STS-129 Pre launch Processing

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

shuttle_guy

Guest
SRB stacking is nearly complete.
ET preps for mate are nearly complete.
Orbiter processing is going very well with a planned roll to the VAB Oct. 6
Launch is set for Nov. 12th however since the processing is going so well I expect the launch date to be moved a few days earlier than Nov. 12.
 
S

shuttle_guy

Guest
The STS 129 flight crew gave us KSC workers a little party today. They were at KSC for their last look at the Shuttle Orbiter before it is closed out for roll to the VAB. This is a traditional party that the crews give to the people that worked on "their" Orbiter. This is a very friendly crew.

One of the crewmen went to the same university as my co-worker.

I asked Foreman if they were going to try to correct the cable problem on the ISS PMA that the STS-128 EVA crewmen were not able to mate a few days ago. He said they do not know yet but they were in the training pool at JSC yesterday trying a few fixes.
 
S

shuttle_guy

Guest
The Russians will not modify their launch plans thus the launch date of STS-129 will not be moved up. It remains November 12th

Orbiter process is going wel with no major issues.
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
Atlantis is scheduled for rollout to the pad around midnight tonight (EDT). It's not currently listed on the NASA TV schedule, but they do sometimes show it. If not, there should be highlights tomorrow morning.
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
NASA has pushed back the launch target for the space shuttle Atlantis to Nov. 16 — a four-day slip — to give its new Ares I-X rocket an extra chance to blast off, agency officials said Monday.

The new shuttle target will allow NASA to squeeze in a third launch try for its Ares I-X mission, a suborbital rocket test flight slated to blast off Oct. 27 at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).

"This opens up three launch opportunities for Ares I-X," NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel told SPACE.com today.

The towering Ares I-X rocket is due to roll out to its seaside Pad 39B launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) tomorrow. The test flight has a four-hour launch window each day between Oct. 27 and Oct. 29.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... dates.html
 
E

earth_bound_misfit

Guest
Normally I dislike the push back of launch schedules, but this time and for this reason I'm cool with it. :)
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
There should be a post FRR News conference on NASA TV this afternoon/evening. NASA is still reporting time as TBD, while spaceflight now says it will be at 6 PM EDT.
Let y'all know if I find anything firmer...
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
Rats, had ISP problems during the newser. I can only confirm the launch time 2:28 PM EDT Nov 16th.

Also heard that the Falcon 9 launch has been pushed back to maybe Feb?
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
L-4 Days - Thursday, Nov. 12

Approximately 5 p.m. - STS-129 astronaut arrival

L-3 Days - Friday, Nov. 13

10 a.m. - Countdown Status Briefing
- Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA Test Director
- Scott Higginbotham, STS-129 Payload manager
- Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer

1 p.m. - Countdown starts (not on NASA TV)

L-2 Days - Saturday, Nov. 14

11 a.m. (no earlier than) - Prelaunch News Conference
- Mike Moses, chair, Mission Management Team
- Mike Leinbach, Shuttle launch director
- Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer

L-1 Day - Sunday, Nov. 15

10 a.m. - Countdown Status Briefing
- Steve Payne, NASA Test Director
- Scott Higginbotham, STS-129 Payload manager
- Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer

1 p.m. - International Space Station Science Briefing
- John Uri, payloads deputy manager, NASA ISS Program
- Naoki Nagai, deputy director, JAXA, Houston office
- Scott Budzien, RAIDS principal investigator, Naval Research Laboratory
- Mike Corson, HICO principal investigator, Naval Research Laboratory

5:30 p.m. - Rotating Service Structure moves away from Atlantis

Launch Day - Monday, Nov. 16

Crew Activities: (times may vary slightly)
About 6 a.m. -- Crew wakes up (not on NASA TV)
About 9:55 a.m. -- Weather briefing (commander, pilot and mission specialist 2) (not on NASA TV)
About 10:05 a.m. -- Astronauts don flight suits
10:38 a.m. -- Depart for launch pad
11:08 a.m. -- Arrive at White Room and begin ingress
12:13 p.m. -- Close crew hatch

5 a.m. - Fueling commentary coverage begins

Approx. 5:03 a.m. - Tanking begins

9:30 a.m. - Continuous launch commentary coverage begins

2:28 p.m. - Launch

Launch + 1 hour - Post-launch News Conference
- Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations
- Mike Moses, chair, Mission Management Team
- Mike Leinbach, space shuttle launch director
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
The spare parts delivered to the International Space Station by Atlantis during the STS-129 mission will mean spare years on the station’s life once the space shuttle fleet is retired.

“You’ll see this theme in some of the flights that are going to come after ours as well,” said Brian Smith, the lead space station flight director for the mission. “This flight is all about spares – basically, we’re getting them up there while we still can.”

With only one U.S. module left to deliver, the Space Shuttle Program is turning its attention to helping the space station build up a store of replacement parts. There are only half a dozen flights left in the shuttle’s manifest before they stop flying, and as the only vehicle large enough to carry many of the big pieces of equipment into space, several of the flights are devoted to the task. This is the first, however, and as the first this mission is dedicated to taking up the spares of the highest priority.

“We’re taking the big ones,” Smith said. “And not only are they the big ones – they’re the ones deemed most critical. That’s why they’re going up first.”

The spares are going up on two platforms – called external logistics carriers, or ELCs – to be attached on either side of the station’s truss, in hopes that wherever a failure happens, the necessary spare won’t be too far away. The ELCs carried up on STS-129 will be chocked full with two pump modules, two control moment gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, an ammonia tank assembly, a high-pressure gas tank, a latching end effector for the station’s robotic arm and a trailing umbilical system reel assembly for the railroad cart that allows the arm to move along the station’s truss system. There’s also a power control unit, a plasma container unit, a cargo transportation container and a battery charge/discharge unit. In all, that’s 27,250 pounds worth of spares to keep the station going long after the shuttles retire.

Some of those spares would be used to replace failed components of the systems that provide the station power or keep it from overheating or tumbling through space. Others, in the case of the latching end effector and reel assembly, are essential parts of the robotics system that allow the astronauts to replace the other parts when they wear out.

“It was a long-term goal to have the full power production capability and all the international partners present and six person crew capability,” said Mike Sarafin, the lead shuttle flight director for the mission. “These are the spares that will allow us to utilize the investment that we’ve put in.”
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
Because of computer sharing issues and the breaking LCROSS water detecton news, it took me a while to post this...sorry.

From this morning's Countdown Status Briefing (CSB)

The countdown has already started. (1 PM EST)

An extra hold at T-33 hours is built in because of the Atlas Launch on the range beginning at 12:48 AM EST tomorrow morning. As long as it goes off on time (70% chance of acceptable weather) the STS-129 launch is scheduled for 2:28 PM EST Monday afternoon. At that time, there is a 90% chance of good weather. If it is delayed 24 hours, either due to a 24 hour scrub, or a 24 hour delay in the Atlas launch, the odds decrease to 70% at the cape, with also Edwards having a risk of showers, and all 3 TAL sites having issues. If the launch is delayed to Wednesday the odds decrease to only a 40% chance of acceptable weather at the Cape.

One issue with the Monday launch not involving weather at the cape is the huge waves in the SRB recovery area in the atlantic due to the persistant strom that has been battering the Mid Atlantic coast for days now. While the wave heights are expected to be extreme (8- 10 feet) the fact that they are long period (9 sec) swells makes it possible for the SRBs to be recovered eventually.
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
The Atlas launch was scrubbed just after midnight and will take a few days to investigate the problem, so the range is clear for the Monday 2:28 PM EST Launch of Atlantis. The countdown clock resumed just after 3 AM and should be at the T-27:00 hold at this time. For some reason the official countdown clock is not available on the NASA website.

It's about 2 days and 6 hours to launch time.

There will be a Pre Launch News Conference NET (No Earlier Than) 11 AM EST on NASA TV, about 2 1/2 hours from now.

At last report the weather was 90% go for a Monday launch. Tanking is scheduled to begin about 5:30 AM EST Monday.

MW
 
V

vulture4

Guest
>>“This flight is all about spares – basically, we’re getting them up there while we still can.”

Because we are cutting off the Shuttle flights. Soon the SSPF and the PLMs will be gathering dust. We won't have the option of adding more modules to the ISS, or any way to launch large external ISS payloads. Just a few years ago the plan was to fly the Shuttle till 2020. Now suddenly it's "the shuttles are old", "the coming end of the Shuttle program", etc. as though this had always been the plan, and the Shuttles were "wearing out", so we needed Contellation to replace them. It's my recollection the Orbiters were intended to make 100 flights each.
 
E

earth_bound_misfit

Guest
Looking forward to it. Better set my alarm clock though.
 
S

Space_Invaders

Guest
I really envy those of you who were around to see the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes. Back then it seems that rocket launches were reported all over the media and that everybody watched them on TV, amazed at the feat it represents.

On the other hand, today it is hard to find any mention of the STS-129 Shuttle launch outside the specialised media, almost nobody knows that there is a Shuttle launching today, and even if they knew, they wouldn't care a bit. It's kind of sad that the public at large is not interested in space exploration any more.
 
T

trailrider

Guest
Space_Invaders":24vqatkk said:
I really envy those of you who were around to see the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes. Back then it seems that rocket launches were reported all over the media and that everybody watched them on TV, amazed at the feat it represents.

On the other hand, today it is hard to find any mention of the STS-129 Shuttle launch outside the specialised media, almost nobody knows that there is a Shuttle launching today, and even if they knew, they wouldn't care a bit. It's kind of sad that the public at large is not interested in space exploration any more.

Yes, the space program was widely covered back then. It was new and daring stuff, and people were generally pretty interested. Unfortunately, we Americans have short attention spans, and are easily bored! :( As early as Apollo 12, some people were calling the T.V. stations complaining that their favorite "soap operas" were being pre-empted by the launch! :cry: At least CNN and Fox tend to carry Shuttle launches, but with NASA T.V. available on the Internet, the media won't carry all the detailed procedures until just before liftoff. I also find a problem with the NASA T.V. coverage, as it is about 30 seconds to 2 minutes behind realtime. For details, I turn off the NASA sound about T-2 minutes, and watch regular T.V.
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
T-3 hours and holding. On track for 2:28 PM EST launch.

The weather forecast is a bit worse with a 30% chance of a low ceiling prohibiting launch.

NASA TV live coverage has begun.
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
trailrider":4pt2ml7d said:
Space_Invaders":4pt2ml7d said:
At least CNN and Fox tend to carry Shuttle launches, but with NASA T.V. available on the Internet, the media won't carry all the detailed procedures until just before liftoff. I also find a problem with the NASA T.V. coverage, as it is about 30 seconds to 2 minutes behind realtime. For details, I turn off the NASA sound about T-2 minutes, and watch regular T.V.

I use different technique. I never shut off the NASA sound, but watch the live images on regular TV with the sound down until about 2 minutes before launch when the uninformed news anchors stop talking (at least on Fox News, on the other channles, CNN and MSNBC, they never STF up :( ) If I listen to the ignorant ones, my creaming at their idiocy raises my blood pressure unnecessarily.
 
D

deepshikha

Guest
Atlantis is scheduled for rollout to the pad around midnight tonight (EDT). It's not currently listed on the NASA TV schedule, but they do sometimes show it. If not, there should be highlights tomorrow morning.
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
deepshikha":30pmzy56 said:
Atlantis is scheduled for rollout to the pad around midnight tonight (EDT). It's not currently listed on the NASA TV schedule, but they do sometimes show it. If not, there should be highlights tomorrow morning.

Uhh, you're a little bit off. Atlantis is on the pad, and scheduled to launch in less than an hour.
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
T - 9:00 and holding.

The updated launch time is 2:28:10 PM EST, about 45 minutes from now. All is on schedule.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
Replies
4
Views
612
S
S
Replies
154
Views
22K
M

Latest posts