No tanking test....
- From: "Bob Haller" <hallerb@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 4 May 2006 19:01:31 -0700
NASA to forego tanking test
Shuttle Discovery's modified external tank will not be put through a
fuel-loading test prior to its planned July 1 launch on NASA's second
post-Columbia mission.
In a meeting today, senior managers decided that all the objectives of
such a test could be accomplished when the tank is loaded with more
than 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the hours
leading up to a July 1 launch attempt.
NASA managers had given engineers a go-ahead to put in place all the
preparations that would have been necessary to carry out a tanking test
on June 1.
The exercise would have given NASA the opportunity to test new
fuel-depletion sensors that were installed in the tank after its
delivery to Kennedy Space Center earlier this year.
Sensor data during a three-hour fuel-loading operation and subsequent
pressurization of the tank prior to Discovery's launch will show
whether the so-called Engine Cut-Off sensors are working properly. A
launch countdown can be halted if they are not.
NASA inspections after a fuel-loading test last year showed that
filling a 15-story tank with supercold propellants could cause small
defects within foam insulation that keeps ice from building up on it.
Such defects could lead to the type of foam loss blamed for the
February 2003 Columbia accident, which killed seven astronauts.
posted by Todd Halvorson at
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: No tanking test....
- From: Bash
- Re: No tanking test....
- Prev by Date: Re: Could we do better now?
- Next by Date: Re: On the Subject of Ice
- Previous by thread: Re: Could we do better now?
- Next by thread: Re: No tanking test....
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
