NASA contractor technicians are prepping shuttle Discovery's orbital maneuvering system for flight today while engineers attempt to come to solve a vexing problem with cabling that links the spaceship with a radio communications antenna.In Orbiter Processing Facility Bay No. 3, technicians are connection propellant lines to cross-feed valves that are capable of routing fuel or oxidizer between supply tanks and either of Discovery's twin maneuvering engines. Cross-feed valves in the system also can route propellant between the supply tanks and the shuttle's nose-and-tail steering jets.
The plumbing system provides redundancy for propellant distribution in the shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering System and Reaction Control System.
Engineers, meanwhile, are trying to find adequate cabling for the orbiter's S-Band communications system. A faulty cable was removed following the shuttle's last flight in April. An initial replacement failed tests and three others have proven to be too short.
Engineers are evaluating the situation. The problem is not expected to impact Discovery's mid-September move to the Vehicle Assembly Building or its targeted Nov. 1 launch.
The S-Band communications system is used to transmit radio signals directly between the orbiter and the ground or through NASA Tracking and Data Relay System (TDRS) satellites. The also can be used to transmit signals between the orbiter and free-flying payloads.
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA image of technicians re-installing Discovery's right-hand Orbital Maneuvering System pod. The pod was removed for inspections and refurbishment after Discovery's last flight in April. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky.
3 comments:
And why is this newsworthy? Seems as though FT has a bit of trouble filling up page space. Surely they can put even more ads in the paper.
Anyone notice how fast the story on the Air Force's special jet sitting at Patrick disapeared off the front web page? Hmmm? Think they got a call from security out there? LOL!!
Face It, Details of space flights are not very newsworthy anymore unless something catastrophic happens like when they blow up.
NASA SPACE PROGRAM HAS BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN A GLORIFIED SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAM OVER THE LAST DECADE.
WHERE'S ALL THE YOUNG MINDS OF THE PAST WHO INITIALLY STARTED THE SPACE PROGRAM OR ARE THEY A THING OF THE PAST?
It would be wiser for NASA to start over again and this time prove their worth expanding space exploration. If NASA engineers can't do the job then let the commercial market put people in space. The enormous NASA bureaucracy & hubris only gets in the way of progress. NASA: too many people, making too much money, doing too little, running on the fumes of past glory.
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