STS-130 Pre Launch Discussion

[MeteorWayne]

Work to modify hoses needed to route ammonia coolant to and from a new space station module is running on or ahead of schedule and the new lines should be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in time for an on-schedule launch Feb. 7, officials said Wednesday.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/s ... 120tcdtqa/

 

[Zipi]

STS-130 Mission Patch:

 

[MeteorWayne]

During the weekend, ground teams on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will close Endeavour's payload bay doors for flight.

On Jan. 27, an executive-level Flight Readiness Review meeting will be held at Kennedy to assess the readiness of the shuttle, flight crew and payloads to proceed with the countdown.

The official launch date will be set at the review and announced during a press briefing following the meeting.

 

[Zipi]

Information about PMA-3 moves before and after Tranquility is installed:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/s ... 00125pma3/

Saturday's PMA-3 relocation:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDveaF6iN_0[/youtube]

 

[Zipi]

Feb. 7 launch date has been confirmed and countdown seems to be running at NASA's shuttle pages:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

And here is link to SDC's small article:

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sp ... 00127.html

 

[MeteorWayne]

NASA Sets Shuttle Endeavour Prelaunch Events and Countdown Details CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- News conferences, events and operating hours for the news center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are set for the upcoming launch of space shuttle Endeavour.

The shuttle's STS-130 mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off at 4:39 a.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 7. STS-130 is the final scheduled shuttle night launch.

Detailed countdown milestones, news briefing times and participants, and hours of operation for Kennedy's news center and media credentialing office are available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news

A NASA blog will provide countdown updates beginning at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6. Originating from Kennedy, the blog is the definitive Internet source for information leading up to launch. During the mission, visitors to NASA's shuttle Web site can read about the crew's progress and watch the mission's three spacewalks live. As Endeavour's flight concludes, the NASA blog will detail the spacecraft's return to Earth. For NASA's launch blog and continuous mission updates, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

The NASA News Twitter feed will be updated during the launch countdown, mission and landing. To follow, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/NASA

STS-130 astronaut Nicholas Patrick will be tweeting about his pre-launch preparations and providing updates to his Twitter account during the shuttle mission. Follow Patrick at:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Nicholas

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

 

[shuttle_guy]

Late last week a fire protection 4 or 5 in diameter water line burst on the 4th floor of the Launch Control Center.
water flooded all floors down to the first floor. Clean up is in work however no one is allowed into the LCC except the clean up crew and the damage assessment team. All electrical power was shut down. The impact to launch ops especially STS-130 is currently unknown.

 

[3488]

Lets hope the delay is not for long.

Any idea as to what caused the burst?

Andrew Brown.

 

[shuttle_guy]

Lets hope the delay is not for long.

Any idea as to what caused the burst?

Andrew Brown.

I do not know what caused the problem. I have not been at work since Jan. 5th.

 

[Testing]

Consider the age of the facility. Corrosion happens inside pipes. The rain we saw here in California a few weeks ago revealed leaks in the roof we had never seen before. Two years back we had ash from the fires in the test lab thru skylight gaps. DooDoo happens to everyone.

 

[IHC]

Please forgive me if this is an inappropriate place to post this request/question.. by all means move if need be.

My wife and I are about to turn 40, so being UK based and having always holidayed at home we have booked the big family holiday of a lifetime to florida. Taking my 11 year old son to the Kennedy Space Centre will be a highlight for us both and is something which I know will effect me greatly when I see that 'awe and wonder' on his face (and probably something to hold onto as he enters his teens!). We are due to land at 1700hrs on Sat 6th - imagine our exitement when STS-130 got bumped a couple of days in the autumn. We will pick-up car and drive to villa at Haines City, eat, set alarm and go to bed. In the early hours the four of us me/wife son (11) and daughter (7) will then come east in readiness.

Clearly we dont know the area, where to head for or how much time to allow - any support or suggestions to help make the start of our holiday go well would be really very welcome.

Many thanks in anticipation, Ian, Lisa, Jack & Emily.

 

[Testing]

Please forgive me if this is an inappropriate place to post this request/question.. by all means move if need be.

My wife and I are about to turn 40, so being UK based and having always holidayed at home we have booked the big family holiday of a lifetime to florida. Taking my 11 year old son to the Kennedy Space Centre will be a highlight for us both and is something which I know will effect me greatly when I see that 'awe and wonder' on his face (and probably something to hold onto as he enters his teens!). We are due to land at 1700hrs on Sat 6th - imagine our exitement when STS-130 got bumped a couple of days in the autumn. We will pick-up car and drive to villa at Haines City, eat, set alarm and go to bed. In the early hours the four of us me/wife son (11) and daughter (7) will then come east in readiness.

Clearly we dont know the area, where to head for or how much time to allow - any support or suggestions to help make the start of our holiday go well would be really very welcome.

Many thanks in anticipation, Ian, Lisa, Jack & Emily.

You have come to the right place. Some one will respond. do a search for launch view or viewing in this thread.

 

[roocnu]

Late last week a fire protection 4 or 5 in diameter water line burst on the 4th floor of the Launch Control Center.
water flooded all floors down to the first floor. Clean up is in work however no one is allowed into the LCC except the clean up crew and the damage assessment team. All electrical power was shut down. The impact to launch ops especially STS-130 is currently unknown.

Shuttle guy!! Great to see you posting again! How are you feeling?
Katrina

 

[roocnu]

Hi Ian,

I'll be flying in from Toronto to attempt to (hopefully) see the launch of STS-130. I'm determined to see Endeavour fly, and it will be my third attempt (STS-127's scrubs last June and July were the last time I tried - maybe third time lucky) I have done some research on this, and sometimes by taking advantage of the research done by others!

There is so much information about going to see a shuttle launch - I don't know where to start.
I will start by sending you this link to Ben Cooper's site;
http://www.launchphotography.com/Shuttl ... ewing.html

and
http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/

Assuming that you don't have causeway tickets for launch (they sell out within a few minutes of going on sale), then spaceview park in Titusville is probably your best bet. Great atmosphere, lots of folks will be there.

If $$ is no object, and you want to be close, you can still buy some causeway tickets from gatortours (or someone similar);
http://gatortours.com/rezwebdirect.asp? ... OUR_ID=146

Good luck. Even though I read somewhere else that "NASA said the flooded rooms will not affect the launch of Shuttle Endeavour on Feb. 7. " so much can still happen.

If you're going on a tour, you'll be picked up the evening before launch. In any event, leave more time that you think you'll need.

Katrina

Please forgive me if this is an inappropriate place to post this request/question.. by all means move if need be.

My wife and I are about to turn 40, so being UK based and having always holidayed at home we have booked the big family holiday of a lifetime to florida. Taking my 11 year old son to the Kennedy Space Centre will be a highlight for us both and is something which I know will effect me greatly when I see that 'awe and wonder' on his face (and probably something to hold onto as he enters his teens!). We are due to land at 1700hrs on Sat 6th - imagine our exitement when STS-130 got bumped a couple of days in the autumn. We will pick-up car and drive to villa at Haines City, eat, set alarm and go to bed. In the early hours the four of us me/wife son (11) and daughter (7) will then come east in readiness.

Clearly we dont know the area, where to head for or how much time to allow - any support or suggestions to help make the start of our holiday go well would be really very welcome.

Many thanks in anticipation, Ian, Lisa, Jack & Emily.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Just be careful folks. If you read back a few posts, you can see the had a major flood in the Launch Control Complex, which has led to the power being down for a few days now. If this is not resolved soon, there may be a delay....

 

[roocnu]

According to this source;
http://www.wesh.com/news/22377058/detail.html
it shouldn't affect launch, fingers crossed.

Also, this;
http://www.clickorlando.com/technology/ ... etail.html

We'll see what the final findings are of the damage assessment, but from the article, "it appears the damage was done mostly to carpets and ceiling tiles" and ""They are still assessing damage but right now it doesn't appear as if it will delay launch," according to Allard Beutel.

Katrina

Just be careful folks. If you read back a few posts, you can see the had a major flood in the Launch Control Complex, which has led to the power being down for a few days now. If this is not resolved soon, there may be a delay....

 

[Testing]

Clean up the mess and press on.

 

[Testing]

Crew has arrived at KSC for launch.

 

[Testing]

That these updates on an impending mission fall to me is a sad state of affairs.

Payload and Weather "Go" for Launch
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:26:36 AM PST


At today's prelaunch briefing held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, managers reported space shuttle Endeavour, its payload and crew are ready for launch at 4:39 a.m. EST on Sunday for the 13-day STS-130 mission.

NASA Test Director Jeremy Graeber reported everything is progressing on schedule for Endeavour's flight to deliver the Italian-built Tranquility node and cupola to the International Space Station. "There are no issues and preps are going well," said Graeber.

According to Graeber the water leak that occurred in the Launch Control Center last week was confined to a south stairwell and cleanup was successfully accomplished.

"To summarize, Endeavour and the launch team are all ready to proceed and we're all very excited to pick up with the countdown leading up to Sunday's early morning launch," said Graeber.

 

[IHC]

Many thanks for the advice - the launchphotography site is excellent. Printed it of to study on the flight across. All packed ready to start adventure tomorrow eve. Spacepark looks ideal - that probably where we will head. I presume getting their a few our early will be wize so will leave Southern Dunes Orlando with aim of being in area about 0230hrs. Hope all this driving in the dark on wrong side of road is not too much of a challenge!

Good luck everyone and fingers crossed for a launch - we really are very excited!

 

[MeteorWayne]

Hi Testing, unfortunately, NASA TV has changed their schedule to a very user unfriendly (for me) format. What used to take me a minute now takes 15 minutes with lots of clicking and scrolling

Anyhoo, Pre Launch News conference is scheduled for 11 AM EST tomorrow, with Fueling (or as shuttle_guy would properly say, propellant loading) coverage beginning at 7 PM EST Saturday (0000 GMT/UTC Sunday) and launch coverage starting 4 1/2 hours later.

 

[MeteorWayne]

"Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters said the forecast is looking good for launch day with a 70 percent chance that weather will cooperate for liftoff. Winds will continue to be monitored, but Winters said it looks like they should subside enough for launch."

 

[Testing]

Best wishes for a good experience. I hope to see my first and the last launch.

Good luck everyone and fingers crossed for a launch - we really are very excited![/quote]

 

[Testing]

All of the launches are special but this one is very special. Kay Hire, one of the cremen, is making her second flight. Kay was one of my engineers when she was selected to be an astronaut.

Just watching her pre launch briefing

 

[MeteorWayne]

Countdown's going great, no issues.

Weather has improved, now 80% go on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday!