SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL AEROSPACE REPORTS

A Biweekly Publication of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
VOLUME 43, ISSUE 16 - AUGUST 12, 2005

14 GROUND SUPPORT SYSTEMS AND FACILITIES (SPACE)
Includes launch complexes, research and production facilities; ground support equipment, e.g., mobile transporters; and test chambers and simulators.

Also includes extraterrestrial bases and supporting equipment.

For related information see also 09 Research and Support Facilities (Air).

20050192486 NASA Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, FL, USA

Trial by Fire

Covault, Craig; Aviation Week and Space Technology; July 11, 2005; ISSN 0005-2175; Volume 163, No. 2, pp. 60; In English; Original contains color illustrations; Copyright; Avail: Other Sources

The NASa/ATK Thiokol space shuttle solid rocket motor program has doubled ground test firings and enhanced manufacturing quality and process control to increase safety for Discovery’s return to flight. There are a number of places where we’ve strengthened our engineering and our processes, says Mike Kahn, ATK Thiokol vice president of space launch systems. Protecting the booster against corrosion in the humid Florida environment is one area that has been addressed. Since the loss of Columbia, ATK Thiokol and the Marshall Space Flight Center have completely reevaluated the shuttle solid rocket motor’s design certification and found no major problems, Kahn said. The Thiokol solid motors did not play a role in the 2003 Columbia accident, but the motor’s older field joint design (since replaced) was the primary cause of the 1986 Challenger accident that killed seven astronauts. The 129 X 12-ft. ATK Thiokol reusable solid rocket motor forms the core of the shuttle’s two solid rocket boosters (SRBs). United Space Alliance (USA) has overall responsibility for the booster’s nose-mounted systems such as recovery parachutes and aft-mounted thrust vector control systems that increase the length to 149 ft. USA and its subcontractors have also reaffirmed quality control on systems such as the booster’s Hamilton Sundstrand hydraulic power units for critical thrust vector control. And to ensure greater safeguards against booster debris jeopardizing the orbiter, a bolt-catcher system to restrain the large bolts, severed at booster separation, was also redesigned. Derived from text

Booster Rocket Engines; Solid Propellant Rocket Engines; Space Shuttle Boosters

20050192490 NASA, Washington, DC, USA

One More Time

Morring, Frank, Jr.; Aviation Week and Space Technology; July 11, 2005; ISSN 0005-2175; Volume 163, No. 2, pp. 32-33; In English; Original contains color illustrations; Copyright; Avail: Other Sources

NASA engineers on the Hubble Space Telescope program are actively preparing a shuttle mission to service the orbiting observatory, perhaps as early as 2007, pending a safe return to flight of the shuttle fleet. Administrator Michael D. Griffin must give final clearance to mount the mission, scuttled by former Administrator Sean O’Keefe on what he said were safety grounds in the wake of the Columbia accident. But Griffin, who has overturned much of O’Keefe’s policy in his three months on the job, has already told the Hubble program to proceed as though the mission will take place. In that, he has at least the acquiescence of Harold Gehman, the retired admiral who headed the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). The CAIB never intended its recommendations to preclude a shuttle-borne Hubble servicing mission, Gehman says, and its members still believe the risk would be no greater than missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Derived from text

Hubble Space Telescope; International Space Station; Space Shuttle Missions

20050192642 NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

Concept Defined for the International Space Station’s Fluids and Combustion Facility

Winsa, Edward A.; Research and Technology 1999; March 2000; 2 pp.; In English; No Copyright; Avail: CASI; A01, Hardcopy

The Fluids and Combustion Facility (FCF) will occupy three powered racks and one stowage rack on the International Space Station (ISS). It will be a permanent modular, multiuser facility to accommodate microgravity science experiments onboard the ISS s U.S. Laboratory Module. FCF will support NASA Human Exploration and Development of Space program objectives requiring sustained, systematic research in the disciplines of fluid physics and combustion science. The two disciplines share racks and mutually necessary hardware within FCF to dramatically reduce costs and effectively use ISS resources. Even with the cost of FCF development included, experimentation using FCF on the space station will cost only half of what it did on the space shuttles. Derived from text

Space Programs; Combustion Chambers; Fluid Dynamics; International Space Station

20050192643 DYNACS Engineering Co., Inc., USA

Hubble Space Telescope Program on STS-95 Supported by Space Acceleration Measurement System for Free Flyers

Kacpura, Thomas J.; Research and Technology 1999; March 2000; 4 pp.; In English; No Copyright; Avail: CASI; A01, Hardcopy

John Glenn’s historic return to space was a primary focus of the STS 95 space shuttle mission; however, the 83 science payloads aboard were the focus of the flight activities. One of the payloads, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital System Test (HOST), was flown in the cargo bay by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. It served as a space flight test of upgrade components for the telescope before they are installed in the shuttle for the next Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. One of the upgrade components is a cryogenic cooling system for the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). The cooling is required for low noise in the receiver’s sensitive electronic instrumentation. Originally, a passive system using dry ice cooled NICMOS, but the ice leaked away and must be replaced. The active cryogenic cooler can provide the cold temperatures required for the NICMOS, but there was a concern that it would create vibrations that would affect the fine pointing accuracy of the Hubble platform. Derived from text

Hubble Space Telescope; Space Transportation System; Acceleration Measurement

Source: NASA.