Summer in Space

Well, it has been quite an eventful summer in the space program. The Space Shuttle Program has been in full gear, and our unmanned space program has certainly gained international attention. The success of the Mars Pathfinder and Surveyor missions has produced a great deal of excitement and interest in space exploration.

In late spring we successfully launched the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Mir space station. Due to the problems we encountered with our fuel cell on the previous flight, STS - 83, there was a good deal of attention on our system for the flight. We, along with the manufacturer of the fuel cell, performed a very detailed analysis to ensure we completely understood the problem, and to do our best to prevent its reoccurrence. When we felt that our cells were once again ready to fly, we gave our "go" for the launch. Fortunately, our system performed great and the flight was very successful.

Next up on July 1st was the Space Shuttle Columbia's return to space. This processing flow was particularly challenging. As you may remember, Columbia returned to Earth early in April, due to a concern about the performance of her fuel cell #2. Therefore, not only did we have to perform the usual processing operations for its next flight, but also resolve this fuel cell problem. To make it even more challenging, all this work had to be done in record time to fit this newly added mission into the summer launch schedule. Columbia had originally been scheduled to fly next in November, so flying 4 1/2 months early certainly sped things up.

We pulled out the suspect fuel cell #2 and replaced it along with fuel cell #1 which was an "older cell." Then on July 1st, Columbia lifted off launch pad 39A on its way for a highly successful 16 days of on-orbit research.

During this time, the Fuel Cell Group prepared for the launch of Discovery on Aug. 7th. A lot of our work on an orbiter is completed approximately one month before launch, about the time the orbiter is rolled out of the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF). Therefore, the addition of Columbia's STS - 94 flight in July kept us real busy during this time, as we performed the typical processing work on Discovery also. Again, a complete check of the fuel cell system was performed and validated for flight. Near the end of Discovery's flow (processing operations), we checked out the water system and filled the drinking water tanks onboard. Discovery completed a highly successful flight with an early morning landing in mid-August.

At this time we continue to prepare Atlantis for its STS - 86 mission to help repair Mir. Post flight processing of Discovery is still underway with its waste system recently serviced. The upcoming flights of Columbia in November and Endeavour in January are also keeping us busy right now.

As for me personally, I've had a great summer. I was fortunate to take two trips back home to Syracuse, New York. I enjoyed spending time with my family and friends. I also enjoyed doing a lot of boating, hiking and other outdoor activities. Syracuse sure is beautiful in the summertime! Now back here at the Cape, I am back to launching space shuttles. In my spare time though, I have been spending as much time as I can at the beach. I hope you also had a great summer!