*STS-116 Live Update pages*<\/em><\/p>\n STS-116\u2019s mission, currently NET (No Earlier Than) December 14, will see Discovery making her second mission of the year, carrying the P5 truss element, Spacehab-SM and ICC to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n Information supplied by sources note that STS-116\u2019s December window is currently classed as \u2018RED\u2019 due to processing flows and the uncertainly that ET-124 will arrive in time to support STS-317\u2019s NET 9th of February launch date requirement. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018STS-116 is red for December due to PF and LON ET processing challenges,\u2019 official notes claim. \u2018The program is working to resolve these issues and keep this launch in December.\u2019<\/p>\n Moves are also being made to extend the short launch window for STS-116, including the removal of the night time launch constraint <\/font><\/p>\n While processing issues are unknown, ET-124 is known to be in a tight flow, with all hands at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) currently tending to the final processing of ET-123 \u2013 which will fly with Discovery herself on STS-116.<\/p>\n Solutions may come from MAF themselves, who are looking to improve the turnaround of their ETs, ahead of a busy final run of flights prior to the 2010 retirement of the Shuttle fleet. <\/font><\/p>\n The solutions are being \u2018sponsored\u2019 by Lockheed Martin\u2019s ET Project Vice President Wanda Sigur, which include initiatives such as the LM21 Critical Path Hardware Transformation Process Review. <\/font><\/p>\n Two teams of six people, from areas of production called \u2018Greenbelt\u2019 and \u2018Blackbelt\u2019, have been looking at shaving off processing flows for the tanks by studying the day-to-day processes on the tanks, as they head through the New Orleans facility.<\/font><\/p>\n Rocket building kits (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Teams also are reviewing processes in Final Assembly. Two are looking at TPS, and electrical and mechanical processes. The other two are evaluating quality inspection processes. A team also is observing mock-up panel refurbishment.<\/font><\/p>\n The results of the team\u2019s findings were due to be presented to Industrial Engineering manager Brian Magendie and Lean\/Six Sigma lead Tim Livingston a few days ago. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018Number one, we\u2019re all change agents; and number two, we selected employees from across several directorates, so we have a diverse group of experienced and knowledgeable teammates,\u2019 said Livingston to Lockheed Martin\u2019s MAF \u2018Mission Success\u2019 bulletin.<\/p>\n The data being analysed by what is described as the Structured Improvement Activity (SIA) LM21 tool, which will evaluate and identify \u2018inhibitors to hardware transformation.\u2019<\/font><\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re assuming that we\u2019ve got common inhibitors across all elements, and that they stand out once we gather all the data together,\u2019 explained Magendie. \u2018Then we\u2019ll address a series of additional Structured Improvement Activities to try to minimize\/eliminate the process disruptions that we may be observing.\u2019<\/font><\/p>\n Magendie will report the team\u2019s findings to senior management, ahead of the implementation of changes to the processing of the tanks, which \u2013 it is hoped \u2013 will pull back the current pressures of delivering the tanks on a schedule, to aid alignment with NASA\u2019s Shuttle manifest.<\/font><\/p>\n \u2018Cell A is currently the rate\/pace driver. So it\u2019s inhibiting our rate delivery capability in terms of tanks per year, and in essence would be considered the bottleneck,\u2019 noted Magendie. <\/p>\n \u2018The key objective of this effort is to complete tanks earlier with the same level of quality and safety that we exhibit and require today.\u2019<\/p>\n **NASASpaceflight.com Job Opportunities**<\/font> <\/u><\/p>\n <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA managers are drawing up plans to save the December launch window for Discovery\u2019s STS-116 mission, the third planned flight of the Shuttle in 2006. The main issue relates to the External Tank (ET-124) that will be required for Atlantis in her supporting LON (Launch On Need) rescue mission role (STS-317). The lifting of night […]<\/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-41986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41986"}],"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=41986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/font>\u2018Move to night ops for launch is being considered for STS-116 and subs,\u2019 added the notes. \u2018This will be assessed after STS-115 and depend directly upon ET performance from 121 and 115. There is also interest in relaxing the docked solar beta constraint in order to provide more launch opportunities.\u2019 <\/font><\/p>\n
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<\/em><\/font>LIVE UPDATE PAGES<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n