STS 125

[Andy44]

Word on the radio is that there was some debris strikes during the launch; doesn't saound like anything major from what I heard.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Word on the radio is that there was some debris strikes during the launch; doesn't saound like anything major from what I heard.

There were some minor "dings" observed on Atlantis during today's OBSS TPS inspection.

Atlantis’ crew completed a planned survey of the shuttle heat shielding today, noting a few dings in tiles that experts will continue to analyze. Flight Director Tony Ceccacci said that upon an initial look, damage found during the inspection appeared to be minor and likely not a concern, but he said experts would analyze it as is normal to be certain the shuttle’s heat shielding is in good shape. The damage included small dings along an area of about 21 inches spanning four of the shuttle’s thermal tiles located on the starboard side of the spacecraft where the wing blends into the forward fuselage.

Also, the flame trench at LC-39A was damaged during launch.

 

[DaveS]

Word on the radio is that there was some debris strikes during the launch; doesn't saound like anything major from what I heard.

It's a streak of superficial tile damage in the starboard chine area. The streak measures 21 in. long. The tiles in the chine area are pretty thick tiles. The streak was noticed during today's OBSS inspections. Here's a ITVC screengrab of the streak: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts125/090512fd2/index3.html

The screen orientation is upside down so the white area below the tiles is the underside of the starboard payload bay door. So forward is to the left while aft is to the right.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Here is the NASA TV schedule for STS-125. The following are the times that the events will be broadcast on NASA TV, they may not be the times of the actual events themselves (although all events will be broadcast live).

I will be updating this as the mission progresses.

ALL TIMES ARE GMT/UTC

Wed 13:
4.01pm – HST move to RNDZ attitude
4.54pm – SRMS grapple of HST
5.41pm – HST berth to FSS
6.01pm – HST survey begins

Thu 14:
12.16pm – EVA-1 begins
1.26pm – WFPC2/WFC3 removal and replacement begins
3.36pm – SIC&DH removal & replacement begins
6.46pm – EVA-1 ends

Fri 15:
12.16pm – EVA-2 begins
1.01pm – RSU replacement begins
4.21pm – Bay 2 battery removal & replacement begins
6.46pm – EVA-2 ends

Sat 16:
12.16pm – EVA-3 begins
12.46pm – COSTAR/COS removal & replacement begins
3.36pm – ACS repair begins
6.46pm – EVA-3 ends

Sun 17:
12.16pm – EVA-4 begins
12.46pm – STIS repair begins
5.16pm – Bay 8 NOBL installation begins
6.46pm – EVA-4 ends

Mon 18:
12.16pm – EVA-5 begins
12.46pm – Bay 3 battery removal & replacement begins
2.16pm – FGS-2 removal & replacement begins
4.16pm – Bay 5 NOBL installation begins
6.01pm – EVA-5 ends

Tue 19:
10.16am – SRMS grapple of HST
11.06am – HST unberth begins
12.16pm - HST Aperture Door opening
12.53pm – HST release from SRMS
1.26pm – Atlantis/HST separation manoeuvre
1.51pm – FSS stow
3.11pm – SRMS unberth of OBSS

Fri 22:
11.55am – Atlantis PLBD closing
3.41pm – Atlantis landing at KSC

 

[agentgonzo]

Like this?

And here's the HST:

Excellent. Just what I was after (I wanted both on the same page, but can flick between tabs in FF).

Cheers guys!

---------- Post added at 11:03 ---------- Previous post was at 10:23 ----------

Imagery of the damage:

Could have been caused by this:

---------- Post added at 12:04 ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 ----------

Does anyone know why the shuttle is flying at a jaunty angle? It appears to be -ZVV (top of the wings into the velocity vector) with a slight roll:
http://quorg.org/misc/chan2large.jpg

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Does anyone know why the shuttle is flying at a jaunty angle? It appears to be -ZVV (top of the wings into the velocity vector) with a slight roll:
http://quorg.org/misc/chan2large.jpg

I think that this is to minimise the risk of MMOD impact (orbital debris). That attitude has the heat shield facing away from the direction that most debris will approach from.

But if you want a textbook answer, ask DaveS

 

[tblaxland]

Does anyone know why the shuttle is flying at a jaunty angle? It appears to be -ZVV (top of the wings into the velocity vector) with a slight roll:

Attitude by the flight plan is "BIAS -YLV -ZVV" so you are right. Pete, that attitude is no good for MMOD because you are exposing the windows to the greatest risk. Maybe it is for radar ranging on the HST?

 

[agentgonzo]

Attitude by the flight plan is "BIAS -YLV -ZVV"...

English?

 

[tblaxland]

English?

Wings into the velocity vector, port wing pointing towards Earth. "BIAS" just means that there is some offset from that nominal attitude but I don't know what the bias is, there is no attitude timeline in the flight plan

 

[agentgonzo]

A screengrab of the NH OMS burn. You can see the glow of the port OMS engine and the glow on the vertical stabiliser (tailfin) of Atlantis!

 

[agentgonzo]

Nice graphic of the TI burn (9.8ft/s performed by the left OMS engine only)

 

[Linguofreak]

[/COLOR]Does anyone know why the shuttle is flying at a jaunty angle? It appears to be -ZVV (top of the wings into the velocity vector) with a slight roll:
http://quorg.org/misc/chan2large.jpg

Because it's running Ubuntu 9.04? :lol:

 

[Oceanic]

Nice graphic of the TI burn (9.8ft/s performed by the left OMS engine only)

is there a reason why they used the left OMS only?

 

[tblaxland]

is there a reason why they used the left OMS only?

If they used dual OMS the burn time would be too short to get an accurate burn. IIRC, Urwumpe mentioned previously that the min dV for dual OMS was 12fps.

 

[Oceanic]

If they used dual OMS the burn time would be too short to get an accurate burn. IIRC, Urwumpe mentioned previously that the min dV for dual OMS was 12fps.

thanks, now that i know that makes perfect sense

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

--MISSION UPDATE--

The Hubble Space Telescope has been captured by the RMS & is now berthed to the FSS (Flight Support System) in the Shuttle's payload bay.

EVA-1 is scheduled to begin today @ 12.16pm GMT/UTC.
EVA crewmembers John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel will:
1) Remove the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2 - pronounced "wiff-pic 2"), and replace it with the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). WFPC2 was inserted into Hubble on STS-61 in 1993, and has not been touched by human hands since!
2) Replace the failed SIC&DH
3) Install the Soft Capture Mechanism (SCM).
The spacewalk is planned to last 6 and a half hours. This will be Grunsfeld's sixth spacewalk on Hubble! He is known among other astronauts as the "Hubble hugger"

No focused inspection will be required of Atlantis's heatshield. However, crews were notified that the imagery from scans of the underbelly and scans of the crew cabin did not sufficiently overlap, leaving a row of 16 heat shield tiles in an area of the port side of the shuttle's nose where there isn't sufficient imagery. The crew will be asked to use the arm's end effector camera to go over that area. The flight director has asked the flight activities officer to potentially insert the brief inspection into the crew's timeline on flight day 5. The survey would take 45 minutes, at most.

 

[ElPelado]

Where can I find info on what each section is? (each section of what we see in this picture, for example)
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-125/lores/s125e007066.jpg
For example, I know the thoe oval holes are the Star Trackers, but what is the smaller hole between them? And what are the two square thins just above the white rectangle (the i think its WFPC 2)

 

[n122vu]

Because it's running Ubuntu 9.04? :lol:

:rofl:

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

--MISSION UPDATE--

EVA-1 has been succesfully completed. Astronauts Grunsfeld & Feustel removed WFPC2, and replaced it with WFC3. WFPC2 was then inserted into the payload carrier previously occupied by WFC3 for the journey back to Earth. The Side A SIC&DH was succesfully removed & replaced. Also, the SCM was attached. There was however some difficulty in attaching the LOCK's, and in the end, one LOCK was only partially installed, and a latch repair kit had to be used in place on another LOCK. The door is question is secure non the less. One lock was installed correctly.

Initial aliveness testing shows both WFC3 and the Side A SIC&DH to be in good working order.

Tomorrow, EVA-2 will begin with astronauts Mike Good and Mike Massimino. The EVA is scheduled the begin @ 12.16pm GMT/UTC. EVA-2 tasks are to remove & replace all RSU's (Rate Sensor Units - basically gyroscopes), and remove & replace the 3 Bay 2 Batteries.


Below are some nice pics from STS-125:

Hi-res: http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-125/hires/s125e007066.jpg

More can be found here: (Pages 24-28)
http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-125/ndxpage1.html

---------- Post added at 23:27 ---------- Previous post was Yesterday at 23:31 ----------

EVA-2 is now complete. All 3 RSU's have been removed & replaced successfully. However, after successfully installing the replacement RSU2, RSU1 failed to seat and bolt into position. While RSU3 successfully took the place of RSU1, the plan moved to placing the new RSU1 in RSU3’s position. This also proved to be problematic. The issue was confirmed to be with RSU1 itself, and the spacewalkers were informed to move to a backup plan of installing an old unit into the remaining postion. This proved to be successful. Hubble now has two new RSUs, and one spare, successfully installed. The 3 Bay 2 batteries were also replaced, with some difficulty. The aforementioned problems set the EVA back by about 1h 50m, and so the EVA was extended for 1 hour so that all tasks could be completed. EVA crew member Mike Massimino had to go back to the airlock to re-charge the batteries on his space suit. In total, EVA-2 lasted 7h 56m, making it the 8th longest EVA in history!!!

Tomorrow is EVA-3 (Grunsfeld & Feustel), scheduled to begin @ 12.16pm GMT/UTC.

The planned tasks for EVA-3 are to replace the COSTAR instrument with the COS (Cosmic Origins Spectrograph). COSTAR has been in Hubble since 1993.

Astronauts will also repair the ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys). Astronauts will have to remove 32 screws from the instrument in order to gain access to a failed circuit board they need to replace. The astronauts will use something called the Fastener Capture Plate (FCP). The FCP will attach to the ACS and will ensure that all of the 32 screws that are removed remain captive and do not float away. The FCP has a Plexiglas cover with holes in it that are large enough for the tool bit to fit through, but are not large enough for the screws to pass out of. Therefore, as the screws are removed, they will captured in the Plexiglas, and held in place so that they can be re-inserted into the instrument. This will be the first time ever that this type of precision work has been carried out on orbit. The FCP for ACS is pictured below.

For some cool pics of EVA's 1 & 2, see here: (Pages 28-33).

http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-125/ndxpage1.html

 

[SiberianTiger]

That's fascinating, thank you Pete!