STS-119 in-flight thread.

[bobw]

I heard an answer to that question during a recent news conference.

1. As originally planned, the abort path for Soyuz approach to docking went that way. That has been changed so is no longer a factor.

2. Soyuz brings crew members involved with change of command and it will cause a lot of confusion to change command while shuttle is unloading cargo.

3. When Shuttle goes up the ISS crew helps them keep to schedule. When Soyuz is up the ISS crew helps them keep to schedule. If both dock at the same time they are short of manpower.

He ended up by saying that Soyuz could dock with Shuttle there but they prefer not to do it. It is a logistics problem, not physics.

 

[bobble_bob]

Interesting question about laws in space. Never really thought about it before but its interesting to know what laws would apply while up there

 

[Zipi]

Interesting question about laws in space. Never really thought about it before but its interesting to know what laws would apply while up there

You can find information about space laws from this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law

In the middle of article there is ISS section which contains link to ISS specific agreement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_ ... of_the_ISS

There is also a nice summary about "Political and financial aspects" of ISS at the first quarter of ISS main article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internatio ... ce_Station

 

[Zipi]

Does somebody know what EVA tasks will be left out since one of four space walks was cut out? And will station crew commit those tasks later on or how they will handle those?

 

[bobble_bob]

Cheers Zipi for the links.

Regarding the EVA that was cut from the mission. Im not sure on the specifics, but they said prior to launch that all major goals will be completed on the mission, and the things they have had to cut out were get ahead tasks that can be completed with a stage EVA once Discovery undocks

 

[bobble_bob]

When space shuttle Discovery launched on Sunday, it was carrying one surprise passenger: a small, and probably quite confused, Mexican free-tailed bat. An inspection team noticed the bat sleeping about a third of the way up the external fuel tank prior to launch, but everybody assumed that the bat (affectionately named “Interim Problem Report 119V-0080″) would wake up and fly away as soon as Discovery’s engines lit. Instead, visual and infrared imagery confirmed that the little guy was still there, alive and holding on, up until after Discovery cleared the tower.

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2009/03/18/bat-r ... rnal-tank/

How the hell did it not fly off :lol:

 

[silylene]

Rather sad, but here is a picture of the first bat which went into space. Apparently from its posture, biologists can tell that it had a hurt or broken wing, and bats with this problem try to avoid flying until it heals.

 

[silylene]

Picture of the shuttle launch, taken from the ISS which happened to be overhead:

Edit: I just realized that the link I had was two years old, this is not STS-119.

 

[silylene]

Simply beatuiful. Another picture in the series:

 

[summoner]

IIRC, those were taken by a high flying aircraft.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Spacewalk to install the S6 truss is underway now live on NASA TV.

 

[bobble_bob]

PAO on Nasatv just used the word sticksion regarding the arrays sticking.

I like the word sticksion :lol:

 

[drwayne]

I have worked programs in which we had to dither to avoid sticktion.



Wayne

 

[bobble_bob]

Any reason why they need the ISS at a higher altitude when deloying the arrays?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Any reason why they need the ISS at a higher altitude when deloying the arrays?

I don't believe that's a requirement.

Deployment will begin soon, and if all goes well should be finished in about 2 hours.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Deployment of the S6 array has officially begun, live on NASA TV now.

 

[bobw]

Stiction is a pretty common word in industrial control. Sticky valves or actuators can cause the control loop to wind up and when the valve finally moves the control output command is too high and the process overshoots.

I wonder if bobble_bob misheard altitude when they said they were at the deploy attitude, holding the station pointed at the sun all the way around the orbit to warm up the arrays.

15 1/2 bays deployed and holding for 1/2 hour more. Everything looks OK so far.

 

[bobble_bob]

I wonder if bobble_bob misheard altitude when they said they were at the deploy attitude, holding the station pointed at the sun all the way around the orbit to warm up the arrays.

Ah yea it may have been that. Had it on in the background so wasnt fully listening at the time

 

[MeteorWayne]

Full deploy of the first array underway now...

 

[MeteorWayne]

First array is fully deployed, and looks good so far.

 

[bobw]

The second array is extending now. 5 bays deployed.

Edit: Halfway out and holding.

Edit Again: Both sides all the way out. Tension OK

Station back on normal attitude control.

 

[aaron38]

Just by accident, I wasn't even looking for it but it was unmistakable, I saw the station go over Chicagoland on Monday (16th) at twilight. It was incredibly bright orange, I'd guess -5 or -6 magnitude, far brighter than Venus. With the S6 array deployed now, it'll be what, 33% brighter? Wow.

 

[MeteorWayne]

It's hard to believe it was actually -5 magnitude, but since I didn't see it, I can't say. I look forward to the next good pass. Unfortunately, all of mine fore the next week are very low elevation right along the horizon (max elevation 26 degrees, tonight)

 

[Zipi]

It's hard to believe it was actually -5 magnitude, but since I didn't see it, I can't say. I look forward to the next good pass. Unfortunately, all of mine fore the next week are very low elevation right along the horizon (max elevation 26 degrees, tonight)

You should be glad to see it even at sometimes... Here at Finland (city called Imatra) we don't have a possibility to see it. As far as I have understood we are too far at north to see the ISS even we would like to see it. If somebody can confirm otherways, I'm glad.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Zipi, that is not correct. It is visible low on your southern horizon; here's the list for the next few days...

http://heavens-above.com/PassSummary.as ... =74&tz=EET