Historic First Photos showing a Space Shuttle docked to the ISS were snapped on May 23, 2011. This photo was taken from an engineering camera located on the nose of the crewed Soyuz vehicle after it departed the ISS at 5:35 p.m. today (May 23). Space Shuttle Endeavour is docked to the ISS at lower right with dramatic backdrop of Earth. Astronaut Paolo Nespoli collected high resolution digital imagery from inside the Soyuz that will be released later this week. The Soyuz crew landed safely in Kazakhstan at 10:27 p.m. EDT. Credit: NASA/Roscosmos Photo Gallery below
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – Unprecedented and spectacular photos showing a US Space Shuttle Orbiter docked to the International Space Station (ISS) were snapped just hours ago and transmitted live back to ground stations and viewers on Earth as a Soyuz capsule with three space flyers departed from the station at 5:35 p.m EDT on the first leg of their journey back to Earth. And the best is yet to come.
Check out the photo galley of historic black and white gems captured from an engineering docking camera attached to the nose of the Russian Soyuz capsule that undocked this evening (May 23) from the ISS. These historic photos are the first ever showing a shuttle joined to the massive orbiting complex.
As the Soyuz was backing away from the Russian-built Rassvet module, Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli was busily snapping first of its kind high resolution color photos and videos of Space Shuttle Endeavour attached to the ISS.
The entire complex was simultaneously rotated 130 degrees to provide the best possible view of the whole shuttle-station stack. The combined stack weighs more than a million pounds
Nespoli had about 30 minutes to collect high resolution digital imagery from a viewing port inside the habitation module of the Soyuz spacecraft that burns up on reentry. He then removed the cards from the cameras and floated back into the Soyuz descent module.
NASA and Russia expect to release high resolution digital imagery on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft carrying the Expedition 27 crew is seen moments after undocking from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV
The three person Expedition 27 crew comprising of Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli landed safely in their Soyuz spacecraft on the Kazakhstan steppe Monday at 10:27 p.m. (8:27 a.m. on May 24 local time) at a site southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.
Shuttle Endeavour is in the middle of the 16 day STS-134 mission and delivered the $2 Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS. The AMS is a particle physics detector searching for the invisible Universe and seeks to elucidate its birth and evolution. The all veteran crew of 6 is led by Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly.
First ever Photos of Shuttle-Space Station Stack coming on May 23. This still image from a NASA computer generated animation shows three different views of how the Soyuz TMA-20 crew will undock from the ISS on Monday May 23, 2011. Astronaut Paolo Nespoli will capture first ever photos and video of a space shuttle [Endeavour] docked to International Space Station from his departing Russian Soyuz capsule . photographs the setup after undocking.. CREDIT: NASA TV. Watch Video simulation below
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER: Get ready for the ultimate photo op in space – set for the International Space Station joined to Space Shuttle Endeavour and topped off by Planet Earth as the backdrop.
And it’s coming up momentarily because of an unexpected and “unique opportunity” that’s also taking place at nearly the last possible moment in the life of the soon to be retired Space Shuttle program.
On Monday, May 23, Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli will snap the first ever photos and video of a US Space Shuttle orbiter while it is simultaneously still docked to the International Space Station, NASA officials just announced on Friday, May 19.
Video Caption: This computer generated animation depicts the view the Soyuz crew will see as they depart from the International Space Station (upper left) on May 23, 2011 at 5:32 p.m. EDT. Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli will capture an incredible and first ever imagery of the stacked station/shuttle complex with a space shuttle orbiter; the Endeavour. Bottom view shows side view of the Soyuz departing the ISS. Credit: NASA
Nespoli will capture the dramatic and historic imagery – in a newly devised plan – while he is departing the “Shuttle- Station stack” aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and heading for a landing back on Earth with two crewmates barely 4 hours later in Kazakhstan.
“We have a unique opportunity. We are calling this Soyuz undock with imagery,” said Kenneth Todd, chair of NASA’s space station mission management team. “We are not calling this a Soyuz flyaround or flyabout.”
“This is going to be a great opportunity for the spaceflight community.”
After months of high level international negotiations since the STS-133 mission, NASA and Russian space officials from the space shuttle and space station teams have finally agreed on a arrangement for utilizing a crewed Soyuz vehicle to record the first ever photos showing a shuttle while still docked to the massive orbiting outpost in the same field of view.
The chance to do the shuttle- station photo documentation in this way only became possible when the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour was scrubbed on April 29 and the resulting delayed launch of the STS-134 mission on May 16 fortuitously afforded an overlapping time period that coincided with the Soyuz TMA-20 crew departure.
Space Shuttle Endeavour launches from Pad 39 A on May 16, 2011 on the STS-134 mission.
View from the countdown clock at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Endeavour has delivered the $2 Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. The AMS will search for dark matter, dark energy and antimatter to determine the origin and evolution of the Universe. Credit: Ken Kremer
The photo opportunity will take place under what’s called a dual docked operations scenario whereby the Soyuz is undocked while a shuttle is still attached to the ISS.
“With 100 percent consensus, we approved this change to the baseline mission to go add this photo documentation task as part of the Soyuz TMA-20 undock,” Todd explained.
In order to accommodate the extra time required to accomplish the photo shoot, the Soyuz TMA-20 capsule will undock from the ISS one orbit earlier than originally scheduled, about 90 minutes, at 5:32 p.m. EDT.
Space Shuttle Atlantis docked to Russian Mir Space Station
on 29 June 1995.
Check out this perspective of what a space shuttle looks like when docked to an Earth orbiting space station. Atlantis is docked to the Mir Space Station on 29 June 1995 during the STS-71 mission. The shuttle has never before been photographed while attached to the Internalional Space Station. The photos of the Shuttle Endeavou and ISS Space Station stack are expected on May 23, 2010. Credit: Roscosmos
Nespoli is departing with ISS Expedition 27 commander and Russian cosmonaut Dimitry Kondratyev and NASA astronaut Catherine “Cady” Coleman. They will be completing a nearly six month stint in space aboard the ISS.”
“After the Soyuz undocks, they will back out to about 200 meters,” explained Courtney McMillan, STS-134 Station Team 4 Flight Director. “You will see they are a little bit above the velocity vector, above the station, and that is to keep the sun out of the pilot’s eyes.”
“After they get to the station keeping point, ISS will begin to maneuver, turning 130 degrees at 0.2 degrees per second.” The attitude was designed to provide the best perspective of the ISS and Endeavour.
“It will take 15 minutes to bring the whole stack around to get a side view and a really good view of Endeavour. This is an unusual attitude for the station to fly during a mated mission and people have done a lot of work to make sure this is a good thing to be doing. They have scrutinized the issue and are very comfortable with the plan.”
The station move will be done using thrusters on the Russian Segment service module – named Zvezda – and the thrusters on the docked Progress 42P vehicle, an unmanned Russian cargo ship. See diagram below.
Nespoli will have to float into the Soyuz vehicles forward habitation module – from his seat in the central descent module – and then snap the photo and video imagery through the modules windows. He will have a direct line of sight to the stack.
Paolo will have roughly 30 minutes time to collect all the imagery of the combined space complex during the photo survey, starting at about 5:50 p.m. EDT.
Then he will float back out of the habitation module, carefully seal the hatches in between and take his seat in the descent module.
The habitation module burns up in Earth orbit after the modules separate in preparation for the Soyuz’s deorbit and scorching reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Since the Soyuz will be pitched up during the undocking sequence, breathtaking views of Earth in the background of the “Shuttle-
Station stack” are expected.
The goal is to get good archival imagery of the space station stack with the shuttle attached. In addition to the gee whiz factor there are good reasons from an engineering perspective to record this imagery to assess the condition of the orbiting complex, NASA managers said.
“Future generations will look back on their history and look back at what we accomplished between these two very, very large programs – the shuttle and the space station – and realize it was amazing what we accomplished with the technology available at the time.”
“These pictures will be in textbooks to show what we did”, said Todd.
Exactly when the digital photos and video will be available for all to see is still to be determined. NASA and Russian space officials are discussing the details of when and how to distribute the imagery. The Soyuz is not equipped to transmit the imagery in real time.
“We hope to start seeing the photos and videos within a day of landing”, said Todd.
Photographers David Gonzales and Mike Deep shot this footage from the Kennedy Space Center Press Site for Universe Today of the final launch of NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour. See the launch approximately 27 times as fast, (don’t blink — you might miss it!) and watch how the smokey plume changes over time as it is tugged on by wind and casts a changing shadow on the cloud deck below. Replayed at 15 fps.
Below, see a timelapse of the RSS retract on May 15.
Space Shuttle Endeavour and ESA's Columbus laboratory seen after the Shuttle docked with ISS on 18 May 2011. Credits: NASA
Space shuttle Endeavour docked for the final time at the International Space Station carrying six astronauts and the long-anticipated Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a physics experiment that will hunt for dark matter and antimatter. The docking occured at 1014 GMT, and the hatches between the two vehicles opened at 1138 GMT (7:38 am Eastern time), about an hour earlier than scheduled.
Above, watch as space shuttle Endeavour performs the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or “backflip” so that the ISS crew can take high resolution pictures of the shuttle’s heat shield. Commander Mark Kelly rotated Endeavour to rotate 360 degrees backward.
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The combined crews total 12 now on the ISS, but only until May 23, when space station crew members Dmitry Kondratyev, Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli undock in a Soyuz and return home to Earth. Unlike most shuttle missions to the ISS, the two crews are working in staggered shifts instead of being on the same timeline. This is because of the two-week launch delay for Endeavour making the mission, unfortunately, causing the mission to overlap with the departure of the station crew members. The three leaving the ISS need to adjust their sleep cycle to synch up with the landing day timeline.
The shuttle will remain at the station until May 30, with landing scheduled currently for June 1.
The STS-134 mission includes four spacewalks, in part to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, a two-billion-dollar, 15,000 pound (7,000 kilogram) particle detector that will hopefully operate for a decade and provide new details about the origins of the Universe.
The mission is commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who is recovering after being shot in the head in January. Giffords reportedly will undergo intensive cranioplasty brain surgery in Houston this morning (May 18), just three days after attending the launch.
Space shuttle Endeavour launched on its final flight Monday at 8:56 a.m. EDT. Commander Mark Kelly and his five crewmates are now on their way to the International Space Station with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment. Our launch team on hand at Kennedy Space Center will have full coverage with images and commentary, but for now watch the video of the launch, as well as a retrospective of Endeavour’s career, below. Continue reading “Watch Endeavour’s Final Launch”
Two access walkways leading to Endeavour. Astronaut walkway to White Room at center. Credit: Ken Kremer
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – Space Shuttle Endeavour is poised for launch as the countdown clock ticks down to a liftoff from Pad 39 A on Monday morning, May 16 at 8:56 a.m. EDT. The shuttle Mission Management Team (MMT) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) met today (May 14) and gave the green light to continue launch preparations for the STS-134 mission, which is the final flight of shuttle Endeavour.
The weather forecast remains at a 70 percent favorable chance of acceptable conditions on Monday, according to Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters. The weather outlook drops to only 20 percent favorable on Tuesday in case of a one day delay. The weather rebounds to 80 percent favorable if the launch is postponed by 48 hours.
Side view of shutte Endeavour stack and access walkways. Astronaut walkway to White Room at top center. Credit: Ken Kremer
At a briefing for reporters at KSC today, shuttle launch managers were upbeat about preparations for the launch.
“We had a really good meeting today, unanimous consent from the Mission Management Team to press on with the launch countdown,” said Mike Moses, MMT chairman and manager of shuttle integration at KSC. “Everything’s in really great shape, really no issues at all.”
Moses added that no problems are expected with the heaters in the auxiliary power units (APU’s) that caused the launch scrub two weeks ago on April 29.
To the heavens with Endeavour. Credit: Ken Kremer
Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said, “The countdown is going extremely well and the team is ready to go. Tanking of the External Tank begins just prior to midnight. We are not working any issue at this time.”
Fueling of the External Tank with supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen starts at 11.36 p.m. Sunday night.
Leinbach said that local officials are expecting a crowd of about half a million people to descend on the Florida Space Coast area for the launch.
“You’ll recall for the first launch attempt on that Friday afternoon, the estimate was between 500,000 and 750,000,” he said. “So they’re not quite expecting that big surge, but it’ll still be a heck of a traffic jam after launch.”
Endeavour and her six man crew will deliver the $2 Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer – a particle physics detector searching for dark matter, dark energy and antimatter – to the International Space Station during a 16 day mission that will include 4 spacewalks.
After Endeavour was rolled out to the pad, I had an awesome opportunity to photograph Endeavour at the pad from stunning vantage points all around the launch pad from top to bottom.
Herein is part 2 of my photo album focusing on my visit to the base of the shuttle stack on the mobile launch platform while looking to the heavens and standing directly beneath the External Tank and in between the Twin Solid Rocket Boosters. Part 1 of my photo album concentrated on the view from the upper levels and our visit to the White Room – where the astronauts board the shuttle orbiter to take their seats for the adventure of a lifetime.
Looking to the heavens from directly beneath Endeavour’s tail. Credit: Ken KremerSpace Shuttle Endeavour awaits launch from Pad 39 A
Endeavour will deliver the $2 Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station which seeks to unveil the Unknown and uncover the birth of the Universe. Credit: Ken Kremer View from directly below the External Tank and shuttle body flap between twin SRB’s. Credit: Ken KremerSpace Shuttle Endeavour atop Launch Pad 39 A is slated for liftoff on May 16. Endeavour and her six man crew will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. Credit: Ken Kremer Shuttle belly with attach points to External Tank connected to loaded Solid Rocket Boosters
on top of pad 39 A. Credit: Ken KremerKen Kremer standing beside the Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank and on top of Launch Pad 39 A with Space Shuttle Endeavour. Credit: Ken Kremer
If you watch Endeavour’s launch, send me your launch and crowd photos to post in an STS-134 launch gallery here at Universe Today.
The STS-134 crew arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 12, 2011. The crew is preparing for the liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour at 8:56 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 16. From left are, Commander Mark Kelly, Mission Specialists Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel, European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori, Mission Specialist Mike Fincke and Pilot Greg H. Johnson.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – The all veteran crew for the last launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour flew back to Florida today for their second try to lift off into space on the STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. This follows the launch scrub called by Shuttle launch managers on April 29 caused by a malfunction of critical heaters inside one of the orbiters three auxiliary power units (APU’s) which power the ships hydraulics.
The weather forecast for Monday morning launch is currently “70% GO” and liftoff is targeted for 8:56 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 16. Stormy weather and rain is expected to sweep across central Florida over the weekend and clear out in time for the launch. But Sunday’s rain could potentially delay the retraction of the Rotating Service Structure – which protects the shuttle from bad weather – for a short time.
Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly and his five crewmates arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center early this morning (May 12) at 9 a.m. aboard the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) after flying in from the astronauts training base at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Mark Kelly, Space Shuttle Commander
for the STS-134 mission speaks ro reports after crew arrives at KSC. Credit: Ken Kremer
“It’s great to be back,” said Kelly to the large crowd of reporters, including me, gathered to greet the crew. “We really appreciate all the hard work by the team that’s worked over the last couple of weeks to get shuttle Endeavour ready. We are really excited to be here, excited to launch, hopefully on Monday if the weather holds.
Kelly is joined on the crew by pilot Greg H. “Box” Johnson and Mission Specialists Mike Fincke, Andrew Feustel, Greg Chamitoff and Roberto Vittori. Vittori is a European Space Agency astronaut and spoke first in his native Italian language and then in English.
“Box” celebrated his 49th birthday today. “I can’t think of a more perfect way to spend my birthday then to come here with my crew a get ready to fly Endeavour next week.”
He also thanked the teams for resolving the APU issues. ”Hats off to Dana Hutcherson and her team for preparing Endeavour for this flow and finally a special thanks to the APU team for all the hard work you’ve done getting us to this point. Kudos for solving it and getting us back on track.”
Kelly and Johnson will fly practice landings in the STA in the remaining days prior to Monday’s launch. The STA is a modified Gulfstream II jet which handles like a space shuttle.
Mission Specialist Mike Finke whipped out a camera and photographed the gaggle of media as we were photographing them – a rare and thrilling experience for all of us. Finke tweeted the photo of us a short time later – and is included here.
STS-134 Astronaut Mike Finke snapped this photo of the media gaggle that greeted the crew on their arrival at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. Finke tweeted the photo as “AstroIronMike” and wrote - Astronaut view of our press conference. Ken is 4th from left and left of NASA logo. Credit: NASA/Mike Finke
Technicians at the Kennedy Space Center have been working around the clock since April 29 to determine the cause of the heater failure and fix the problems. The malfunction was traced to a switch box located in the aft section of the shuttle. Shuttle workers swaped out the ALCA -2 load control assembly box. Then they retested the new unit and qualified it for flight.
STS-134 Astronaut Mike Finke (2nd from right) photographs the media
as we photograph the crew upon their arrival in Florida on May 12. See Finke’s twitpic above.
Credit: Ken Kremer
Humongous crowds are again expected to travel to prime viewing locations around the Kennedy Space Center and pack the local hotels, roadways and beaches. Flocks of tourists are already arriving in anticipation on Monday’s launch. About 750,00 folks had swarmed to Florida for the April 29 launch attempt.
STS-134 is the penultimate mission in the Space Shuttle Program. The last shuttle flight by Atlantis is expected to occur in early July, but a firm launch date has not yet been set.
Space Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach greets the STS-134 crew upon arrival at KSC
as they depart the Shuttle Training Aircraft. Credit: Ken Kremer
If you do attend Endeavour’s launch, send me your launch and crowd photos to post in an STS-134 launch gallery here at Universe Today.
Space Shuttle Endeavour is now set to launch on May16 at 8:56 a.m. EDT from Pad 39 A following launch scrub on April 29, 2011. Critical APU fuel line heaters in the aft section of the orbiter failed in the final hours of the countdown. This close up view was taken while I was standing next to the orbiter in March. Endeavour and crew will deliver the $2 Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station which seeks to unveil the Unknown and uncover the birth of the Universe. Credit: Ken Kremer
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – NASA managers set May 16 as the new launch date for the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour after technicians completed work to rewire and retest a switchbox in the orbiters aft compartment. Shuttle managers ordered the repair work following a heater malfunction that forced NASA officials to call off the planned April 29 launch.
At a briefing for reporters today (May 9) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Shuttle managers Mike Moses and Mike Leinbach announced that Endeavour’s last liftoff is now targeted for 8:56 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 16.
“Right now, we’re in good shape,” said Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach.
“Endeavour’s looking good, the team is upbeat. I went to the meeting this morning and they’re ready to go. Hopefully, this time the heaters will work and we’ll be able to launch on time next Monday morning.”
Repairs to Space Shuttle Endeavour have been completed at launch pad 39 A. Arrow shows location of access door used by technicians to swap out the faulty Aft Load Control Assembly (ALCA-2) near the main engines and install new wiring. Credit: Ken Kremer
The STS-134 mission is the penultimate flight of the space shuttle program and will deliver the $2 Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station.
Endeavour’s last launch attempt on April 29 was scrubbed about four hours prior to blastoff when critical hydrazine fuel line heaters failed to turn on inside one of the orbiters three auxiliary power units (APU’s).
Technicians have been working around the clock to resolve the problems and determined that the likely cause of the heater failure was an electrical short inside the ALCA -2 load control assembly box located in the aft section of the shuttle (see photo).
They installed about 20 feet of new wiring, a new ALCA box and then retested all related systems over the past week and a half.
“We’ve replaced everything except the heaters, and we’ve wrung those out with at least five separate checks and full functionals afterwards and now have extremely high confidence that the problem is no longer on the ship or in any of the electronics,” said Mike Moses, the Shuttle launch integration manager at the Kennedy Space Center.
At the NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Load Control Assembly-2 (LCA-2) is uncovered for testing. Located in space shuttle Endeavour's aft avionics bay 5, the LCA-2 distributes power to nine shuttle systems. LCA-2 was replaced and all systems were retested. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
The APU’s control the shuttles hydraulics which power the steering of the main engines, wings, wheels and rudders during ascent and re-entry. The three units must all be fully functional before NASA can commit to any shuttle launch as part of the launch commit criteria (LCC). If the heaters fail during flight, the hydrazine can freeze and clog the fuel lines and render the hydraulics inoperative. A rupture in the lines could result in toxic hydrazine leaking into the shuttles aft engine compartment.
The potential launch window for Endeavour’s final flight extends through May 26, except for May 21.
The all veteran six man crew led by Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly is due to fly to the Cape on Thursday, May 12 from their training base in Houston. The STS-134 mission has been officially extended to 16 days from 14 days and will include 4 spacewalks.
The launch countdown will commence on Friday, May 13 from the beginning of the nominal 41 hour countdown sequence.
As a consequence of Endeavour’s delays, the launch of the very final shuttle mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis will likely be delayed to mid-July, although Moses and Leinbach did not give a specific target date.
STS-134 crew plans to fly back to the Kennedy Space Center on May 12 in anticipation of May 16 launch. Here they posed for photographers at Shuttle Landing Facility on April 26 ahead of the scrubbed first launch attempt on April 29, 2011. Mission Specialists Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel, Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Greg H. Johnson, Mission Specialist Mike Fincke and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.. Credit: Ken KremerSpace Shuttle managers Mike Moses (Launch Integration) and Mike Leinbach (Launch Director) at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Ken KremerKen Kremer and Mike Leinbach (right) discuss Endeavour at a prior news briefing at the Kennedy Space Center.
Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now
Space Shuttle Endeavour awaits launch sometime in May from Pad 39 A following launch scrub on April 29, 2011 at 3;47 p.m. Endeavour and her 6 man crew will deliver the $2 Billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station which seeks to unveil the Unknown and uncover the birth of the Universe. Credit: Ken Kremer
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – The final launch of shuttle Endeavour will be further delayed, perhaps by a week or more – to May 6 or 11 time frame – as technicians working at the pad seek to determine the cause of the failure of multiple heaters in auxiliary power unit-1 (APU) which caused the scrub of Endeavour’s launch attempt on Friday, with just 4 hours remaining in the countdown. The six man crew of Endeavour had just departed for the launch pad inside the Astrovan and was forced to turn around soon thereafter. We saw them pass us by, heading back to crew quarters to await a resolution of the issues.
The launch delay came as a huge disappointment to NASA and the enormous crowd estimated at 750.000 people who came to Florida to watch the momentous liftoff in person for what many call a “life changing experience”. Even President Obama and the entire first family were on hand to witness Endeavour’s launch. But the top priority is to launch the shuttle safely and the launch team emphasized that they made absolutely no changes to the countdown procedures.
Repairs to Space Shuttle Endeavour are in progress at the launch pad. Arrow shows location of access door used by technicians to swap out the faulty Aft Load Control Assembly (ALCA-2) near the main engines. Credit: Ken Kremer On Saturday, technicians gained access to Endeavour’s aft fuselage which houses the components suspected to have malfunction and found that the cockpit control fuse panel is working. They also verified that thermostats associated with the failed APU heaters are still not working. This indicates that the root cause of the malfunction lies deeper inside the orbiter and it will take longer for technicians to access and fix whatever is causing the problem.
APU-1 is located on the left side of the orbiter in the aft section behind the end of the payload bay.
The heaters play a critical role in keeping the APU hydrazine fuel from freezing in orbit and remain in a fluid state. If the hydrazine were to freeze and then thaw back to a liquid, it would expand and potentially rupture the fuel lines with devastating consequences.
Diagram shows location of all 3 Shuttle APU's. Credit: NASA
The orbiter has three APU’s. Only one is required to fly safely. Three units provide redundancy and all must be in working order before launch. Otherwise the launch commit criteria would be violated, forcing a launch scrub. The APUs provide the hydraulics to maneuver the main engine nozzles, elevons, rudder, body flap, landing gear brakes and nose wheel steering system.
Technical teams got to work inside the orbiter on Saturday after the rotating service structure was rolled back around the orbiter to enable access. If the problem is deeper within the orbiter at the Load Control Assembly it will take several additional days to fix the problem. Retesting of any new components inside the LCA will take at least 48 hours. Furthermore if any ordnance needs to be disconnected, a further delay of multiple additional days is inevitable.
In order to launch Endeavour on Monday, May 2, at 2:34 p.m. EDT, NASA must resume the countdown on Sunday afternoon. NASA only has until May 4 to get Endeavour off the ground until they would be forced to stand down to make way for the May 6 blastoff of an Atlas V rocket carrying an Air Force early-warning missile detection satellite.
NASA officials are in touch with Air Force officials to determine if the Air Force could be flexible in changing their launch date in the event that Endeavour would be ready to launch on the blackout dates of May 5 to 7.
NASA will hold a news briefing at 2 p.m. on Sunday to update reporters on the situation.
Here’s an amazing, quick look at the Rotating Service Structure being moved away from around space shuttle Endeavour late last Thursday night. David Gonzales and Mike Deep from Project Soar created this timelapse for Universe Today, and David said being able to see the shuttle up close reinforced that the shuttle really is a machine of beauty.
Look for more timelapse and special projects by David and Mike here on Universe Today.
