{"id":42016,"date":"2006-07-06T01:23:26","date_gmt":"2006-07-05T17:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/protruding-gap-filler-spotted-on-discovery\/"},"modified":"2006-07-06T01:23:26","modified_gmt":"2006-07-05T17:23:26","slug":"protruding-gap-filler-spotted-on-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/protruding-gap-filler-spotted-on-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Protruding Gap Filler spotted on Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A protruding gap filler has been spotted under the port side wing of Shuttle Discovery. It was spotted during inspections that made up the bulk of Flight Day 2 on STS-121.  <\/p>\n<p>  The position of the gap filler is in an area which has previously been noted as \u201cPriority 3\u201d \u2013 the lowest priority and thus may not require removal via an EVA.\n<\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"88\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/logo.cafepress.com\/3\/4811501.1268853.jpg\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" width=\"150\" align=\"left\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\"><\/em><\/font><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">**STS-121: Launch: July&nbsp;4 LIVE Launch\/Debris\/Flight Day 1**<\/font><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;\u2013 review the day\u2019s events in full.<br \/><\/font><br \/><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">**STS-121: Flight Day 2 Live Updates**<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"120\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/forums\/get-attachment.asp?action=view&amp;attachmentid=7877\" width=\"164\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\"><font face=\"Arial\"><font size=\"2\">The location of the protruding gap filler is a positive. It does not belong to areas previously worked on by engineers&nbsp;inside the Orbiter Processing Facility during their \u2018pull tests\u2019 in which thousands of gap fillers were tested or replaced.<\/p>\n<p>During processing, only gap fillers in the 1 and 1A zones \u2013&nbsp;which are on the forward area of the orbiter \u2013 were tested. No gapfillers&nbsp;in the middle, sides or aft were replaced.<\/p>\n<p>Sources note that the gap filler dates back to a 1982 installation into the Thermal Protection System of Discovery. The exact measurement of how far the gap filler is protruding is not yet known.<\/p>\n<p>During STS-114 last year, astronaut Steve Robinson removed two gapfillers that were spotted protruding out of Discovery\u2019s belly. <\/p>\n<p>The mission \u2013 the first of its kind \u2013&nbsp;was a success, with Robinson noting to a watching world \u2018This big patent is now cured.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>NASA&nbsp;later update the status of the finding at the post-MMT (Management Mission Team) press conference from the Kennedy Space Center, noting they are going to take a second look at the gap filler tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/font><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Meanwhile, NASA is looking into a faint object that was spotted after just 19 seconds of the ascent on July 4. Engineers are looking into images that show the object change direction on imagery \u2013 potentially showing an impact on Discovery.<\/p>\n<p>Due to image being faint, despite superior tracking abilities, any impact is unlikely to be a concern, given it is likely to be extremely small.<br \/><\/font><br \/><em><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">**FREE VIDEOS**<\/font><\/em><em><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;<\/font><\/em><font face=\"Arial\"><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;Five videos of the debris events. Full T-30 mins&nbsp;to T+60 mins STS-121 launch video and all views of launch, plus more.<br \/>(<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><\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/font><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"60\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/forums\/get-attachment.asp?action=view&amp;attachmentid=7015\" width=\"468\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p><em><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">**NASASpaceflight.com Job Opportunities**<\/font><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"60\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lduhtrp.net\/image-1911168-10415279\" width=\"120\" align=\"left\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\"><\/em><\/font><em><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"60\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"10\" src=\"http:\/\/www.awltovhc.com\/image-1911168-10419894\" width=\"120\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/font><\/em><br \/><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/em><\/font><u><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><em>LIVE&nbsp;UPDATE PAGES<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n<p><\/u><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"60\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/forums\/get-attachment.asp?action=view&amp;attachmentid=7016\" width=\"468\" align=\"left\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\"><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A protruding gap filler has been spotted under the port side wing of Shuttle Discovery. It was spotted during inspections that made up the bulk of Flight Day 2 on STS-121. The position of the gap filler is in an area which has previously been noted as \u201cPriority 3\u201d \u2013 the lowest priority and thus [&hellip;]<\/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-42016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42016"}],"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=42016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}