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S P A C E T E A M O N L I N EUPDATE # 69 - February 8, 1999 PART 1: Delays can be opportunities! DELAYS CAN BE OPPORTUNITIES!
As you may know by now, the Space Shuttle managers announced that they will swap the order of the STS-93 and STS-96 missions. The STS-93 flight, featured in our Female Frontiers project and carrying the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, is now planned for a July 9, 1999 launch date. See the press release at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/news/02-05-99.txt The impact on the Female Frontiers project should be minimal. If anything, the extra time will create more opportunities to get to know our mission. In a journal below, Steve Sides shares with us some interesting aspects of the STS-93 mission and the payload it's carrying. Also, the list of frontierswomen who have agreed to interact with students continues to grow as profiles are completed and brought online. Cross-curricular lesson plans will be placed online soon. Then, this summer the live events from the launch can be accessed over the World Wide Web from school, home, libraries, museums, or a parent's office computer. Until April, Commander Collins' Shuttle, Columbia, will be waiting her turn to launch in the Vehicle Assembly Building. As you know, we at STO have access to "friends" in the VAB. Wouldn't it be fun to speak to our team members at work in that huge building and see first hand how "our" Shuttle fits? We're looking into that and other possibilities, so stay tuned. http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers That does bring me to the series of webcasts we will be presenting from the Kennedy Space Center. KSC is a busy hub of projects surrounding the International Space Station as parts are assembled and tested. We will be taking you for an insider view into the areas where the action is and talking with the people who are doing the work. On the 23rd at 10:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) we will introduce the series with host, Brandt Secosh. Mark your calendars and plan to join us then. As information becomes available, it will be posted at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/iss/series2.html Also from the schedule below you will see that the University program from KSC has been rescheduled for the 12th. We hope our university participants will find this a good opportunity to interact at a level of sophistication appropriate to the university environment. The survey has been mailed and many of you have responded already. Thank you! Please do note if you respond by e-mail: Don't remove the special code at the top of the survey. It makes the information much easier to access and evaluate. It also makes my systems administrator much happier! If you prefer, the survey is available on the web at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/survey/ Thanks for your feedback, Linda UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS: ->Thursday, February 11, 1999, Noon PST (3 p.m. EST) Tony Bruins, system engineer/integrator Most of Tony's time is spent in the Advanced Projects and Analysis Office developing state-of-the-art technology to support flight controllers in the Mission Control Center (MCC). Read Tony Bruins' profile at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/bruins.html Register for the chat at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/special/mlk99/ ->Friday, February 12, 1999, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST) Learning Technologies Channel Webcast from Kennedy Space Center. Targeted primarily for University students in business and engineering, this interactive event will feature James L. Jennings, Kennedy Space Center Deputy Director for Business Operations, addressing the changing nature of the aerospace business and its impact on the Nations space program. This event is rescheduled from Feb. 3. See http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/iss/series.html for more details. ->Wednesday, February 17, 1999 10:00 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST) Welcome to our regularly scheduled video tour of the International Space Station mockup and training facility from Johnson Space Center. You will be able to ask your questions during the tour and have them answered during the event. For more information see: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/tours/ ->Thursday, February 18, 1999 - 9:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. EST) Some Assembly Required - Give your students an inside look at what it takes to assemble the people, the parts and the plan for the world's largest orbiting research facility, the International Space Station. Join program1 at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/iss/program.html Program 2 is listed on the 25th below. ->Tuesday, February 23, 1999, 9:00 a.m. PST (Noon EST) Dawn Riley, First female captain of America's Cup Team See her profile at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/riley.html Register for the chat at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/schedule.html ->Wednesday, February 24, 1999 -10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST) Ruth Simmons, First female to head a major University as president of Smith College - See her profile at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/ Register for the chat at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/schedule.html ->Thursday, February 25, 1999 - 9 a.m. PST (Noon EST) Oran Cox, NASA Quest, QuestChat Project Manager. Oran is also a graduate student at San Jose State University. See his profile at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/ocox.html Register for the chat at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/special/mlk99/ ->February 25, 1999 -10:00 a.m. PST (1:00 p.m. EST) Make It Your Business - Join viewers for a world-wide, interactive forum to discuss the global implications of commercialization of the space industry. A diverse panel of top NASA, university and commercial researchers, international investors, and other experts will take your questions and comments on the air. Join in at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/iss/program.html For continuing Female Frontiers schedule see: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/schedule.html [Editor's note: Steve has been a long-time STO team member. He is a Space Shuttle Flight Controller at NASA Johnson Space Center where he commands the shuttle cameras and assists the shuttle crew with management of the other communications equipment.] Antenna Management Flight Software Upgrades Keeping Me Busy http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/sides.html Interviewer: Lori Keith February 8, 1999 Since my last journal, I have been assigned some new task, one of them involves working on the flight software upgrades for the Shuttle. These upgrades won't be used on the Shuttle for about three years. It's a long lead time, but they want to make sure that all the software on board works right when they actually fly with it so they spend lots and lots of time checking it out. The estimated flight delivery for this software is STS-112. The part I am working on is the antenna management software upgrade, OI-29 release. This upgrade will allow the system to handle more than four tracking and data relay satellite systems (TDRSS). The next version of this software coming out will be used on STS-102 and will be able to handle four tracking and data relay satellites. Currently, we can only handle two TDRSS, though there are six in orbit. Currently, we send commands to the Shuttle to tell it what to look at and which satellites to use. The direct line of site between the Shuttle and the satellite is called a vector, and that is the optimum pointing you can have between the two. The software (I work with) on the Shuttle determines which antenna comes closest to that line to optimize the communications. We use quite a bit of math, especially trigonometry, to do this job. The majority of the math is now done by computers (the antenna management system software on the Shuttle), so most of what I do is write requirements for the software. We have programmers dedicated to actually writing the code in the programming language of HAL. HAL is designed to work with the general purpose computers (GPCs) on the Shuttle. I have been very busy working on this software upgrade project. I have not been doing workstation software upgrades because I have not had time. I will be working on that again in the future, as the ground software will have to be updated to work well with the shuttle upgrades. I do some of that coding when I get the chance. I worked a little on STS-95, when John Glenn went up. Usually a senior flight controller not assigned to the flight will sit with a new controller during a mission. For a few days, I sat with the first woman INCO to ever be certified for the front room, or Whiter FCR (pronounced "ficker"). Her name is Laura Hoppe. The next flight I will be working is STS-93, which will be an interesting flight for the INCO group. This will be the last flight of an IUS, Inertial Upper Stage rocket. The Chandra payload sits on top of an IUS and is launched into a higher orbit from the shuttle payload bay. We won't be using IUS anymore as they are used for extremely heavy payloads. One will be kept in storage, but it is doubtful that we will ever use it. The IUS is built by Boeing and was used to launch the TDRSS, which are very heavy satellites. The next time TDRSS are launched, they will be launched on expendable rockets. The last time IUS was used was STS-70 in July 1995. Because of this fact, we have a lot of re-learning to do. I have been spending a lot of time studying since I will be the lead instrumentation officer for the flight. We have also had plenty of simulations, or sims, to refresh our memories and to teach the new people. These flight-specific sims for the IUS are over once the satellite is deployed. Our biggest worry is that we might have to land the Shuttle with the Chandra and the IUS on board, which is really heavy. We have practiced that a lot during our sims. I'll write more after the flight. STATUS OF COLUMBIA PROCESSING
Below, we provide reports on the processing of Shuttle Columbia taken from the detailed daily reports found at the NASA Shuttle Status web site at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/status.htm. At times 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. A system of temporary sensors have been installed inside the orbiter's drag chute compartment to help engineers better understand the structural stress the vehicle is exposed to preflight. Technicians have completed Columbia's processing efforts to date and are preparing to transport the orbiter to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Wednesday. Columbia will reside in VAB high bay 2 in temporary storage until mid-April, when Shuttle Discovery rolls out of OPF bay 1. Columbia will then be transferred to OPF bay 1 to complete STS-93 orbiter preparations.
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