Space Shuttle milestone NASA installs Main Engines on Discovery
From: Jacques van Oene (oene0072_at_planet.nl)
Date: 12/10/04
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Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:04:02 +0100
12.10.04
Melissa Mathews
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1272)
June Malone
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256/544-0034)
Jessica Rye
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(Phone: 321/867-2468)
RELEASE: 97-04
SPACE SHUTTLE MILESTONE: NASA INSTALLS MAIN ENGINES ON DISCOVERY
The three Main Engines that will help launch Space Shuttle Discovery on its
Return to Flight mission
were installed in the Shuttle this week at the Orbiter Processing Facility
at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.
Installation of the engines, clustered at the aft, or tail, of the orbiter
to provide power to
launch the Shuttle into low-Earth orbit, was completed Dec. 8.
"This milestone concludes the assembly, processing, inspection, data review
and tests required for
acceptance of engines," said Gene Goldman, Space Shuttle Main Engine project
manager at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The Return to Flight mission, designated as STS-114, is currently targeted
for May or June 2005.
The seven-member Discovery crew will fly to the International Space Station
primarily to test and
evaluate new procedures for flight safety, including Space Shuttle
inspection and repair
techniques.
Returning the Space Shuttle to flight is the first step in realizing the
Vision for Space
Exploration, which calls for a "stepping-stone" strategy of human and
robotic missions to achieve
the nation's new exploration goals, starting with returning the Shuttle
safely to flight and
completing the International Space Station.
Installed on Discovery were engines number 2057, 2056 and 2054. STS-114
will be the first flight
for engine 2057, the third for engine 2056 and the fifth for engine 2054.
"Although there is still much work to be done, the engines are the last big
components to install
on the orbiter prior to rolling over to the Vehicle Assembly Building," said
Stephanie Stilson,
NASA's Discovery vehicle manager. "This shows we're moving in the right
direction for Return to
Flight."
"This milestone concludes the assembly, processing, inspection, data review
and tests required for
acceptance of engines," said Gene Goldman, Space Shuttle Main Engine project
manager at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Weighing slightly more than 7,000 pounds, the Main Engine is the world's
largest reusable liquid
rocket engine. After the Space Shuttle orbiter returns to Earth following a
mission, the engines
are taken to the Space Shuttle Main Engine Processing Facility at Kennedy
Space Center for
post-flight inspections and maintenance. They are then sent to NASA's
Stennis Space Center, Miss.,
for a pre-flight acceptance test.
During lift-off, each of the three engines consumes 132,000 gallons of
liquid hydrogen and 49,000
gallons of liquid oxygen fuel. That's a total of more than half a million
gallons of fuel during an
8-minute, 30-second launch. In fact, if the three engines pumped water
instead of fuel, they could
drain an average-sized home swimming pool in 25 seconds.
At full power, the three engines combined generate as much energy as 23
Hoover Dams and operate at
temperatures that range from minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit to 6,000 degrees
Fahrenheit, hotter than
the boiling point of iron.
The Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power division of The Boeing Co. of Canoga
Park, Calif., manufactures
the Main Engines. Pratt and Whitney, a United Technologies Company of West
Palm Beach, Fla., builds
the high-pressure turbo pumps. Marshall manages the Space Shuttle Main
Engine Project for the Space
Shuttle Propulsion Program.
NASA Television will feed b-roll and soundbites related to the engine
installation beginning today
at 3 p.m. ET. NASA TV is available on AMC-6, Transponder 9, at 3880 MHz,
vertical polarization,
with audio at 6.8 MHz. In Alaska and Hawaii, NASA TV is on AMC-7,
Transponder 17 at 4040 MHz,
vertical polarization with audio at 6.8 MHz.
For more information on NASA TV, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html Photos of engine
installation can be found at the
following URL:
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=42 For more information on
Return to Flight on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight
-end-
-- -------------- Jacques :-) www.spacepatches.info
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