Space Shuttle "Discovery"

[Texasmujer]

PROTRUDING GAP FILLER? LOGISTICS MODULE? No, this isn't Engineering 101. It's the much more complicated and flat-out confusing language we hear when watching coverage of---or reading stories about---the space shuttle Discovery.

As the world waits for the safe return of the shuttle and its crew of seven, we earthlings scrtatch our heads at the jargon tossed around by NASA officils.

Don't bother reaching for a dictionary. They are technical terms that confound the average person. We know it's important; we just don't know what it means.

Most people know the bsics of space flight: The shuttle flies into space with a crew. The have a specific mission or tasks. They are guided on the ground by engineers and scientists.

But what in the world is a PROTUBERANCE AIR LOAD? Or COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS? And, we're almost afrain to ask" What occurs in a RENDEZVOUS COMMUNITY?

(For the record, they are, respectively: A RAMP, the SCIENCE OF AIR FLOW and a MEETING>)

"There is a vocabulary there," agreed John Ira Petty, NASA spokesman. "And what you're seeing on NASA television isn't always aimed at the public."

WHAT DO THEY MEAN? Here are af ew of the mind-boggling terms you may hear or read while following Discovery's journey.

GAP FILLER: Fire-retardent strips glued between the shuttle's heat shield tiles that protect the shuttles underside.

PROTUBERANCE AIR LOAD: The much-discussed PAL ramp attached to the shuttle's external fuel tank. It is designed to prevent unsteady air flow underneath the tank's cable trays and pressurization lines during launch.

ORBITER BOOM SENSOR SYSTEM: An extension of the shuttle's robotic arm that contains a camera and laser at its end, which allows the crew to inspect the ship.

RAFFAELLO MULTI-PURPOSE LOGISTICS MODULE: A cargo vehicle used by astronauts in space to move equipment from the Space Station onto the shuttle. Named after Italian Raffaelo Sanzio, better known as Raphael.

UNITY MODULE: A 25,000-pound passageway from the Space Station to the shuttle that allows astronauts to walk between the two.

[Tyler_D]

It's due to land at 13:30 today (Scottish Time)

Wish them Luck!

[WeeButtons]

All went well today..

Discovery lands safely after 14 days in space
'We're happy to be back,' commander Collins says



• 'Discovery is home'
Aug. 9: Space shuttle lands safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
NASA

The most exhaustive test flight in the space shuttle fleet's 24-year history ended Tuesday with the shuttle Discovery's pre-dawn touchdown in California.

After 14 days and 5.8 million miles in space, Discovery landed safely at 8:11:22 a.m. ET at Edwards Air Force Base. "Discovery is home," the NASA TV commentator said.

"Congratulations on a truly spectacular test flight," astronaut Ken Ham at Mission Control radioed to the crew as the shuttle stopped on the runway. “Welcome home, friends.”

===========================================

"We're happy to be back," replied commander Eileen Collins, who piloted the shuttle to its landing. "We congratulate the whole team on a job well done," she said.

The seven-person crew made a series of post-landing checks after landing. The last-minute switch from Kennedy Space Center to Edwards due to weather meant the astronauts would not be able to see their families in person until Wednesday, when they all planned to meet in Houston.

NASA’s top officials also had gathered in Florida to welcome home the first shuttle flight since Columbia was destroyed during its re-entry two and a half years ago. "I'm thinking of resigning ... in favor of Eileen Collins," NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said at a post-landing news conference.

With Discovery safely back on the ground, the mission was hailed as a success — even though a chunk of foam insulation broke off from the external fuel tank after launch, leading NASA to suspend future shuttle flights, and even though two protruding bits of filler material had to be plucked off Discovery's belly during a spacewalk. In both cases, the problems resulted in no harm to the shuttle or its crew.

“I hope this shows people that we’re coming back,” NASA spaceflight chief Bill Readdy said from Cape Canaveral following touchdown. “We’ve got some more work to do. We know what we need to do and we’ll do it.”

Discovery's crew had to cope with a series of delays, from launch to landing. A fuel gauge glitch caused the launch to be postponed 13 days until July 26. While in flight, the mission was extended a day to give the crew more time to transfer supplies to the space station. And the landing, originally set for Aug. 8, was delayed a day by poor weather in Florida. The poor weather persisted Tuesday, forcing NASA to divert Discovery to California.

Tuesday's landing was the 50th shuttle landing at Edwards since 1981, but Discovery took a different flight path than its predecessors. Discovery skirted Los Angeles because of new public safety considerations in the wake of the Columbia disaster, which rained debris onto Texas and Louisiana.

The first post-Columbia mission accomplished its two goals: to resupply the space station, and to test the inspection and repair techniques that NASA developed in the wake of Columbia's catastrophic breakup in 2003.

Discovery's flyaway foam was detected thanks to unprecedented in-flight imagery of the shuttle's ascent, and the dangling gap fillers were noted during the most detailed on-orbit inspections ever conducted. The inspections turned up still more flaws, including minor damage to shuttle tiles and a torn thermal blanket — but NASA decided those posed no risk to Discovery's safe return.

Such problems might have gone unnoticed on past flights, because the inspection procedures were not nearly as rigorous. NASA officials said the problems were all part of the challenge of operating an experimental space vehicle — which is how they have come to see the shuttles in the two and a half years since the Columbia disaster.

Investigators said Columbia and its crew were lost because a piece of flying foam — bigger than the one that was seen coming off Discovery's tank — struck the orbiter's left wing, opening up a gap that let hot gases in during Columbia's atmospheric re-entry 16 days later. They also faulted NASA's "broken safety culture" for not paying close enough attention to things that might go wrong.

As part of a $1.5 billion effort to remedy those faults, NASA added scores of cameras to record Discovery's launch, built a new kind of laser- and camera-equipped inspection boom to survey the shuttle's protective skin while on orbit — and encouraged more open discussion of potential problems. Discovery's astronauts tested patches and fillers that could be used to mend gaps in the shuttle's tiles or reinforced panels, and NASA said those repair tools would be improved for future flights.

Public perceptions
Agency officials admitted that all the extra attention may have led the public to think this flight was unusually perilous. Before the landing, Griffin took issue with "people who think this has been a horribly troubled flight."

"This has been a great flight," he told reporters. "As I've said several times, I want to be honest, I want to be open: We made a mistake on the external fuel tank. We have a special team looking at that. We're going to try to find it and fix it. But almost everything we did with the external tank worked. Discovery is six times cleaner in flight than the average shuttle has been."

Griffin and other NASA managers said they would now turn their full attention to making the shuttles even safer. Even before Discovery was launched, an oversight panel said the space agency had to do more to address potential debris problems. At a minimum, the problems with foam-shedding and the tile gap fillers will have to be addressed before NASA launches Atlantis, the next shuttle in line.

Currently, Atlantis is due to fly another test mission to the space station no earlier than Sept. 22, but even during Discovery's flight, deputy shuttle manager Wayne Hale said he didn't consider that "a serious launch date." If Atlantis doesn't lift off by Sept. 24, the next opportunity would be in early November.

Extended mission
Because of that potential delay in the next launch, Discovery's flight was extended by a day, to provide more of an opportunity to transfer spare supplies — including extra water and oxygen — from the shuttle to the station. After emptying the shuttle's cargo module, the crew loaded it up with tons of trash and old equipment from the station.

In addition to testing the repair tools, Discovery spacewalkers Stephen Robinson and Soichi Noguchi repaired one of the station's gyroscopes and replaced another one, bringing the station's four-gyro guidance system to full strength for the first time in three years.

During the third and final spacewalk, the two astronauts installed a storage platform on the station for future construction jobs — and then Robinson took an unprecedented ride on the station's robotic arm to Discovery's tile-covered belly, where he removed the protruding gap fillers by hand.

After the spacewalks, Discovery's seven astronauts and the space station's two crew members found time to pay tribute to Columbia's fallen explorers.

"They knew the risks, but they believed in what they were doing," first-time space flier Charles Camarda said. "They showed us that the fire of the human spirit is insatiable. They knew that in order for a great people to do great things, they must not be bridled by timidity."

[Myers]

Yes, it's great news they made it home safe and sound.

[WeeButtons]

One day I would like to be there when they take off..

My parents aer in Florida for a few months.. and were looking forward to hearing the sonic bomb when the space shuttle reentered.. but .. sadly.. they missed out.. Oh well

[Texasmujer]

That's too bad...I think they would have been pleased to see it. BTW, The space path of the Columbis,(the space shuttle that broke up) was over this part of TExas---actually a couple hours drive north of here; those people 'got the honolr' of cleaning up and discovering pieces of that capsule---I guess I'm telling this sordid news because everyone in the small town of Hemphill actually feels like thsy are now part of NASA's flights---for example, a large part of the Columbia landed in a bank's parking lot. Consequently, that parking lot was cordoned off because it was the scene of government property. This condition lasted for weeks here in Texas---it was an exhausting and emotionally stressful tiem for those residents---and all the other people involved in the recovery of the space debris from the accident. You can bet ALL those residents were anxious for this trip to end well. Thank you for your kind thoughts, Wee Buttons!

[Myers]

have never seen a launch but I have been to Cape Canaveral a couple of times now.. It is an awesome place to visit and the size of the hangers are unbelievable.