STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target Feb 27,2011)

[MeteorWayne]

STS-134
Launch Target: July 29, 2010
at 7:51 a.m. EDT
Shuttle: Endeavour
Duration: 10 days
Crew:
Commander Mark Kelly
Pilot Gregory H. Johnson
Mission Specialists Michael Fincke,
Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and
European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori

Primary Payload:
35th station flight (ULF6), EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 3 (ELC3), Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)


Mission: Deliver Express Logistics Carrier 3 and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station.
Info: Deliver spare parts, including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and micrometeoroid debris shields. This will be the 35th shuttle mission to the station

 

[Zipi]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion

STS-134 Mission Pages: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shutt ... ns/sts134/

Preview Version of STS-134 Mission Patch:

STS-134 Primary Payload:

AMS Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Magn ... ectrometer
AMS CERN Homepage: http://ams.cern.ch/
AMS Johnson Space Center Homepage: http://ams.jsc.nasa.gov/ (check image & video galleries)
AMS Project Johnson Space Center Homepage: http://ams-02project.jsc.nasa.gov/

AMS ISS Installation Movie: http://ams-02project.jsc.nasa.gov/Video ... d%20-2.mov
AMS Arrives to ESA's ESTEC Test Centre: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM1AK7CS5G_index_0.html

 

[Zipi]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion

Same video as in my earlier post, but now in Youtube: (HD 1080p)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iBpSh65ET0[/youtube]
(yep, somebody has created a homemade sound track to it)

 

[Zipi]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion



Some STS-134 images have appeared to KSC Media Gallery and those can be found with the search tool:
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm
(use sts-134 as search criteria)

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion

Same video as in my earlier post, but now in Youtube: (HD 1080p)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iBpSh65ET0
(yep, somebody has created a homemade sound track to it)

Mute works
Very nice video, looks like a very tricky robotic ballet.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Read in the paper today a design flaw in the AMS may delay this mission. Still searching for details...

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

No details on the story yet.

here's an AMS data link:

http://ams.nasa.gov/about.html

 

[Zipi]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Official Mission Patch has been Published:

 

[shuttle_guy]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Read in the paper today a design flaw in the AMS may delay this mission. Still searching for details...

Yes, the AMS has a heat leak. The engineering assment is still pending however the fix could take months. One option is to fly it as is which would mean a that AMS would not function as long as they had hoped.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Something to lighten this up, hot photos i stumbled upon on Universe Today :

STS-134 Does Star Trek with New Poster

March 17th, 2010

Written by Nancy Atkinson


I love the crew posters that NASA has been creating lately, and this one is especially cool. If you are a Star Trek fan, you likely will recognize the pose that Commander Mark Kelly and his crew are assuming.

Find all the crew posters at the NASA Spaceflight Awareness product page. And try not to download too many! They're all great.

 

[Zipi]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Lots of cool AMS-02 processing pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alpha-Mag ... 1514694953

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

http://www.nytimes.com : Change in Experiment Will Delay Shuttle’s End

By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: April 23, 2010

A $1.5 billion seven-ton cosmic-ray experiment scheduled to be carried aloft July 29 on the space shuttle Endeavour won’t be ready until August, according to the experiment’s leader, Samuel Ting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, delaying the end of the 29-year-old shuttle program.

NASA officials acknowledged that there would be a delay but said they had not yet decided when the final launching would be.

The experiment, known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, was to be installed on the International Space Station as one last scientific errand before the final shuttle launching, of the Discovery, now scheduled for Sept. 16.

Last week, however, Dr. Ting told NASA that he would replace a key component of the spectrometer, a powerful superconducting magnet, with an ordinary magnet. The redesigned instrument would not arrive at the Kennedy Space Center until August. It would be too late for July and is not a part of the final Discovery mission.

 

[shuttle_guy]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

A pay;oad modification will delay this mission ....probably to November.

 

[orienteer]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Could Leonardo be ready by July? Could the payloads be swapped to stay on schedule? Would the space walkers also need to be swapped?

 

[shuttle_guy]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Could Leonardo be ready by July? Could the payloads be swapped to stay on schedule? Would the space walkers also need to be swapped?

No, the mods to the MPLM can not be done that quickly.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sp ... 00426.html

Top space shuttle program managers met Friday and decided to delay Endeavour's final mission to mid-November, NASA spokesperson Kyle Herring told SPACE.com Monday.

"They basically made that decision to change their magnet and it became pretty clear that they were not going to be able to support an end-of-July launch," Herring said.

Space shuttle shuffle

The move now makes Endeavour's STS-134 mission NASA's final space shuttle flight after nearly 30 years of orbiter flights since April 1981.

NASA's next shuttle mission to fly will be Atlantis, which is slated to launch toward the space station May 14 carrying a new Russian science module for the nearly complete orbiting laboratory. That mission, STS-132, is the last flight of Atlantis.

Endeavour's STS-134 flight was slated to be next in late July, followed by the final launch of Discovery – NASA's oldest space shuttle – on Sept. 16.

Herring said that plans for Atlantis' May launch are still on track. Discovery's later STS-133 mission is also still targeted to lift off on Sept. 16, but potential delays associated with some spare station parts and the refit of an old cargo module to serve as a permanent closet on the space station could push that mission back as well.

And there are other challenges to launching the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer aboard Endeavour in November.

During much of that month, the space station will be flying in a so-called beta-angle cutout period in which unfavorable sun angles make it undesirable to send a shuttle to the orbiting laboratory because of power and heating concerns.

There is also a new crew launching toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket in the late fall, and the European Space Agency plans to launch its second unmanned cargo ship to the orbiting laboratory around December. NASA also prefers not to fly space shuttle missions over Christmas and the New Year, adding yet another wrinkle if Endeavour cannot lift off in November.

 

[shuttle_guy]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

I hear that the launch will probably move to Feb. 2011.

 

[3488]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

Thanks shuttle_guy.

Will I likely meet you at STS 132 Atlantis launch?

Where is a good place to go & see the launch???

I may try & come to this launch too, if it is delayed to February 2011.

Hopefully by then my health will have improved sufficiently to be able to travel on my own outside of Britain & the European Union (current Travel Insurance restrictions on me).

Andrew Brown.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

I hear that the launch will probably move to Feb. 2011.

This might allow changes in the plan. Are any considered ?

 

[shuttle_guy]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target July 29)

I think there are plans to add more cargo to this flight, more spares for the ISS

One really neat think about the delay. kelly's twin brother is going to the ISS for 6 months. This delay may put them both on the ISS at the same time.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (November-Jan?)

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com : Boundary Layer Transition height increase and addition noted for STS-134

June 17th, 2010
by Chris Gebhardt

As NASA and Space Shuttle Program Managers continue to narrow down options for the final two missions on the flight manifest, preparations and modifications for/to Orbiters Discovery and Endeavour are continuing in their respective Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPFs) at the Kennedy Space Center – most notably the process to approve a new Boundary Layer Transition (BLT) Detailed Test Objective (DTO) protuberance height to Discovery (STS-133) and the addition of a BLT DTO to Endeavour for her STS-134 mission.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target Feb 24,2011)

Copied from STS-133 thread:

by EarthlingX » Wed Jun 23, 2010 10:52 am

spaceflightnow.com : NASA begins review of shuttle launch date changes
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: June 22, 2010

NASA managers Tuesday asked shuttle engineers to assess retargeting the final two space shuttle missions, moving launch of a mid-September flight with Discovery to Oct. 29 and a late November flight by Endeavour to Feb. 28. The changes would give engineers more time to optimize payloads bound for the International Space Station and avoid launch conflicts with other flights to the lab complex.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target Feb 26,2011)

NASA Updates Shuttle Target Launch Dates For Final Two Flights WASHINGTON -- NASA is targeting approximately 4:33 p.m. EDT on Nov. 1 for the launch of space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 mission and 4:19 p.m. EST on Feb. 26, 2011, for the liftoff of shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The target dates were adjusted because critical payload hardware for STS-133 will not be ready in time to support the previously planned Sept. 16 launch. With STS-133 moving to November, STS-134 cannot fly as planned, so the next available launch window is in February 2011.

NASA will schedule the official launch date for each mission following the agency's Flight Readiness Reviews, which typically occur about two weeks prior to launches. All target launch dates are subject to change.

For more information about the shuttle missions and their crews, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle


The shuttle launch manifest is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stati ... ifest.html

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target Feb 26,2011)

MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-098 NASA'S External Tank For Final Shuttle Flight Gets New Orleans Send-Off NEW ORLEANS -- NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company will hold a ceremony at 9 a.m. CDT on Thursday, July 8, at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The event will commemorate 37 years of successful tank deliveries and the final external tank's rollout for the last space shuttle flight.

NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast the ceremony live. Coverage begins at 8:45 a.m. NASA and Lockheed Martin senior managers will participate in the ceremony. Reporters interested in covering the event or interviewing workers and managers must contact Harry Wadsworth at 504-257-0094 by Tuesday, July 6.

The last external tank scheduled to fly on a shuttle mission was completed on June 25 by Lockheed Martin workers at Michoud. The tank, designated ET-138, will travel on a wheeled transporter one mile to the Michoud barge dock. It will be accompanied by the Storyville Stompers, a traditional area brass band, and hundreds of handkerchief-waving employees in typical New Orleans fashion and spirit.

The tank will travel on a 900-mile sea journey to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will support shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 launch.

NASA TV will broadcast the events on its media and high definition channels. For streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv


For more information about the Space Shuttle Program and the STS-134 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: STS-134 Pre Launch Discussion (Target Feb 26,2011)

http://www.nasa.gov : NASA Ceremony Honors Shuttle External Tank Workforce

July 08, 2010

RELEASE : 10-159

WASHINGTON -- NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company paid tribute to the workforce who built the external tanks for the space shuttle fleet on Thursday at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. ET-138, the last newly manufactured tank to roll out of the assembly building, served as a backdrop for speakers praising the employees.

"This is a bittersweet moment for everyone who's been part of this great and dedicated NASA and Lockheed Martin external tank production team," said John Honeycutt, manager of the External Tank Project Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "ET-138 is the last in a series of tanks that has provided increasingly safer launches of space shuttles."

At Kennedy, ET-138 will be processed for flight, mated with twin solid rocket boosters and attached to space shuttle Endeavour in preparation for the last scheduled orbiter mission. The flight is designated as STS-134 and targeted to launch on Feb. 26, 2011.