Firefly Breaking Atmo on STS-117?

POSTED BY: cljohnston108
UPDATED: Friday, June 29, 2007 08:55
VIEWED: 17559
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MAIII

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 2:08 PM

the mission continues to go well as the team works through the blanket repair options for procedures/tools and which EVA to perform the work on should be decided by the mission management team today. Swanny and Forrester are going for a spacewalk later today to continue work on the newly installed Truss and Solar Array Segment. Airlock egress is ~2 pm EDT.

MAIII

Thursday, June 14, 2007 9:38 PM

Well the last 36 hours has been pretty interesting. The team has converged on a plan to repair the L OMS Pod Blanket on the EVA tomorrow. Just as we started to break through clouds and reach the top of the mountain the clouds parted and showed an even bigger mountain looming in the distance called Russian computers. Short story is all three Russian computers are down and have not been able to be recovered for any length of time. What this means to the shuttle is that we can not leave until this problem is fixed. Any active attitude control(firing jets) for the ISS goes through the russian computers, the current stable control mode of momentum management is controlled by the US segment and working fine as long as we don’t perturb the system to much (think of it as balancing a marble on the top of and upside down bowl). So we are looking to do what we can to extend the time the shuttle can stay docked, by conserving power and propellant. If needed looks like we could extend the docked mission by another day. If this problem can not be solved by the time we have to undock then the ISS crew might have to abandon ship because it is highly unlikely that momentum management without russian thrusters could handle the disturbance of undocking.

Anyway the mission timeline proceeds nominally while the team works through the issues. Tomorrow is EVA3 with blanket repair first thing then solar array retraction troublehooting after that. I updated the link with photos from EVA2.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=ekhorlf.24ok35ob&x=0&y=-bjbomd

REAVERINA1985RIVIERA

Saturday, June 16, 2007 9:03 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Steamer:

I do hope they're not planning to watch OoG while they're up there. Could bode ill.

To paraphrase Captain Reynolds: "Steamer's a Reader. Might see trouble 'afore it's comin'.

---------------------------------------------
How many Jaynes does it take to change a light bulb?

Two. One to try to put it in and another to find a bigger hammer.

FILLYGIRL

Saturday, June 16, 2007 11:10 AM

Well, this mission looks just like one of Fireflys. Even when something goes wrong, Mal(Swany)in this case, just keeps on keeping on. Hang in there guys, I know this is not fun or what was on the schedule, but you're learning how to survive in space. I'm sure NASA and the crew have learned some very valuable lessons and tricks.
I run a mainframe(3 really) for the feds, I kinda understand whats up with the Russian machines, (need IBM or MAC's).
Once again Maiii, thanks very much for the inside information, tell them we're thinking and praying for them and the machines.After all..."this is what I do, darling...."

PFC in the 76th

...it's worse than you know...Operative
...it usually is.....Mal

MAIII

Saturday, June 16, 2007 12:00 PM

thanks for the support everyone. I think we found our replacement catalyzer for the port compressor coil :)

the russians have found a way to by the blown power supplies and restored functionality. questions still remain how stable this system is, how long the shuttle still needs to stay and a bunch of other stuff. I'm not saying we are out of the woods yet, cause the tiger teams are still running full speed and the root cause is still a mystery (we'd hate to leave and the problem comes right back). so keep good thoughts and we will make sure we keep both birds in the air, cause only one of them is rated for a return trip through atmo.

by the way the OMS Pod repair went really well yesterday so the shuttle is in a great config to come home when ever they decide they are comfortable with the ISS. today is a pretty light day for the shuttle crew, tomorrow is EVA 4 which is a lot of station get a head tasks since the solar array was stowed last night.

I will try to upload some photos from the spacewalk later today.

MAIII

Monday, June 18, 2007 2:28 PM

we are about to handover control to the mated stack to the russian computers. this will be the make or break test. if all goes well with them controling for an hour then I think we are in a good config for undocking tomorrow. if the computers have problems then we could delay undocking until wednesday. the russians believe the jumper has solved the problem, but there are still open questions about what protection and redundancy we have given up by putting the computers in this config. the shuttle crew is off duty for the first half of day and will say farewell to the station tonight. the hatches will be closed tonight and first thing in the morning is undocking and flyaround, later tomorrow is Late Inspection where the shuttle crew will scan the RCC (reinforced carbon carbon) wing leading edge panels for damage due to MMOD (micro meteoroid orbital debris). If things look good landing is Thursday around 2 pm.

The link has been updated with more spacewalk pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=ekhorlf.24ok35ob&x=0&y=-bjbomd

MAIII

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 1:29 PM

From: MS2
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 2:01 AM
Cc: Shuttle-Crew
Subject: RE: Hope you had a great spacewalk

The package has been delivered. Pictures were taken (and probably downlinked already)and I'll have to find how to get them. I've got most of the crew hooked on the show and Clay too, so he will enjoy them.

Thanks again and take care,
Steve

MAIII

Sunday, June 24, 2007 1:03 AM

I added some photos from the crew return at Ellington today. I had a chance to talk with Swanny after the ceremony he is doing well. turns out when the crew was in quarantine prior to launch they watched 5 episodes and that is how Swanny got them all hooked. Clay was definitely excited about having the set on the ISS since he was hooked. Swanny is going to try and find the photos of him, Clay and Suni on the ISS with the DVD's as soon as he can. again sorry I couldn't get them for the CSTS screening's this weekend. stay shiny.

THEONETRUEBIX

Sunday, June 24, 2007 5:00 AM

And now that I'm back from the charity screening after party, breakingatmo.com is updated.

MAIII

Sunday, June 24, 2007 3:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by theonetruebix:
And now that I'm back from the charity screening after party, breakingatmo.com is updated.

Bix thanks for the great job with the website and helping spread the word.

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