Engineers are focusing their attentions on evaluating if the foam liberation on STS-114\u2019s launch was a one-off situation \u2013 caused by previous work under-taken on the PAL Ramp section of the External Tank (ET). <\/p>\n
Following a Data Review meeting on Monday at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), where the ET\u2019s are constructed, ET-119 \u2013 which was set to launch with Atlantis on her second mission since Return to Flight began, on STS-115 \u2013 has been sent back to MAF to help with those evaluations. Atlantis, currently stacked with ET-120 in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, with processing continuing despite the date for her launch now in limbo. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Atlantis was set to launch in September with a short window that started on the 22nd of that month. <\/font><\/p>\n Even without the evaluations on the External Tanks, Discovery\u2019s landing on the \u2018wrong\u2019 side on the US has likely ended any chance of Atlantis launching in September. November is the next available window.<\/font><\/p>\n Atlantis will still roll to the pad later this month for an APU hot fire test, before being rolled back to the VAB.<\/font><\/p>\n ET-118 \u2013 set for Discovery\u2019s back-up mission for Atlantis\u2019 STS-121, classed as STS-301 \u2013 is also set to be sent back to MAF for a \u201crepair\u201d.<\/font><\/p>\n <\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n The focus on the ETs centres on the liberation of a section of the PAL Ramp. <\/font><\/p>\n Since news broke exclusively on this site that the area had been previously worked on \u2013 followed by the rest of the media a week later \u2013 documents are being checked back on exactly what process was undertaken, including whether that process lead to that section falling away shortly after Solid Rocket Booster separation.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n Read the exclusive here: <\/font>http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/content\/?id=3308<\/font><\/font><\/u> <\/font><\/p>\n That \u2018repair\/patch\u2019 has already been noted as the most likely reason for the problem, with NASA administrator Mike Griffin hinting the solution will be a short process \u2013 pointing to a reason rather than a re-design of the ET \u2013 one of which could be a metal mesh being installed around the PAL Ramp insulating foam.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cI think we are going to fix it in short order, and we are going to get back flying,\u201d said Griffin. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect this to be a long, drawn-out affair, to be honest with you.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n The Data Review\u2019s Tiger Team is still evaluating if that was the specific cause of the shedding \u2013 the one reason NASA has currently suspending full launch processing for the fleet. <\/font><\/p>\n SpaceX launch tickets (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Finding a solution is top of NASA\u2019s list of priorities to continue the next leg of the \u201crelay\u201d \u2013 handing the \u201cbaton\u201d to Atlantis on STS-121.<\/p>\n Detailed Data Review revealed only about 25 points of \u2018dings\u2019 in Discovery\u2019s Thermal Protection System (TPS) surfaces, nearly one-sixth as many as the previous average of 145 per flight. Further inspections could add to that number, but NASA\u2019s boss was overjoyed with the success of the new Flagship for the fleet.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the world of engineering, she did pretty well,\u201d he added.<\/font><\/p>\n UPDATE:<\/p>\n June Malone, a spokeswoman for Marshall Space Flight Center, has confirmed a repair was carried out at MAF in the exact area of where PAL Ramp foam liberated just after SRB sep during assent on STS-114. <\/p>\n Evaluations are going via the Tiger Team to confirm said repair areas are either inherently a problem for potential shedding, or that the repair was imperfect. <\/p>\n For images and the latest updates, click here: Engineers are focusing their attentions on evaluating if the foam liberation on STS-114\u2019s launch was a one-off situation \u2013 caused by previous work under-taken on the PAL Ramp section of the External Tank (ET). Following a Data Review meeting on Monday at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), where the ET\u2019s are constructed, ET-119 \u2013 which […]<\/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-42318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42318"}],"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=42318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/font><\/em>http:\/\/forum.nasaspaceflight.com\/forums\/thread-view.asp?tid=220&start=1<\/font><\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"