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UPDATE # 39 - February 24, 1998 PART 1: Chats with great people
The story in PART 3 is so interesting. We can't recall reading a similar account of what it is like to be on the crew that meets the landing shuttle. Glen Davis is the fellow featured in the story, and he'll be live in the Space Team Online chat room this Friday. If you haven't already RSVPed to ask questions during Glen's chat, it is too late. At this point you can only observe the live session. Whether observing or participating, Glen's unbelievable job will make for real online excitement. If this Friday doesn't work for you, you'll be happy to know that many other chats (with plenty of room to reserve a spot for yourself) are scheduled over the next few weeks. For all of the details, please see http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/events/interact.html The current schedule includes: Thursday, March 3 (10-11:00 a.m. Pacific Time) Scott Colloredo works on the design and development of ground support equipment for the Space Station Program. Thursday, March 5 (10-11:00 a.m. Pacific Time) Frank Merceret leads the team that provides/develops technology for forecasting weather conditions for space shuttle launches, landings or ground operations. Wednesday, March 11 (10-11:00 a.m. Pacific Time) Chuck Davis is in charge of having the necessary storable propellants available for the shuttle launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. If you ever need a huge amount of liquid oxygen, talk to Chuck. Thursday, March 19 (10-11:00 a.m. Pacific Time) George Thomas is one of two people who pushes the button which stops or starts the launch countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center. Once George pushes the button, software programs begin communicating with the space shuttle's systems. No complicated software is needed to join a chat, but a reservation is a must to ask questions. Please come join us to chat with NASA folks with VERY COOL JOBS! RESERVE TIME FOR SPACE STATION EVENTS (NETWORK AUDIO/VIDEO)
A series of special events are soon coming to you via NASA's Learning Technologies Channel (LTC). The LTC offers frequent live programming using network audio and video. These events are truly two-way with real-time chats almost always offered. See http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc If you've never done live audio/video on the Internet, please consider trying it out. You'll need a Pentium or PowerPC class computer and modest connectivity (28.8 or 14.4 Kbps minimum). Various formats (RealMedia, CU-SeeMe, etc) are supported. If you are new to this, success will require some software set up. But the amazing results of compelling NASA content will wow you. That' a promise from your space agency. Later this week (Thursday, February 26, 10:00 a.m. - noon Pacific) is a Space Station Conference targeted at professionals and college students. See http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/info.html for details. Further in the future, please note two tentative events in March. The details will be available soon, but for now you should consider blocking out the following chunks of time: Friday, March 6, 11:00am - noon Pacific Astronaut Dr. Scott Parazynski will present a seminar entitled, "STS-86: Experiences Aboard the Russian Space Station Mir." This is a webcast of an address Scott will be making to the employees of the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California Tuesday, March 10, 10-11:00am Pacific Take an online tour of the real Space Station mockup at Johnson Space Center. This is the most realistic model of the International Space Station and it where astronauts practice their future Station missions. Please invite your friends and spread the word. At NASA, we are having a great space adventure and we hope you'll join us. [Editor's note: Glen is a technician who works on the inside of the shuttle fleet, in the crew compartment and on the flight deck. People call Glen a Ground Astronaut because he sits in the crew compartment and flips the switches and circuit breakers during pre and post-flight system checks. He is one of the last people to leave the Orbiter before tanking and launch and one of the first to enter the Orbiter after a landing on the runway. If that sounds cool, IT IS! But it is not all fun. Glen also has to clean the "potty" and vacuum the floors. Here Glen continues with the third part of a four part story. The entire series is online at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/journals/gdavis/] Glen Davis http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/gdavis.html February 20, l998 The moment has arrived. One of the flight crew members is peeking out the side hatch window. We exchange a few friendly gestures. I'm kiddingly suggesting that we can't find the door knob to let them out. I can't imagine why they are in a hurry to get out of those bulky orange flight suits. Actually, I can relate to being in those suits without purge air cooling you off. I once spent eight hours at open house here at KSC greeting some 40,000 center guests while fully suited in the orange flight suit complete with helmet. They are heavy and very HOT. The flight surgeon gives me the nod to go ahead and open the hatch. The first step is to make sure the commander has vented the pressure from inside the crew module. I have to contact the convoy commander who, in turn, will up-link my question to the shuttle commander. If I just opened the hatch to the orbiter before the venting stopped, the escaping air pressure could hurt the astronaut's ear drums. This is especially true at Edwards Air Force Base because of the higher altitude. I had completed this some minutes before while I was waiting for the crew transport vehicle (CTV) to get into position. I insert a tool called the T-tool. The T-tool is a t-handle wrench with a square end on it, much like a socket driver. The tool has a locking and unlocking lever on it to unlock the door. Once I have unlocked the hatch, I rotate the wrench to the vent position. Once I am sure that it is OK, I continue to unlatch the hatch. In opening the hatch, we have to exert upward pressure on the hatch and then pull outward and allow the hatch to swing down to the full open position. The hatch weighs about 75 pounds. Opening the hatch will take two people because of its weight. The astronaut that I was joking with shakes my hand and thanks me for releasing him. I welcome him and the rest of the crew back to Earth. I extend my hand to the flight surgeon to help him and the rest of his party into the orbiter. They can then help the astronauts out of the orbiter and check to see if they are healthy. After the welcome party has entered, Scott and I will lower the white room platforms. These platforms make it safer and easier for all the work that will go on in the next three to four hours. Now that the hatch has been opened and the platforms have been placed, Scott and I step back into the CTV. In a little while they will start hauling all sorts of stuff out of the crew cabin. We'll get into helping with that endeavor. It's been about an hour since we started to dock with the orbiter. The first of the astronauts is climbing out of the orbiter and being helped into the CTV. Inside the CTV there are large recliners, one for every crew member. They will sit in the chairs and have their vital signs checked. After they get their "ground legs" they will get out of those flight suits and into their blue jump suits. Once all the crew members have left the orbiter, Scott and I will enter the orbiter and relieve the ASPs that went in with the flight surgeon. Well, it's time to enter the crew module and start three to four hours of switch throwing. That's what it takes to bring the orbiter out of flight operations and into ground monitoring. The first step for Scott to perform is to hook up a jumper hose to a port on the potty. This will allow us to bleed or purge any hydrogen bubbles that may have accumulated in the water lines. This procedure is called vacuum vent inerting. I will go up onto the flight deck and relieve the ASP. After I receive an update from the ASP and Houston has handed the operation of the shuttle to United Space Alliance (USA), I will take over. Looking out the windows I can see a beehive of activity outside. The fan truck is parked in front of me, with its 16-foot blade spinning around moving air down the sides of the orbiter. This purges any dangerous air that may be accumulating from the different types of dangerous fluids on board. The tow truck, or tug, is backing into position under the nose of the orbiter. There is a tow bar attached to the tug. The tow bar will mate to the orbiter's nose landing gear for the long tow back to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF). Out the right windows, the CTV is backing away from the white room. They back up and park the CTV parallel to the orbiter. After they lower the CTV closer to the ground they will lower the back stairs so that the astronauts can walk out. The orbiter test conductor (OTC) is calling me on the onboard communications system, telling me our handover to MILA is complete. MILA is a communication center on north Merritt Island, about 10 miles south of the orbiter. What this means is Houston has given control to KSC for orbiter monitoring. The test conductor wastes no time in starting the transition to ground monitoring. The first thing we are going to do is stow the air data probes. The air data probes provide the astronauts with air speed readings. They rotate from the sides of the orbiter into the air stream, pointing forward like a gun. The joke is when someone looks at them and asks, "What's that gun-looking thing sticking out the side of the orbiter?" we reply with, "Oh, that is our on-board laser gun." Of course you know the truth now. Looking up from what I'm doing, I can see everyone is gathering at the back of the CTV. The astronauts are starting to descend to do the traditional walk around the orbiter to look at what they just spent the last 10 days or so inside of. They chat with the workers under the orbiter and with all the NASA and other dignitaries that have come out onto the runway to welcome them home. The next thing will be to put the hard covers over the heads-up display units (HUDs). The HUDs are made up of two pieces of glass that reflect data from four gauges mounted on the front instrument panel. The HUD's glass is in line with the windshield so they are looking through the glass out the windshield. The HUDs are needed to keep the astronauts' eyes and head from bobbing up and down looking for these readings while trying to land. The less the movement the less chance one has of getting space sickness. Have you ever been on a boat in rough water all day? If you have, you probably found it hard to get the ground to quit moving after you got back home. After getting off a Tilt-a-Whirl, did you find it hard to walk in a straight line? Of course, most of you have gotten car sick at one time! Then you have an idea what it is the astronauts are hoping to avoid. After seeing the pilot and commander come down the steps, I can tell you they have been on orbit before, because they are getting around just fine. The NASA administrator, Mr. Goldin, is lining up with the astronaut crew. They are getting ready to take a group photo with the orbiter and runway activities as the back drop. Some of my coworkers standing out of the way have noticed me in the window. I give them a wave and a smile. [Editor's note 1: This story continues a series especially about preparations for the next shuttle mission, STS-90 now scheduled for an April 16 launch. Future stories about this NeuroLab mission will be marked with an STS-90 label.] [Editor's note 2: Tracy works in Experiment Integration, where he gets experiment hardware ready for launch. He installs the hardware and then tests all the power, video, cooling, and data interfaces. All this testing helps makes sure that the experiment will work successfully once the mission begins.] STS-90: IT'S SAFE TO STOP BY MY OFFICE AGAIN Tracy Gill http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/gill.html February 17, l998 It's been one month since my last status message, when the experiment test team and I had last powered up Neurolab experiments. No worries though; the rust hadn't set in yet. The long awaited Spacelab/Orbiter IVT finally got underway on Monday afternoon with the Spacelab installed within Columbia's payload bay at Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) #3. Experiment activities, originally scheduled for 7:00 AM on Tuesday, got started around 10:30 AM due to various delays (minor Spacelab problems, tornado warning evacuation, etc) in the around-the-clock test schedule. For a change, we finished within about 15 minutes of my prediction of 9 planned hours of activities (I can't take all the credit - I had help on this prediction from the Psychic Friends' Network). We powered up all four microcomputers and the Rack Controller and verified they were receiving timing signals from the orbiter's master timing unit (MTU). We performed a maintenance procedure on a spectrometer analyzer and some gas bottles to verify they were still ready for flight. We performed a maintenance run on the two refrigerator/freezer (R/F) units and in parallel verified 5 signals to orbiter multiplexer/demultiplexer (MDM) interfaces for each unit. I am actually still awaiting the results of the data calculated from breakout box voltages to compare them to the MDM data, to be 100% certain this is complete. But from my cursory examination of the MDM data, the values look realistic in comparison to previous R/F data. When this looks OK, I will buy off the two open steps I left to verify this interface. We powered up both Research Animal Holding Facility (RAHF) racks to verify our T-0 interfaces through the orbiter and a temperature MDM signal for each rack. We will use these interfaces for our pre-launch monitoring of the units during launch countdown. We verified commanding for high power, low power, and very low power modes for both racks. We also powered up the biotelemetry system to test our software load procedure for it, which we will be using during launch countdown. Finally, we powered up the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU) and verified MDM commanding and talkbacks for the data recorder (DR) as well as the four pieces of T-0 telemetry for the fish packages, through the orbiter interface. An interim problem report (IPR) was taken during the MDM commanding to the DR but it was a data bus configuration problem in no way related to the experiment hardware or software. The Spacelab console team helped us work through this in the Launch Control Center (LCC), and they are addressing the closure, which I believe is going to be an explained condition, due to the test configuration. The data interface unit (DIU) and DR also performed flawlessly (a first during Neurolab testing!), and we will now be able to close the two VFEU problem reports (PRs) we left open after Level III/II processing. We took quite a few deviations from our planned procedures but not as many as I feared. And as a matter of fact, all our deviations are turned in at this point due to the work of our efficient representative in the firing room during the test (me!). We had the test team spread between three buildings for this test: some were in the orbiter at OPF #3; some in the user room of the O&C building looking at telemetry; and I was at the LCC working with the Spacelab team and monitoring the software we will be using in pre-launch activities. Most importantly, we took no new experiment PRs in the course of the day's activities. Remaining experiment test activities are now limited to MVAK activities at the pad, starting with the L-10 day MVAK. MVAK stands for Module Vertical Access Kit. This is the system we use for late loading of experiment subjects and hardware into the Spacelab module while it is in a vertical orientation inside the orbiter on the launch pad. MVAK activities typically conclude around 30 hours before launch, so it is very critical to understand all the activities in detail and plan and practice them before the actual implementation. Now that most of our testing activities to prepare for launch are behind us, it's safe for people to stop by my office again. The completion of this test has taken a big load off my shoulders. Shew! STATUS OF COLUMBIA PROCESSING
Below, we'll provide some details about the post flight work being done after STS-87 and the subsequent processing of Columbia as it prepares to fly again as STS-90. These reports will contain jargon and unfamiliar terms; our intent is not to confuse you, but to provide a glimpse at all the steps involved. Detailed daily reports about Columbia's processing can be found at the NASA Shuttle Status web site at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/status.htm Since the last updates-sto message, NASA managers agreed to postpone for two weeks the launch of Mission STS-90, setting the new target launch date of April 16, 1998. The delay will permit better utilization of available Shuttle resources to support orbiter processing. Servicing of Columbia's potable water system is complete Installation of the Neurolab transfer tunnel is currently in work. In the Orbiter Processing Facility, work continues on the orbiter's main engine heat shield attach points. Main engine installation, to follow this work, is expected to begin on Thursday. Also on Thursday, the external tank is scheduled to be mated to the solid rocket boosters in the Vehicle Assembly Building. STS-90 SCHEDULED OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): - Shuttle main engine installation (Feb. 26) - Mate external tank with solid rocket boosters (Feb. 26) - Roll orbiter to Vehicle Assembly Building (March 16)
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