**Over 2300mb of STS-116 onwards related presentions and mission documentation <\/em>available on L2<\/em> ** Full Late Inspection and Orbiter review presentations and the full live events of re-entry, as NASA managers and controllers saw them, also on L2, plus over 800 meg of super HQ re-entry and landing video.<\/p>\n **LIVE news updates on Atlantis STS-117 Processsing Flow**<\/em><\/p>\n **LIVE news updates on Endeavour STS-118 (LON-318) Processing**<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n **LIVE news updates on Discovery STS-122 (LON-322) Processing**<\/em><\/p>\n The timescale in bringing back Discovery to her home base in Florida was the over-riding concern, had she of landed at White Sands. However, the freezing weather at the New Mexico facility was also the center of NASA evaluations on the best way to protect Discovery\u2019s systems. <\/font><\/p>\n That was the basis of a NASA presentation titled \u2018Impacts of Cold Weather upon Landing at WSSH,\u2019 which evaluated the potential of damage to Discovery\u2019s water and hydrazine lines from the overnight freezing conditions at White Sands. <\/font><\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n \u2018Approach: <\/font>Model results from payloads model for lower equipment bay shows internal environment lags external environment (effect biased high due to radiator flow simulation for fuel cell operating question),\u2019 listed the presentation\u2019s overall findings. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018Forecast shows favorable conditions (38 to 43 degrees F). Expect internal aft and mid compartments to be no colder than 5 degrees F warmer than lowest external air temperature, including \u2018high\u2019 external convection<\/font><\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n \u2018Results: <\/font>Using forecast -5 degrees F indicates no issue for water and hydrazine lines. Subsystem heater models with no power show very little time to limit even if environment falls slightly below limit (0.5 to 1.0 hr) with a few hrs from onset of freezing to a solid plug. Friday Landing: At landing + 6hrs, local weather predicted to be 38 degrees F: no issue for water and hydrazine lines<\/font><\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n \u2018Conclusion: <\/font>Risk of reaching freezing points for hydrazine or water is low unless forecast worsens.\u2019<\/p>\n The allowance of getting all the required support in place before the temperatures dipped below allowable limits mitigated the fear of damage. With support equipment including heaters and power supply units, Discovery would have been able to enjoy her stay in New Mexico until she was able to head back to Florida.<\/font><\/p>\n NASA mission updates (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Still, White Sands was the subject of a number of concerned NASA memos in the lead up to Discovery\u2019s return, one of which noted they were \u2018praying\u2019 KSC would become favorable, but NASA administrator Mike Griffin played down the difficulties of opting to use the third choice landing site.<\/font><\/p>\n \u2018With regards to White Sands, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re in a position where landing there would be detrimental to the program,\u2019 said Griffin. \u2018We flew some equipment out on a C-17 and we were prepared to look after Discovery if she had landed there, just as we have done at Edwards many times.\u2019<\/font><\/p>\n The difference between Edwards \u2013 second choice behind KSC \u2013 and White Sands is the facility itself, which has only been used once before, on STS-3, and doesn\u2019t have a hanger to house an orbiter during post-landing processing.<\/font><\/p>\n A large tent-like cover would have been placed over Discovery, with a wait of up to 60 days before a series of cranes could have lifted the orbiter on to the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) for transport back to KSC. Only Edwards has the giant crane that can lift the orbiter on to the back of the converted 747.<\/p>\n Griffin noted that upgrading White Sands to mitigate such issues would add an unnecessary strain on a Shuttle budget that is going to start phasing out in 2010, when the Shuttle fleet are retired.<\/p>\n \u2018Budgets are very tight,\u2019 added Griffin, \u2018but as long as we can get by without building a more permanent installation at White Sands or any of our 200 contingency runways around the world, I think we\u2019ll stay the course with where we are.\u2019<\/font><\/p>\n In the end, KSC was the final destination for Discovery at the end of STS-116, and she is now safed inside her OPF (Orbiter Processing Facility) for preparations ahead of her next mission, STS-122.<\/font> **INFINITY: 10 minute STS MUSIC VIDEO**<\/font><\/em> \u2013 **NASASpaceflight.com Job Opportunities**<\/em><\/font> <\/p>\n <\/font><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Had shuttle orbiter Discovery landed at the White Sands Space Harbor, the vehicle would not have suffered damage to her water and hydrazine lines from the cold weather, according to new documentation. Thankfully, Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center last week, ending all concerns \u2013 most of which related to the turnaround of the […]<\/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-41840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41840"}],"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=41840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/em>
**Re-live Discovery STS-116 \u2013 FOR EACH FLIGHT DAY**<\/font><\/em> \u2013 100,000s of visitors over the mission. T|he largest collection of STS-116 mission updates anywhere on the net.<\/font>
<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n
<\/em>(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><\/font><\/p>\n