posted 02-27-2007 09:46 AM               

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Engineers and managers gathered at the Kennedy Space Center today for the start of a two-day flight readiness review faced an unexpected topic of discussion: apparent hail damage to the foam insulation on the shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank.

A strong thunderstorm rumbled across the Florida spaceport Monday afternoon and officials say closed circuit television cameras at pad 39A showed signs of hail damage to the tank. The extent of the damage and what, if anything, might be needed to repair it, is under assessment.

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This evening, around 1700, Pad A experienced hail up to golf ball size. Damage to the ET was visible on OTV. OTV recorded multiple views of the damage prior to darkness. An ET Team (USA/NASA ET Mechanical and Lockheed ET TPS) reviewed the video imaging of the damage on the external tank. At a glance, the damage is worst than ET-100 (previous rollback with about 700 areas of damage). Damage is at least 1000 and is in the no-debris zone. It also looks like there is damage on at least one Ice Frost Ramp. Visible damage appears to be on the southwest of the tank. However, the north side of the tank was not imaged...

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posted 02-27-2007 10:03 AM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
NASASpaceFlight.com is reporting that Atlantis suffered 20 hits to its left wing and that preparations to rollback the shuttle to the VAB are now underway.

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Is there an "extra" ET ready if this one needs to be replaced? Any hits on the RCC panels? I was wondering the extent of the repairs required and if they implied destacking the whole thing (and if so the impact on this year's schedule..).

posted 02-27-2007 10:20 AM               

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Minor ET repairs in VAB - Possibly make the end of the March 25th window

Major ET repairs in VAB - Might be able to make the April 23rd - May 24th window

R&R ET with the 118 tank - STS-117 will launch in July and STS-118 will move to August 26th

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posted 02-27-2007 05:04 PM               

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NASA officials have announced that Space Shuttle Atlantis will roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repair after Monday's hail storm.

"This constitutes the worst damage from hail that we have seen on external tank foam," said Wayne Hale, manager of the Space Shuttle Program.

Hale said that a number of areas need to be repaired and are not accessible at the launch pad.

The vehicle's slow journey back to the Vehicle Assembly Building will take place over the weekend or early next week. This will give the technicians an opportunity to give the space shuttle an intensive look at the damage and evaluate what it will take to repair it.

"It will be about a month before we can talk about heading back to the launch posture," said Hale, "given the repair schedule and the ISS requirements.

The next launch window opportunity opens in late April and extends out to the later part of May.

The two-day Flight Readiness Review at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will continue in parallel with Kennedy Ground Operations assessment of the external tank damage.

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posted 02-28-2007 06:09 AM               

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Originally posted by spaced out:
Surely it would be possible to produce a simple (and cheap) protective shroud to protect at least the most vulnerable parts of the ET from this kind of eventuality?

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posted 02-28-2007 08:02 AM               

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Originally posted by ysl001:
That's a pretty bad hit for Atlantis and i believe it's the first time the US space shuttle got damaged by a hailstorm too.

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From SPACE.com:

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Hail is not uncommon to NASA’s Florida launch site and has damaged NASA orbiters and fuel tanks in the past, shuttle officials said.

In addition to the May 1999 damage during STS-96, hail also damaged Atlantis’ heat resistant tiles in 1990 as the shuttle was being readied for launch of its STS-38 mission.

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posted 02-28-2007 08:08 AM               

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Originally posted by spaced out:
Surely it would be possible to produce a simple (and cheap) protective shroud to protect at least the most vulnerable parts of the ET from this kind of eventuality?

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"We have had hail a number of times in the past, hail is not unusual in Florida... But usually the hail is quite small and rarely causes damage," said shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale. "This was large, wind-driven, damaging hail."

posted 02-28-2007 08:15 AM               

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Originally posted by ysl001:
...though even some of the RCC panels were damaged too, if i'm nt wrong.

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NASA's press release described the impact to the orbiter as "minor surface damage to about 26 heat shield tiles on the shuttle's left wing." The damage to Atlantis apparently stemmed from ricocheting hail that penetrated the rotating service structure.

posted 02-28-2007 12:36 PM               

Terry !

posted 02-28-2007 02:42 PM               

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Originally posted by kimmern123:
Does anyone know what time of the day Atlantis would be launched if they decide to send her up in late April?

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April 21st is 3:26pm EDT and it gets approx. 23-26 minutes earlier each subsequent day.

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-Ben

posted 02-28-2007 03:05 PM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The payload was installed last week and yes, it will be removed (tomorrow, I believe).

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Would there be any circumstance where it would be acceptible to rollback the stack to the VAB with the payload installed in the orbiter? That is, assuming whatever repairs are needed won't require opening or accessing the cargo bay? (Granted, I suspect they remove the payload on the off-chance something crops up that makes them want to go inside the payload bay.)

I guess what I'm asking is whether it's feasible to rollback with payload in place? I would assume the stresses on the payload wouldn't be any greater than those encountered at liftoff.

posted 02-28-2007 03:34 PM               

The flaws in relying fully on the shuttle for ISS construction kicks in again.

posted 02-28-2007 09:31 PM               

Excuse me, but did I read your post correctly ? You're blaming the STS for delaying the building the ISS ???? Do you actually believe that or are you just spouting the popular anti-shuttle BS line ? If you want to place blame for the delay of the ISS completion, take a look at our Russian partners, not the month or 2 delay caused by weather damage.

I'm getting tired of everyone dumping on the STS as being unreliable, faulty, overly dangerous or obsolete. The STS is an incredible machine that's been responsible for so many outstanding LEO achievements in the science, communication, defense, robotics and satellite servicing fields. Nothing comes close to it.

If it was such a piece of junk, why hasn't anyone else around the world come up with anything better ??? I don't see the Japanese, Chinese, ESA, Arianne or other space agencies developing anything close to the capability of the STS.

The orbiters have landed with so much damage that the techs just shake their heads when post flight inspection reveals broken tiles, burned holes in the wings and other problems that could have been catastrophic, but weren't because of how well it's built.

Sure, would it have been wonderful if Senator Proxmire wouldn't have forced NASA to destroy all of the Apollo hard & software, in exchange for funding the STS. Sure it would be great to have the Saturn V putting large payloads into GSO and LEO, but it didn't happen that way.

The dedicated people who conceived, designed, built, tested, service and fly the shuttle do a brilliant job. The shuttle has it's flaws, but the destruction of Challenger & Columbia were a DIRECT result in failure by NASA & contractor management.

The fact that everyone is in such a hurry to mothball the shuttle, IMHO, is shortsighted and another waste of an excellent resource for our country. But this country is famous for getting good at something, then throwing it in the garbage.

So when I read offhand remarks like you dumping on the shuttle, it really pisses me off. I was standing on the runway for all of the ALT landings, I've attended most of the Edwards AFB landings and I've seen upclose & personal what an amazing machine the shuttle is.

So do me a favor and the next time you want to vent about the shuttle being delayed due to an abnormal weather event, like being beat up by very large hail, don't. I'd like to see what would have happened to any other space vehicle that was left out in that weather.

posted 02-28-2007 10:04 PM               

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Originally posted by mjanovec:
Would there be any circumstance where it would be acceptible to rollback the stack to the VAB with the payload installed in the orbiter?

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Sure. STS-115 was rolled back for the hurricane in August with payload aboard. This time, however, there is the threat of having to destack and send Atlantis back into the OPF, if the damage turns out to be so bad that an ET swap needs to be made.

I do not know the weight limits of lifting the orbiter using the giant sling/crane in the VAB offhand, but I am almost positive this was the main reason for removing it.

posted 02-28-2007 10:07 PM               

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Originally posted by kimmern123:
Will this cause any delays for STS-120 and STS-122? It of course will affect 118, but I just wondered what you think. Turnaround might delay 120 and 122 obviously can't fly without Node 2 already installed.

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According to the story by Bill HArwood:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts117/070227delay/

...it is almost certainly going to cause a change in the dates of each of the next few flights by a few weeks. Atlantis is the launch on need shuttle for 118, and 118's date is somewhat based on the turnaround time post-117. So 118 is likely to slip into July BASED UPON an April 20 or so date.

If an ET swap is performed, 117 will take June 28 and 118 will move to August 26, etc.

posted 03-01-2007 05:07 PM               

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Originally posted by Spacepsycho:
Kimmern123:

Excuse me, but did I read your post correctly ? You're blaming the STS for delaying the building the ISS ???? Do you actually believe that or are you just spouting the popular anti-shuttle BS line ? If you want to place blame for the delay of the ISS completion, take a look at our Russian partners, not the month or 2 delay caused by weather damage.

I'm getting tired of everyone dumping on the STS as being unreliable, faulty, overly dangerous or obsolete. The STS is an incredible machine that's been responsible for so many outstanding LEO achievements in the science, communication, defense, robotics and satellite servicing fields. Nothing comes close to it.

If it was such a piece of junk, why hasn't anyone else around the world come up with anything better ??? I don't see the Japanese, Chinese, ESA, Arianne or other space agencies developing anything close to the capability of the STS.

The orbiters have landed with so much damage that the techs just shake their heads when post flight inspection reveals broken tiles, burned holes in the wings and other problems that could have been catastrophic, but weren't because of how well it's built.

Sure, would it have been wonderful if Senator Proxmire wouldn't have forced NASA to destroy all of the Apollo hard & software, in exchange for funding the STS. Sure it would be great to have the Saturn V putting large payloads into GSO and LEO, but it didn't happen that way.

The dedicated people who conceived, designed, built, tested, service and fly the shuttle do a brilliant job. The shuttle has it's flaws, but the destruction of Challenger & Columbia were a DIRECT result in failure by NASA & contractor management.

The fact that everyone is in such a hurry to mothball the shuttle, IMHO, is shortsighted and another waste of an excellent resource for our country. But this country is famous for getting good at something, then throwing it in the garbage.

So when I read offhand remarks like you dumping on the shuttle, it really pisses me off. I was standing on the runway for all of the ALT landings, I've attended most of the Edwards AFB landings and I've seen upclose & personal what an amazing machine the shuttle is.

So do me a favor and the next time you want to vent about the shuttle being delayed due to an abnormal weather event, like being beat up by very large hail, don't. I'd like to see what would have happened to any other space vehicle that was left out in that weather.

Ray

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Sorry for the misunderstanding. I do not blame this on the Shuttle. I find your attitude towards me a bit insulting as I count myself as a great Shuttle supporter! I was born in 1991 and the Shuttle has been equal to manned space flight for me my entire life. Instead of hanging around the street corners and going to parties, I've been reading the CAIB-report and every other document I can dig up on what I think is the greatest machine ever made by man. Again I must say I DON'T "DUMP OFF" REMARKS ON THE SHUTTLE!!!

posted 03-02-2007 03:54 PM               

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Originally posted by Philip:
Couldn't the guys at the NASA weather stations forecast the hail storm???

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