Space Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale has addressed workers at the NASA Langley Flight Research Facility, praising their work on evaluating solutions to External Tank (ET) foam liberation. <\/p>\n
Hale revealed that NASA is very close to confirming results from recent testing, which it\u2019s hoped will ultimately give enough assurances that STS-121 can launch with a greatly reduced risk of foam shedding from critical areas of the ET.\n<\/p>\n
NASA is currently in a pause of Shuttle flights, due to foam shedding from the PAL Ramp \u2013 and foam divoting in critical areas \u2013 on the ET during STS-114\u2019s ascent. <\/font><\/p>\n Although it was likely that a repair on the inter-tank crotch area of ET-121 ultimately affected the PAL Ramp \u2013 contributing towards a series of events \u2013 it has been decided that the wedge of foam needs to be replaced with a smaller ramp, one that also employees new processes of application. <\/font><\/p>\n While MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center) and MAF (Michoud Assembly Facility) have been responsible for the bulk of evaluations, Langley\u2019s 25 per cent involvement has been mainly on the testing of their collective findings. <\/font><\/p>\n Those findings require double-checking, but Hale is now confident the process has moved along enough to warrant optimism in achieving a May \u201cReturn to Flight 3\u201d for Discovery next year. <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cWe feel confident that testing will confirm the solution that has been reached about keeping the foam intact on the external tank and permitting a launch in May,\u201d he said. <\/font><\/p>\n Both ET-119 and ET-120 are back at MAF \u2013 and are having their existing PAL Ramps removed. <\/p>\n The facility will not return to full staffing \u2013 following the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina \u2013 until Christmas, but have been buoyed by the news that the US Government has announced special funding to help speed a return to full operations. <\/font><\/p>\n Aerospace industry analysis (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201c$269 million to rebuild NASA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Michoud and Stennis centers, among the largest employers in the Gulf area,\u201d noted a White House fact sheet on Sunday. \u201c$132 million for NASA to complete hurricane emergency operations and resume normal space programs.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n One of the other issues raised on STS-114 was a pair of protruding gap fillers on the belly of Discovery. While not a threat to the Orbiter on ascent, NASA held concerns over their potential effects on the aerodynamic changes to the profile of Discovery during re-entry\/entry interface.<\/font><\/p>\n During STS-114, astronaut Steve Robinson successfully removed both gap fillers during an historic space walk (EVA), live on television sets around the planet. \u201cThis big patient is now cured,\u201d he announced, as the second gap filler eased out of Discovery. <\/font><\/p>\n Evaluations on solving this issue have brought NASA to a decision, which Hale also took time to announce at Langley. <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cScientists have concluded that the adhesive holding the gap fillers in place wears out after a certain number of flights,\u201d he added. \u201cTo fix the problem, workers are removing and reinstalling 9,000 gap fillers.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n Hale\u2019s comments add confidence that NASA will soon confirm the first six NET (No Sooner Than) dates of the current 19 flight manifest, starting with Discovery\u2019s STS-121, which currently stands as May 3, 2006. <\/p>\n NASA have been waiting to hear if all their supporting facilities can deliver key components \u2013 such as the ETs \u2013 on time to support their NET launch dates.<\/font><\/p>\n Visit our \u201coff topic free\u201d space flight forums, by clicking here: Space Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale has addressed workers at the NASA Langley Flight Research Facility, praising their work on evaluating solutions to External Tank (ET) foam liberation. Hale revealed that NASA is very close to confirming results from recent testing, which it\u2019s hoped will ultimately give enough assurances that STS-121 can launch with a […]<\/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-42244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42244"}],"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=42244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/em>http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"