launch Archives - Rainer Gerhards

2008-02-072019-07-15

Atlantis finally had a good launch!

Hi folks, unfortunately, I was not able to follow Atlantis launch processing closely since early this year. But now I’d like to at least convey the fact that space shuttle Atlantis finally had a good launch and is on its way to the international space station ISS. Let me quote the NASA homepage for now:

With Atlantis safely attaining orbit, NASA mission managers gave the command to proceed with main engine cutoff, or MECO, and the giant orange tank that provided fuel for the climb into space has been jettisoned. As the tank falls away and descends toward Earth, its onboard cameras record the process.

Atlantis’ next stop: the International Space Station.

Cheers and shouts could be heard throughout the space center as Atlantis, carrying the STS-122 crew and Columbus Laboratory, roared off the launch pad into the mid-afternoon sky to begin the 24th mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Steve Frick commands a crew of six, including Pilot Alan Poindexter and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Stanley Love and the European Space Agency’s Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts. This is the first spaceflight for Poindexter, Love and Melvin.

During the 11-day mission, the crew’s prime objective is to attach the European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station, adding to the station’s size and capabilities.

Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani, who arrived at the station aboard Discovery in October, will return to Earth with the Atlantis crew as Eyharts takes his place on the station.

I hope I will soon be able to provide the usual coverage of what’s going on with space launches again. Stay tuned ;)

Rainer

2008-01-162019-07-15

Atlantis now set to launch February, 7th

NASA has announced that Atlantis launch date will be no earlier than February, 7th. Unfortunately, I am currently extremely busy with my rsyslog project and don’t have the usual time to report on launch progress. I hope to be able to resume the usual coverage soon. In the mean time, please let me quote NASA’s shuttle home page:

Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have completed the installation of the replacement feed-through connector in the engine cutoff sensor system to the internal connector. The feed-through connector passes the wires from the inside of the tank to the outside.

The pins in the replacement connector have been skillfully soldered to create a connection that allows sensors inside the tank to send signals to the computers onboard Atlantis.

The work is being done on Launch Pad 39A in anticipation of a launch date for mission STS-122 now targeted for Feb. 7 at 2:47 p.m. EST.

Atlantis’ main objective during its STS-122 mission to the Internaltional Space Station is to install and activate the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, which will provide scientists around the world the ability to conduct a variety of experiments in life, physical, and materials science, Earth observation and solar physics.

Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-123 mission will deliver Kibo, the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s laboratory module, and Dextre, Canada’s new robotics system to the space station. The launch of Endeavour is targeted for mid-March.

NASA managers will meet in the coming weeks to address the schedule of remaining shuttle flights beyond STS-123.

2007-12-14

STS-122 now set to Launch January, 10th 2008

The target launch date for space shuttle Atlantis STS-122 mission to the international space station has now been moved to January, 10th. Originally, it was set for January, 2nd when an ECO sensor problem made it impossible to lift off during the December 2007 launch window. The January, 10th date has now been selected to allow NASA workers to get some rest. They have been extremely busy. The holiday period is now a perfect time to make sure everybody is in a great shape when it comes to the next launch attempt.

As far as I know, launching exactly on January, 10th will not affect the overall shuttle launch schedule for 2008. However, I suspect even a further one day delay means trouble for the flight plan.

And finally, this is what the NASA shuttle home page has to say:

NASA’s Space Shuttle Program managers have targeted Jan. 10 for the launch of shuttle Atlantis’ STS-122 mission to the International Space Station.

“The workforce has stepped up to and met every challenge this year,” said Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “Moving the next launch attempt of Atlantis to Jan. 10 will allow as many people as possible to have time with family and friends at the time of year when it means the most. A lot has been asked of them this year and a lot will be asked of them in 2008.”

The liftoff date from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, depends on the resolution of a problem in a fuel sensor system. The shuttle’s planned launches on Dec. 6 and Dec. 9 were postponed because of false readings from the part of the system that monitors the liquid hydrogen section of the tank.

2007-12-09

No Space Shuttle Launch in December 2007…

NASA has waived off any further space shuttle launch attempts for the December launch window. NASA’s shuttle home page has a quick note about that:

The launch of space shuttle Atlantis has been rescheduled for no earlier than Jan. 2, 2008. The postponement will give engineers time to evaluate false readings from the engine cutoff sensor system that measures liquid hydrogen in the external tank.

As far as I know, a January, 2nd launch will be around 5:45am ET.

It is actually no surprise to me, given the new sensor problems. There is not much more news available as of now, I will keep you posted as I get updates.

2007-12-09

Shuttle launch day? Unfortunately not: scrub!

Space Shuttle Atlantis LAUNCH HAS officially BEEN SCRUBBED. This post contains a full log of the order of events from tanking begin at 5:55am up until conclusion of the first post-scrub press briefing at around 8:30am.

Today should have seen the second launch attempt for space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-122 mission to the international space station ISS. Atlantis should have deliver the European Columbus lab module to the orbiting complex. Read why this now doesn’t happen…

Tanking has begun at 5:55a ET and so far everything is proceeding nominally. At around 6:40a a first status of the ECO sensors, responsible for a three-day launch scrub, is expected. All for sensors must work perfectly today, otherwise the launch will be scrubbed. If all goes well, Atlantis will lift-off at 3:21pm ET, within a very short one-minute launch window. Weather looks favorable, with just a 20% chance of weather prohibiting the launch.

Liquid hydrogen sensor number 3 has failed!

At 6:25a, guys in the control center look relaxed. Let’s hope it remains that way…

All four ECO sensors now indicate “wet”. This is good, but not yet a relief. The problem that caused launch scrub on Thursday did only show up after a series of test commands were sent to the sensors. As of my information, we are still about half an hour to an hour away from these checks.

6:47a: tanking has changed to “fast fill” mode. Last time, the ECO sensor problem occured 16 minutes into fast fill. According to the NASA TV commentator, we should get results of the sensor test in about half an hour.

6:52am: Liquid hydrogen sensor 3 has failed! A minute before that, the NASA TV commentator announced that all four sensors had passed the check, but then, he sadly had to announce that ECO sensor number three failed after a few seconds. Based on the information provided in yesterday’s press briefing, a launch scrub is highly probable.

7:00am: NASA will tank for another half hour. The team is now doing troubleshooting. No launch scrub yet!

7:02am: NASA TV commentator: “the ground rules layed out that we have to have four sensors to proceed with launch. And we have had sensor number 3 fail. So, we are going to do some trouble shooting over the next half hour. At that point we would stop, asses whether we do any further testing at that point and then drain liquid oxygen. Liquid hydrogen will stay in filled configuration.” … “An official launch scrub has not yet been declared, but according to the plan, the rest of the morning is evolving into a tanking test.“

7:09am: NASA TV: “The MMT has asked the propulsion console to come up with a time line on how long it would take to drain the liquid oxygen and then drain liquid hydrogen to 5%”. “The mission management team will … shortly … talk about what our official status will be. Although we have not officially declared the scrub, the commit launch criteria does not permit to continue…“

7:13am: NASA TV: “We continue to fill the tank for another 15 minutes”. Me: Note that this is not in support for a launch attempt but for troubleshooting purposes. As outlined yesterday, NASA will use the tanking to gather additional data, which hopefully provides more insight into the root cause of that problem. Let’s hope that NASA manages to get that highly in demand data.

7:24am: NASA TV officially announces the launch scrub.

7:39am: The NASA homepage officially states that space shuttle Atlantis’ Sunday launch has been scrubbed.

7:55am: Commentator announces that a short news briefing will be held within the next ten minutes or so. Meanwhile, the launch attempt has been converted into a tanking test. NASA is hopeful to retrieve some data pointing to the root cause of the ECO sensor problems. It was also noted that the failure scenario this time was different from what has been seen at the last launch attempt on Thursday.

8:00am: mission management team meeting set for 9:00am. Liquid oxygen tank is being drained.

I just picked up this picture from NASA TV. It shows members of the mission management team discussing after space shuttle Atlantis second launch attempt had been scrubbed.

8:14am: Press briefing begins. NASA launch director Doug Lyons is interviewed by public relations officer George Diller.

Mr. Lyons explained: “All the voltages had good readings as well. We were very excited. We thought we had a good system and ready to fly today. We continued monitoring and then we saw sensor number 3 go dry to wet, which was a failure.” He added that based on the launch commit criteria set yesterday, that meant the launch had to be scrubbed.

As already said, today is now devoted to troubleshooting. Mr. Lyons: “We do have a troubleshooting plan in place. We stopped the flow on the liquid hydrogen (LH2) system and put it into a stable posture configuration. And we drain the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, than we focus on LH2, we drain down to 5% and stop there and then monitor the system for four hours and see how these systems behave. Then we drain and secure the pad.” I assume that this is done in order to see how thermal changes may affect sensors and their connections to the orbiter.

Mr. Lyons noted that the failure was not much different from Thursday’s failure: “The only difference is sensor 3 and 4 failed Thursday, and today just sensor number 3. It failed in the same time frame and the same manner.” It should be said, however, that every time before there was trouble with the ECO sensors, that trouble “magically disappeared” (to quote Wanye Hale) on second tanking. That was the rational for attempting a launch today. So something is different to previous experience.

Asked on how to proceed now, Mr. Lyons declined to comment: “We have a 9am mission management team meeting and discuss our options. It would be speculation at this time to try to make a guess on which direction we head. We have multiple options. We will put something together and then implement it after that meeting.“

After the interview, NASA TV ended its coverage of today’s launch attempt at 8:21 am. ET.

Press conference is whenever the mission management team meeting concludes. My personal guess is this will be in the late afternoon/evening time frame.

I, too, will now conclude coverage of the launch attempt on this blog page. I’ll now stick to other things and wait for the press conference. Should exciting news happen, I hope to pick it up. If so, I’ll create a new posting on my blog. Thanks everyone for reading.

And a shameless self-promo plug: if you liked this article, share it and send a link to it to your friends ;)

2007-12-09

Sunday Space Shuttle Launch Scrubbed!

Now it is official – today’s space shuttle Atlantis launch has been scrubbed due to a problem with ECO sensor number three.

Quote from the NASA home page:

Today’s launch of space shuttle Atlantis has been officially scrubbed. It was announced on NASA TV at 7:24 a.m. EST.

Of the four engine cutoff sensors, ECO sensor number three gave false readings. NASA’s current Launch Commit Criteria require that all four sensors function properly. The sensor system is one of several that protect the shuttle’s main engines by triggering their shut down if fuel runs unexpectedly low.

Atlantis’ scheduled launch on Thursday was delayed after two of the four engine cutoff, or ECO, sensors in the shuttle’s external fuel tank gave false readings. A third sensor failed after the tank was drained of fuel. The sensor system is one of several that protect the shuttle’s three main engines by triggering their shut down if fuel runs unexpectedly low.

2007-12-08

Atlantis “go” for Sunday launch

The meeting today went along the lines of the last meeting. Atlantis is now set to launch on Sunday at 3:21pm ET. NASA TV launch coverage begins at 6am ET. Tanking will start at 5:55am. Any sensor problems should manifest within one hour after tanking start, but of course it may also occur at any time later. The final test on the sensors is at T-9 minutes but they will be monitored down until T-31 seconds. Then, the automatic procedures are called in. At this point, a sensor failure will no longer cause a launch scrub.

The information in my last space shuttle Atlantis launch write-up is still valid. Except, of course, that NASA is now go for launch on Sunday. Weather conditions are favorable for launch, around 80% chance of launch. The emergency landing sites are also mostly “go”. A 24 hour delay bring slightly less favorite weather, with a “only” a 70% chance for launch on Monday. Interestingly, 70% were also mentioned for Tuesday (not previously considered a potential launch day).

A launch scrub on Sunday because of the ECO sensors does not outrule a launch attempt on Monday.

Mr. Hale strongly expressed the view that even if things go really wrong after liftoff, there are ample safe abort modes. This includes landing in Europe as well as aborting to a lower orbit. He re-iterated that a launch abort scenario is highly unlikely.

Launch attempts on Sunday and Monday will preserve the potential two-day mission extension to do an extra spacewalk. Later launch attempts may also preserve it, there is some planning underway.

The number of tankings and detankings, including tests, is limited because each tanking increases the risk of foam debris. This is because the ultra-cool propellants cause stress on the tank material, cause it to shrink and expand.

Future missions will see a number of changes, for examples in the engines. Mr. Hale states that he has tasked “considerable resources” to fix the ECO sensor system issue for future flights.

Finally, let me just quote the NASA home page:

Today’s Mission Management Team meeting has concluded. We are “go” for a Sunday launch attempt.

A post MMT news conference on NASA TV is set for approximately 4:30 p.m. EST. The participants will be Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager, LeRoy Cain, MMT chairman, Doug Lyons, STS-122 launch director, and U.S Air Force Captain Chris Lovett, 45th Weather Squadron.

So let’s hope we see this tomorrow afternoon:

2007-12-08

Next shuttle launch attempt Sunday

The next shuttle launch attempt for Atlantis STS-122 mission is now set for Sunday at 3:21p. As it looks, NASA now actually attempts to fly without the ECO sensors. As I have written in my essay yesterday, that is not necessarily a bad thing to do.

To do this, new guidelines (procedures) for both the astronauts as well as mission control need to be developed. This is quite complex. It could not be done to support a Saturday launch. It is hoped that the additional one day of delay allows to finish those procedures.

On close look, the launch window has also been shrunk. It is now just a one-minute launch window. It obviously is done to preserve fuel. The primary risk of launching without the ECO sensors is fuel depletion. The best mitigation is to make sure to have enough propellants on board. Depending on when the shuttle is launched, there is more or less fuel needed to reach the desired orbital position. This is a matter of seconds. So NASA is now going for the optimal launch Window with the least fuel consumption. While this increases the risk of launch scrub, it reduces the risk of running out of fuel. It obviously is an excellent decision to go for the short launch window.

There is another mission management team meeting today. They will look at new data as well as the status of the new launch procedures. Depending on how things are, they will give a “go” for Sunday launch – or not. This is how to react to a situation like the one that is faced now: do the right thing to support the mission, but keep an eye on all options until the last minute.

And a word to those of you who need to leave Kennedy Space Center before launch (like fellow launch viewer Bill Rose). I know your disappointment. I know it too well. I went through all of this myself in summer of 2006, when I tried to view Atlantis STS-115 mission. Even though I had quite a lot of time to stay there, it was delayed so often (and even because of a Hurricane!) that I finally needed to leave. That was a sad experience. However, I am glad that they only launch when it is as safe as possible and I am sure you will agree with me.

What I recommend is to go to th Kennedy Space Center today and try to get on the up close tour. I am not sure if it runs due to the current pad activity. But if it does, it will probably provide a great experience, getting you as close to a real space shuttle as you never again will be in your life. It doesn’t matter if the RSS is still blocking some of the view, it will be spectacular in any case.

Now let me quote the NASA homepage to also get the official word over to you:

NASA is targeting the launch of space shuttle Atlantis no earlier than Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3:21 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Shuttle program managers made the decision after a meeting Friday to review data on a problem with a fuel cutoff sensor system inside the shuttle and its external fuel tank.

Because of the length of the meeting, the managers agreed that targeting Sunday would allow the launch and management teams appropriate time to rest and prepare. The Mission Management Team will meet Saturday at 1 p.m. to decide whether to make a Sunday attempt. A news conference will be held after the meeting’s conclusion.

2007-12-07

Trying to preserve extra EVA

Now I know why there is no tanking test today. CBS’ status report (a long reading with many details) provides the reason: it is to preserve the capability to do an extra EVA (“extravehicular activity”, also known as a “spacewalk”) on the STS-122 mission.

Each launch attempt draws at least a bit from the internal consumables. Let me quote the relevant part from CBS’s page:

In the meantime, NASA managers ruled out a fueling test Friday and decided instead to top off the shuttle’s onboard supply of liquid hydrogen to power the ship’s electricity producing fuel cells. That would permit launch attempts Saturday and Sunday and still provide enough on-board supplies for a two-day mission extension and the addition of a fourth spacewalk.

This makes an awful lot of sense if you take the problems with the international space station’s solar array rotary joint into account. While that poses no problem for Columbus, I think the Kibo module can not be attached (or at least not sufficiently be powered) if the SARJ issues has not been solved until then.

NASA is hoping for a two-day mission extension to do an extra spacewalk in support of the SARJ issue. However, this is only possible if consumables permit. Having full tanks on launch is a number one requirement to achieve that goal…

2007-12-07

STS-122 launch status Update…

After the scrub of yesterday’s launch attempt, space shuttle Atlantis will launch not earlier than Saturday, December, 8th 2007. However, even that date is under consideration.

The Rotating Service Structure is being reattached to Atlantis
As of the press briefing yesterday night, there were issues with two of the ECO sensors. This was known and expected. However, NASA also told that there were some anomalies with some other ECO sensors. So right now this looks like a much bigger issue than it originally appeared. I personally think the chance for a simple sensor error is weak – why then do we have these multiple failures? So the solution is probably somewhere in either electronics or their connection path to the sensors. And if that’s the case it is questionable if it can be fixed at the pad.

In the press conference, it was stated that today should be a tanking test. However, the RSS has been re-attached to Atlantis and I have been told that no tanking test can be done with the RSS attached. Whatever they do, there is only very limited ability to repair systems within the 48 hour scrub window.

Consequently, also stated on the press conference, the Saturday launch will most probably only happen if NASA finds rationale to fly with two dead sensors. If these two sensors consistently behave wrong and the other two work well, there might be good reason to fly as is. In my personal opinion, though, this is not likely, because the other sensors also seem not to work consistently.

In short words: the guessing game is open. I do not expect any more solid information until after today’s press conference, which is scheduled around 5pm ET.