posted 06-02-2008 02:51 PM               

During the post-launch walk down of Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the pad team noted severe launch damage on a 100’ X 20’ section of the east wall of the north flame trench (seen here). Broken sections of the flame trench wall were scattered from the flame trench to the pad perimeter fence.

NASA is forming an investigation board.

The flame trench transecting the pad's mound at ground level is 490 feet long, 58 feet wide and 40 feet high. It is made of concrete and refractory brick. The top of the solid rocket booster flame deflector abuts with that of the orbiter flame deflector to form a flattened, inverted V-shaped structure beneath the mobile launcher platform's three exhaust holes.

The orbiter flame deflector is fixed and is 38 feet high, 72 feet long and 57.6 feet wide. The deflector weighs 1.3 million pounds. The solid rocket booster deflector is 42.5 feet high, 42 feet long and 57 feet wide. The structure weighs 1.1 million pounds. The deflectors are built of steel and covered with a high-temperature concrete surface with an average thickness of 5 inches.

There are two movable solid rocket booster side flame deflectors, one located on each side of the flame trench. They are 19.5 feet high, 44 feet long and 17.5 feet wide.

posted 06-02-2008 06:17 PM               

BTW, I would like to give a special shout out to the STS-124 crew and NASA for transmitting the downloaded imagery captured by the crew with full audio. I am currently watching the video they shot of the docking activities on the flight deck. Yesterday's highlights included video shot from flight day one from launch to on-orbit activities. It was a bit cute seeing the discussions between the crew when in the background you also happen to hear the fan for the shuttle's WCS spooling up as somebody on the mid-deck was getting ready to use it.

It has been really cool to watch this coverage in realtime and highlighted without the dialog being muted. This more then anything makes you feel like you are onboard the orbiter as the eighth crewmember. Frankly, I hope NASA can do more coverage like this whenever possible (some crews tend to be more private then others and of course not everything can be shown as if it were an episode of "Big Brother") as it really helps people to comprehend what is going on during a mission.

posted 06-02-2008 11:59 PM               

And watching the first two minutes of the launch with all the shaking going on, no wonder Ares I has some vibration/oscillation issues!

posted 06-03-2008 12:56 AM               

"Anybody need a plumber?"

Heh heh, good one. The ISS initial briefing was very informative. And yes, Sergei wasn't kidding when he said the FGB was a mess with all the stuff they unloaded from the Progress.

posted 06-03-2008 07:25 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
Mark Kelly's first words when the hatch was opened:

"Anybody need a plumber?"

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posted 06-03-2008 07:40 AM               

Discovery's astronauts woke this morning to a song played for JAXA mission specialist Aki Hoshide, chosen by his high school friends: "Hold Me With the Robot Arm" by Yosuke Hanama.

"We're looking forward to a great day, an exciting day for the Japanese Kibo module, and a great day of EVA and robotics," radioed Hoshide.

Mission specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan are scheduled to start STS-124’s first spacewalk at 10:32 a.m. CDT. During the 6.5 hour EVA, the pair will retrieve a shuttle inspection tool, service and inspect components of a solar alpha rotary joint and prepare the largest component of JAXA's Kibo laboratory for installation on the International Space Station.

The spacewalkers’ first task is to transfer the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) from the station’s truss to space shuttle Discovery. The OBSS, which attaches to the shuttle’s robotic arm for detailed inspection of the shuttle’s heat shield, was left at the station for STS-124 during the previous shuttle mission to provide room for the giant Kibo module in Discovery’s payload bay.

Next, the spacewalkers will prepare Kibo’s Japanese Pressurized Module (JPM) for installation. After inspecting the common berthing mechanism on the Harmony Node’s left side and opening a window cover, Fossum and Garan will work together in the shuttle’s cargo bay to remove contamination covers from the JPM’s docking surfaces. Fossum will also disconnect heater cables and remove locking bolts from the shutters of the JPM’s forward window.

For their final tasks, Garan and Fossum will move to the station’s starboard solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ), which began experiencing increased vibration and power usage in the fall of 2007. Garan will install a replacement of one of the joint’s 12 trundle bearing assemblies. Meanwhile, Fossum will inspect a potentially damaged area on the joint and try out several techniques for cleaning debris from the surface of the joint’s race ring.

While Fossum and Garan work outside the orbital outpost, mission specialists Karen Nyberg and Aki Hoshide will use the station’s robotic arm to remove the JPM from the shuttle’s payload bay and install it on Harmony.

posted 06-03-2008 10:11 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr Meek:
By the way, Robert, good LON question yesterday.

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posted 06-03-2008 11:58 AM               

To help prevent the glove damage seen in recent missions from recurring, both spacewalkers will wear gloves with reinforced patches on the thumb and index finger for the first time. The patches are made of the same cut-resistant Vetran material already used in the palm of the gloves, but in a much tighter weave. TurtleSkin patches were sewn onto gloves below the tip of the thumb and index finger, and extra strip of the glove's rubbery outer layer was added over the TurtleSkin to provide grip.

Tests have shown that this TurtleSkin weave greatly increases the Vectran's strength. It is up to four times more resistant to being damaged than the normal weave.

posted 06-03-2008 01:25 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr Meek:
Was this from the Handycam? I couldn't find it.

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posted 06-03-2008 02:52 PM               

Meanwhile, Fossum and Garan are making their way to the station's starboard solar alpha rotary joint to reinstall a trundle bearing and try cleaning its debris-ridden race ring. Though they began the spacewalk almost an hour late, the two have made up the time, now 3.5 hours into their 6.5 hour EVA.

posted 06-03-2008 06:05 PM               

"Congratulations, especially to Tsukuba, we have a new 'Hope' on the International Space Station!" radioed JAXA mission specialist Aki Hoshide.

posted 06-04-2008 10:58 AM               

Karen Nyberg and her crewmates awoke today to "Have You Ever" performed by Brandi Carlile.

The shuttle and station crews will open the newly installed Japanese laboratory Kibo today. Hatch opening is planned for 3:52 p.m. CDT.

After a leak check, mission specialists Akihiko Hoshide and Nyberg will prepare Kibo for activation before opening the hatches. Shortly after entering Kibo with Hoshide, Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov will sample the air and test for contamination. They will wear protective goggles and masks until they are sure the Japanese lab's air is clean.

posted 06-04-2008 04:16 PM               

The joint crews of STS-124 and ISS Expedition 17 were soon to follow, taking advantage of the large area to perform some zero-g acrobatics in celebration of the opening.

Just before opening the hatch, Hoshide took a moment to address the flight controllers in Houston and Japan:

This is a great moment for the Japanese folks. We have the JPM, the Kibo module, installed yesterday and now we have the hatch to be opened. I would just like to thank all the folks, all the Japanese folks that have been working very, very hard. I know it has been, like, 20 plus years to get this module up in space. It is a beautiful module and we have a new 'hope' on the space station. And looking on through the window here, we haven't been in yet, but the lights are on and we can look inside. It looks pretty empty cause we don't have a lot of racks inside. But one engineer said down on Earth, that it looks really empty but it is full of dreams. And I really think that that is what it is.

Aki, we appreciate your words and we also appreciate you, Karen, Mark and the whole crewmember on board for your hard work which led us to this historic moment. Welcome to JEM... enjoy your new module!

posted 06-04-2008 05:04 PM               

Indeed, they did play and pirouette in Kibo for a bit at 5:20pm EDT before getting to work.

"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!", someone (Nyberg?) joked shortly after entering the ISS on June 3rd. That was after her loose hair flew in someone's face while she turned her hair.

I love a women's long hair, and in zero-g too!

posted 06-04-2008 10:45 PM               

I stop there for a bag of 6 every other week myself (alongside a serving of lox (smoked salmon, not oxygen...) A taste of home!

Montreal-local CTV news piece

Story in Montreal's The Gazette

posted 06-04-2008 11:00 PM               

quote:

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Addendum: By coincidence, there were several members of ATK's management at the restaurant where we had dinner tonight. Among them was the ATK representative who was on console for the launch. He said definitively that the solid rocket boosters were intact.

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Sorry about the confusion on this. I was listening to the recovery ships with my HF radio (I'm an amateur radio operator) and heard them radio in that the had the nose cones and three feet of the booster. A fellow operator called and asked me if I heard that - we both agreed it sounded like they were saying they had a part of the booster. I mentioned it to Ricky. I'm still not sure what they meant, but that's what prompted the question.

posted 06-05-2008 06:41 AM               

Flight controllers in Houston broadcasted "Fly Away" by Lenny Kravitz to wake up the crew of STS-124 and in particular one of today's two spacewalkers, Ron Garan.

Garan and Mike Fossum are stepping into the vacuum of space again today. Their second spacewalk this mission is slated to begin at 10:32 a.m. CDT.

The missions specialists will install two cameras on the Kibo laboratory and prepare it for the attachment of the logistics module that was delivered and temporarily docked atop Harmony during STS‐123.

In addition, Garan and Fossum will prepare for a nitrogen tank assembly swap that they will make on the mission’s third spacewalk.

posted 06-05-2008 07:57 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by music_space:
All clean and empty of racks, Kibo reminds me of Skylab's upper deck and the games they played up there.

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Your downlink of yesterday’s Kibo opening is great! But it does lead to a question - were you in the JEM or the gym?

We have not seen that much space in space since Skylab!!!!

posted 06-05-2008 01:33 PM               

quote:

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...were you in the JEM or the gym?

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posted 06-05-2008 05:23 PM               

• ...installed two television cameras to the outside of the Kibo Japanese Pressurized Module. The cameras will assist Kibo robotic arm operators as they move payloads and other items from inside the Kibo module to an external "porch" that will be installed on the STS-127 mission.

• ...removed thermal covers from the joints and the end effector of the Kibo robotic arm system. Aki Hoshide and Karen Nyberg will unfurl the 33-foot, six-jointed robotic arm for the first time Saturday at 11:17 a.m. CDT.

• ...removed a large thermal cover from a common berthing mechanism, or attach point on Kibo. Friday, the space station robotic arm will move the Kibo logistics module from its temporary home on the Harmony module to it's new home atop of the Kibo JPM.

• ...loosened the torque on bolts holding two nitrogen tank assemblies in place, preparing to swap the tanks during Sunday's third spacewalk. An expended Nitrogen Tank Assembly on the starboard S1 truss will be replaced by a new one, which has been temporarily housed on a port truss stowage platform. The Nitrogen Tank Assembly is used to pressurize the ammonia coolant lines on the station's truss.

• ...removed a failed external television camera from the port truss and brought it inside the ISS. It's power supply will be replaced and it will be returned to its position during Sunday's spacewalk.

• ...inspected the space station's port solar alpha rotary joint (SARJ). After removing a cover, Fossum described "features that run along the ring" as lines. "I do not see any sign of metal shavings like we had on the other side. This is a lot cleaner. This is not the kind of surface damage that we had on the other side." Fossum then took photographs of the area. Before closing the cover, he said "It's a smear. The inboard light gray line is grease."

posted 06-06-2008 07:32 AM               

Fiftieth (50th) woman in space, Karen Nyberg started her and her crewmates day with music by the band Innocence Mission and their song "Bright as Yellow".

The assembly of JAXA's Kibo continues today as the shuttle and station crew members move the logistics module to its fixed position atop the newly installed lab.

Aki Hoshide and Garrett Reisman will prepare Kibo's Japanese Logistics Module (JLM) for removal from its interim location on the Harmony node by removing electrical jumper cables from the vestibule between the two modules and depressurizing the passageway.

Then, with Nyberg and Greg Chamitoff at the controls, the station's Canadarm2 will unberth the JLM from the top berthing port on the Harmony node and maneuver it for installation atop the Japanese Pressurized Module (JPM). Leak checks and pressurization of the JLM and vestibule will follow.

The crew also will activate the robotic arm located at the forward end of the JPM.

posted 06-06-2008 03:07 PM               

Karen Nyberg and Greg Chamitoff unberthed it from Harmony at 2:16 p.m. CDT and moved it the 30 feet onto the JPM.

First contact occurred at 2:49 p.m., official installation occurred at 2:58 p.m. and the final bolts were driven in at 3:04 p.m.

posted 06-07-2008 09:27 AM               

"Taking Off" by Godaigo was played for mission specialist Aki Hoshide, as today's wake-up music.

The STS-124 and Expedition 17 crew members will spend most of the day outfitting the Japanese Logistics Module (JLM) and preparing Kibo's robotic systems for initial deployment.

Hoshide and Karen Nyberg will test the Japanese robot arm, most notably its hold and release mechanism. This will set the stage for the arm's initial deployment.

Hoshide and Nyberg will also install additional equipment in the passageway between the JPM and the JLM.

The crew will take a break from their activities to participate in interviews with U.S. media organizations, including CNN, CBS and WDAY-TV out of Grand Forks, ND, at 1:02 p.m. and to speak with Japanese officials at 6:02 p.m. CDT.