UPDATE # 1 - March 4, 1997

PART 1: Welcome to the project
PART 2: Status of STS-8
PART 3: Field journals explained
PART 4: New computers replace twenty year old twins
PART 5: A busy week for an IMCO
PART 6: Weather summary for STS-82 mission

Welcome to the "Shuttle Team Online" project! Although this is
designed principally as a project for pre-college classrooms,
everybody is welcome. In addition to this maillist, a rich web site
is available at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/shuttle
Please visit!

Over the next three months, you will receive a unique perspective on
the space shuttle. We have recruited almost 100 people who work on
the shuttle team. These folks are far from the spotlight usually
reserved for the astronauts. Nonetheless, they have a fascinating
story to tell. Their coordinated efforts together enable the shuttle
to fly. Their jobs include:
- preparing the vehicle between missions
- launching the shuttle
- successfully executing missions, from Mission Control and elsewhere
- safely landing the shuttle
- training astronauts for missions
- other infrastructure jobs which enable all of the above tasks

Through this mailing list, you'll receive a series of Field Journals
which will describe in detail the work areas above. The format will
vary, and may include "what I did today" or "a problem I recently
solved" or a "problem I wish I could solve" or "my goals for the next
month." Regardless of the style, the stories should help you and your
students understand the diversity of skills and people needed for the
shuttle system to work. These Field Journals will be delivered via
this updates-sto mailing list about once per week.

Shuttle Team Online will focus on STS-83, a 16-day microgravity
lab scheduled for launch April 3. Therefore, information about
microgravity experiments and researchers will be included.

As well, this mailing list will also include information about the
Shuttle Team Online project. For example, in about a month we'll
begin hosting a series of live events like WebChats with the shuttle
folks. Announcements about these events and other similar
opportunities will be shared via this mailing list.

In addition, curriculum supplements about flying rockets and
microgravity experiments will be available to help teachers
incorporate the lessons of the shuttle into their classrooms. Two
special activities are available to encourage students to connect
with one another. In "Students Improve the Shuttle," kids will
design shuttle enhancements and then share their work online; we
hope a lively debate will ensue about the various ideas and towards
the end, real NASA experts will share their thoughts about the
suggested improvements. Beginning in April, classrooms will
simulate a shuttle launch, perform experiments while "in-orbit," and
then do a landing. Next classrooms will be grouped with others to
compare and discuss the meaning of their experimental data. Stay
tuned to this maillist and the Shuttle Team Online web site for
further information about both of these activities.

Throughout the Shuttle Team Online project, our team is interested
in receiving your ideas and feedback. Send any comments to
marc@quest.arc.nasa.gov and slee@mail.arc.nasa.gov

A solid group of people have helped to make Shuttle Team Online a
reality. We are grateful to our dedicated online teammates for their
contributions. Credit details can be found on the web, but for now
we'd like to especially acknowledge the following people:
NASA Headquarters: Alotta and Pam
Johnson Space Center: Robert, Stephanie and Francis
Kennedy Space Center: Gregg
Ames Research Center: Linda, Oran, Dan and Chris

We hope that this will prove to be an exciting learning resource for
you and your students. We think it will be a great ride. So prepare
yourself for a terrific ride as Shuttle Team Online blasts off.

Sincerely,
Susan Lee and Marc Siegel
NASA K-12 Internet Initiative





STATUS OF STS-83

The next scheduled shuttle mission is STS-83, a 16-day microgravity
lab scheduled for launch on April 3 at 2:01 p.m. EST. Columbia is the
particular orbiter being used for STS-83. Before launch, we'll
provide periodic updates about preparations for the mission.
Detailed daily reports can be found at the NASA Shuttle Status web
site at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/status.htm
Tuesday morning (March 4), Columbia was scheduled to be transported to
the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to be mated to the external tank.
However, problems were encountered during close-outs of the 17-inch
disconnect area on the orbiter. During close-outs, inserts were found
stripped when screws used to secure the umbilical flow liner were
installed. Four of the six inserts have been replaced but access to
the remaining two inserts is restricted. The orbiter must be powered-up
to reposition the disconnect valve for access and a special tool is being
fabricated to complete the work.

This work should be completed Wednesday (March 5) and then the
orbiter will be moved to the VAB. First motion is estimated to occur at
around 8 p.m. March 5. No impact to the overall scheduled is expected and
roll out to Pad 39A remains set for March 10.



FIELD JOURNALS EXPLAINED


The stories below are examples of Shuttle Team Online
Field Journals. The intent of these journals is to show
the diversity of real tasks involved in the flying the shuttle,
and give snippets of the life of shuttle team members. A
sentence or two will be included as background to help orient
you toward the story that follows. Also, almost all authors
have their biographies (with more background) on our Web
site - the stories will include pointers to these bios to make it
easier to connect to the richer backgrounds.

Still, when reading some of these journals, you may feel like you've
come in during the middle of a play, and that you are being forced to
leave
before it's over. The journal entries might not have the full background
that folks are looking and hoping for. We'll try to share what we know
about why these folks do what they do, but it definitely won't always
have a neat start, middle and end. That would be great, but part of the
cost of sharing the real world is that the real world is messy and hard to
describe. Hopefully these Field Journals will still be useful and
interesting.



[Editor's note: George is the Lead Engineer for the Ground Launch
Sequencer (GLS) group. During launches, he pushes the button that starts
or stops the launch countdown clock. Also his group develops software
that sends the commands to the Space Shuttle and the equipment on the
launch pad during the last 9 minutes that configures all the valves,
starts pumps, and much much more.]

NEW COMPUTERS REPLACE TWENTY YEAR OLD TWINS
George Thomas - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/thomas.html
February 27, 1997

Today we ran our software on new computer equipment built by
MODCOMP Corp. Currently our computers in the Launch Firing Rooms are
over 20 years old. I guarantee that every one of you reading this log has
a more powerful computer than the ones we use for launching Space
Shuttles. Since these computers are so old, they are beginning to break
frequently, making it harder to perform the tasks we need to do when we
are in the Firing Rooms. MODCOMP is the only company in the world that
makes these computers and our software is built to run only on their
machines. Since we will probably be launching Space Shuttles until about
the year 2012, we will need new computers to help keep us going.

MODCOMP has built some new computers that are just like their old ones
(we hope!). It is important that we be sure that this is true and that
nothing unexpected happens when we use these new computers. To test
the compatibility of the new computers, we ran our GLS computer
programs just the way we do on launch day and gathered data to review.
When we do this, we run against computer math models that simulate the
Space Shuttle and all the ground equipment. We do this so if there is a
problem with our software we won't break any real hardware or hurt
anybody.

So today we made two launch countdown runs going from T-9 minutes
through liftoff. Tomorrow I will make the same countdown runs against
the same math model using our old computers. I will gather the same data
and compare the results from each day. Hopefully everything will look
identical.

In two weeks, the astronauts for STS 83 will be coming to KSC to
participate in a practice countdown. For this, they get suited up and
climb aboard the Space Shuttle. Those of us in the launch firing rooms
will go through a countdown with the astronauts so that everyone is
familiar with what they will need to do on the real launch day.



[Editor's notes: Steve works for the Instrumentation and Communications
group (INCO). The INCOs prime job is to make sure that all
the equipment on the shuttle that is used to communicate with the
crew and to transmit data from the shuttle to the ground, works.]

A BUSY WEEK FOR AN IMCO
Steve Sides - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/sides.html

February 24, 1997
Today I had my first simulation (training for a shuttle flight) where I
was being evaluated by the Flight Director and a senior INCO. The sim.
went very well. I was able to handle all the systems problems that the
trainers presented to me. They tried extremely hard to make it so that I
could not command the shuttle equipment. Without command we would not have
been able to deploy the satellite on time.

February 25, 1997
This is my first day back in the office after working STS 82. Boy was
that a fun flight. We watched as the crew did 5 EVAs (spacewalks) to fix
Hubble. The landing at 0230 in the morning was awesome to watch on the
TV. I wish I could have been there but watching it on TV will have to do
since I need to watch the telemetry from my systems as well. I don't want
there to be any problems during the entry.

Today I had an interview with the Flight Director who did the evaluation
on me yesterday. It went great. We talked about making sure that we
understand what each other is saying before I go perform some action to
the orbiter equipment.

I spent most of the afternoon in a meeting to discuss the new software
that will be used for the first time on STS 91. The plan is to send
commands through a new computer on the ground, replacing the old ones
that have been around for about 15 years. I am looking forward to the new
world of command.

February 26, 1997
After work today, I went to church as usual and found out that they are
having a blood drive.  I wish they would tell me these things in advance
so I can prepare for it.

February 27, 1997
Today was spent on a simulation for the next mission. STS 83 is a spacelab
mission which means that I will be in-charge of several systems that do
not normally fly. It was fun relearning how these systems operate. I guess
that is why they make simulations because I get a lot out of them.

At night, I met with some guys to show them how to run a Cub Scout Den
meeting. They are brand new to the process. It was fun showing them
the ropes and re-living some of my old Den Leader days.

February 28, 1997
Today was spent in meetings all day. I am the representative from my
group to several software related issues in the Control Center. The
meetings included discussions about radio antenna position plotting
programs and problems with how the control center hardware handles time
downlinked from the orbiter to the ground.

I studied some drawings today. The schematics are on a panel on the
orbiter that is used to route data to various places on the shuttle. We
found that somewhere during the time Columbia (OV 102) landed from the
last mission to now, the folks at KSC changed the nomenclature for a
circuit breaker. This caused some of our procedures that we wrote for the
crew to be wrong. We have to get the document fix ASAP so that the crew
will not mess up the procedure while in space.



[Editor's note: Steve is a meteorologist (weatherman) who provides advise
about weather issues, primarily during launch and landings. He was the
lead forecaster during the most recent STS-82 mission (Hubble repair)
and has provided this summary of the mission. Beware of weather jargon!]

WEATHER SUMMARY FOR STS-82 MISSION
Steve Sokol - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/sokol.html

The space shuttle Discovery found a break in extensive low clouds in
time to launch from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 2:55am CST,
February 11, 1997. An upper-level low pressure wave produced drying and
sinking air that scoured out a hole in extensive post-frontal low clouds.

The crew of Discovery included Commander Ken Bowersox, Pilot Scott
Horowitz, and mission specialists Joe Tanner, Steve Hawley, Greg
Harbough, Mark Lee, and Steve Smith. This crew successfully retrieved
and serviced the Hubble Telescope, making a record-tying five spacewalks
in the process. The astronauts performed ten major optical and
electronics upgrades of the orbiting observatory. The fifth spacewalk
was needed to patch unexpected rips and blisters in the outer covering of
the telescope caused by solar exposure and corrosive elements in the
Earth's thin upper atmosphere. The shuttle crew then boosted the 25,000
pound telescope nine miles to a record altitude of 380 miles.

The Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) weather team was busy with the
threatening low clouds on launch. The landing attempts in the early
morning of February 21st were also challenging. The dual dedicated
WSR88D was in full use as the League City, TX 88D was needed to monitor
a strong line of thunderstorms passing through the Johnson Space Center
just as the landing team members were coming into Mission Control.
NWSO Melbourne switched their WSR88D into the clear air mode after
coordination with assistant lead Richard Lafosse, to better monitor low
clouds to the southeast of KSC. Lead techniques development unit
meteorologist Mark Keehn used some specialized GOES 8 channel 2 IR low
cloud enhancements that were very helpful to monitor and track low
clouds.

Rapidly changing low cloud decks prevented the first de-orbit
opportunity. These low clouds formed in the southeast wind circulation
around an Atlantic high pressure system. Satellite, radar, and astronaut-
flown weather reconnaissance reports all confirmed a trend toward
dissipating cloudiness before the second de-orbit burn decision. SMG then
updated to a "GO" forecast for landing at KSC, and the Flight Director
ordered the de-orbit burn.

The Discovery delighted many workers at JSC as it blazed in an awesome
moonlit trail across the Houston sky on its way to KSC. John Young was
one of those outside of Mission Control as it flew over. John, commander
of the first space shuttle mission in 1981, was also impressed by this
overhead pass.

Discovery landed at KSC at 2:32am CST to wrap up the 10 day, 4.1 million
mile mission to refurbish the Hubble. This was the 12th of the last 13
shuttle missions to land at KSC.

Lead SMG forecaster Steve Sokol was working his 71st mission (13th as
mission lead).




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