during the RPM, FE-1 Oleg Kotov worked throughout the day on formatting the necessary P\/TV storage devices. Formatted, in the Kodak DCS 760 camera on station power, were five 1GB EVA Flash Cards plus three PCMCIA 1GB Microdrives, each one taking ~20 minutes. <\/p>\n \u2018Afterwards, the reformatted cards and microdrives were transferred to the SM (Service Module) for the DCS 760 camera configuration to get ready for the RPM documentation.\u2019<\/p>\n The RPM has been a huge success since being implemented, aiding the spotting of protruding gap fillers on the orbiter\u2019s belly, along with finding any damage to stitching on the orbiters thermal blankets.<\/p>\n The bulk of inspections to the orbiter\u2019s Wing Leading Edge (WLE) and nosecap areas were carried out during Saturday\u2019s use of the OBSS (Orbiter Boom Sensor System) suite of sensors, which was swept along the critical areas of the orbiter on the end of her robotic arm.<\/p>\n So far, only one issue has been spotted on Atlantis TPS (Thermal Protection System) \u2013 a four inch area of protruding blanket on the port OMS Pod<\/font>. <\/p>\n While no documented reason for the cause of the damage has yet been mentioned, bar the working theory from NASA\u2019s SE&I that it may of been a debris hit, it was confirmed \u2013 and noted in the previous article on this site \u2013 that there wasn\u2019t an impact from one of the 14 Tyvek covers on the orbiter during the early stages of the ride uphill. <\/font><\/p>\n In fact, documentation created on Saturday state that even if one had of hit, the speeds and impact energy would not have been sufficient to cause the observed damage. <\/p>\n \u2018Ground imagery indicates thruster F3F\u2019s Tyvek rain cover released at 11.2 sec MET (Mission Elapsed Time). Approximate vehicle velocity would be 115 knots or 132 mph,\u2019 summarized the presentation. \u2018TPS Impact testing shows no issue at 240 mph.\u2019 <\/font><\/p>\n At present, engineers are checking data on the entry temps that the small area of exposed graphite epoxy structure will be subjected to, before any decision is made on whether it will require an EVA to repair. <\/p>\n Documents acquired by this site\u2019s L2 section show that Atlantis\u2019 crew have the capability to repair the area if needed, including T-Rad, which was developed for on orbit repair capabilities<\/font>. <\/font><\/p>\n However, given the more extensive damage that was observed on the OMS Pods TPS in the early flights of the shuttle \u2013 without any problems from the subsequent re-entry \u2013 managers could well decide on leaving the blanket as-is. A decision will be made in the next few days. <\/font><\/p>\n Very few issues have been noted with Atlantis in total, with notes relating to several very small hits being registered on Atlantis\u2019 Wing Leading Edge Impact Detection System (WLEIDS) sensor suite causing no concern, along with a Hatch Resistance Check fail and Supply water dump line temperature trend,<\/font> which are only being classed as a \u2018funnies\u2019 \u2013 engineering lanuage for minor issues \u2013 by NASA\u2019s MER (Mission Evaluation Room).<\/font><\/p>\n In all, Atlantis is enjoying a relatively trouble free flight around the planet, ahead of Sunday\u2019s RPM and docking to the Station, which will kick start the major element of the mission \u2013 the installation of the S3\/S4 truss segments and solar arrays to the orbital outpost, which will include three spacewalks.<\/p>\n Docking was noted at 3:36pm EDT.<\/p>\n Follow Atlantis\u2019 mission with live updates on our Flight Day specific interactive live event pages<\/font> \u2013 open to all. <\/em><\/p>\n For L2 members, follow NASA\u2019s evaluations on the L2 Flight Day specific pages (which contain same day documentation and presentations \u2013 15 presentations alone on Flight Day 2).<\/p>\n **INFINITY: 10 minute STS MUSIC VIDEO**<\/font><\/em><\/font> \u2013 COMING SOON: Atlantis\/Starlight. **NASASpaceflight.com Job Opportunities**<\/em><\/font> <\/font><\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shuttle Atlantis has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS), midway through Flight Day 3 of STS-117. Prior to docking, Atlantis carried out the always-stunning RPM (Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver), allowing Expedition 15 crew members to take high resolution imagery of the orbiter\u2019s belly. Those images are now being downloaded to the large imagery team […]<\/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-41696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41696"}],"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=41696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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The RPM is a post-Columbia addition to shuttle flights, which sees the crew initiate a back flip of the orbiter underneath the ISS, allowing for photography to be taken of an orbiter\u2019s belly and TPS. This is then uploaded by imagery staff back on Earth for detailed inspections.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/font>**Ride home through the fire and plasma of re-entry with Atlantis on STS-115 \u2013 And now also with Discovery on STS-116 \u2013 TWO Stunning high quality 2hr, 355mb videos \u2013 from deorbit burn to post landing**<\/font><\/p>\n
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<\/em><\/font>(Video section is FREE, but you need to sign up as a member of the forum to enter the video section of the site. We only use your e-mail to send you your password. It will not be used for spam etc.)<\/em><\/font><\/em><\/p>\n