NASA "Day of Remembrance" Jan 31, 2014

[Hog]

Today is the Day of Remembrance dedicated to the 3 Apollo-1, STS-51-L Challenger and STS-107 Columbia.
info and comments from President Obama and NASA Administrator Astronaut General Charlie Bolden can be seen here.
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/DO.../indexalt.html
Apollo-1 January 27, 1967 23:31 UTC
fire at the launch pad in a "plugs out" test with 100% O2 atmosphere in capsule
Command Pilot
Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom
Senior Pilot
Edward H. White II
Pilot
Roger B. Chaffee


STS(SPace Transportation System) 51-L Challenger
-Teacher in Space January 28, 1986 16:38:00 UTC
Vehicle broke apart due to aerodynamic forces 73 seconds after launch
Commander Francis R. Scobee
Second spaceflight
Pilot Michael J. Smith
Only spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1 Ellison S. Onizuka
Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2 Judith A. Resnik
Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3 Ronald E. McNair
Second spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1 Gregory B. Jarvis
Only spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2 S. Christa McAuliffe
Only spaceflight
Teacher in Space

STS 107-Columbia
Launched 16 January 2003 15:39:00 UTC
1 February 2003, 13:59:32 UTC
Shuttle broke apart during re-entry after hot gasses penetrated left wing via damage sustained by a piece of foam strijing the RCC heat panel at a speed differential of over 500mph (Shuttle was supersonic, but the foam had slowed some by the time it hit the wing)
Commander Rick D. Husband Member of Red Team
Second spaceflight
Pilot William C. McCool Member of Blue Team
First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1 David M. Brown Member of Blue Team
First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2 Kalpana Chawla Member of Red Team
Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer
Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson Member of Blue Team
Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 4 Laurel B. Clark Member of Red Team
First spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1 Ilan Ramon Member of Red Team
First spaceflight
STS-107 crew was split up into 2 teams, a Red and Blue team. this was done to accomodate the huge amount of science that STS-107 was assigned. While one team slept, the other worked. SHown in the following pic.


Condolences to the families, friends of these brave people. And to others involved in the Space Program who have fallen as well. Lest we forget, and let us honour their contributions with continued future human spaceflight.
peace
Hog

[EagleMark]

Truely sad to see all those great people lost in one paragraph. Contributions to science and technology from the space program is huge, but as we can see this is a dangerous journey.

God Bless all those lost as well as the entire program for the future!

[Six_Shooter]

Not to make light of this, I remember all of the news coverage and backlash of the Challenger explosion... but it seems that January is a bad month to launch...

I've been curious where the space program is going to head. Last I heard the shuttle program was canceled, or had run out it's life cycle, but haven't heard of any concrete ideas of what the next launch vehicle is going to be.

[EagleMark]

There was even a movie about January temperatures and Oring failure do to temperatures.. testing was never done to as low as it was that day but they knew there were issues.

Our president right now is not interested in space program. Our government is split and at a stand still. Actually the only thing he is interested in is changing America from what it has always been to... well... the land of no opportunity. Just equality. There's no reason to strive to be the best and succeed anymore. Half the government is trying to stifle his efforts till next election so we can get on with life!

[steveo]

i think privatization of payload launching is definitely the way forward, i'm not too sad that the american government isn't behind it anymore. i don't blame them, in their current economic state, there's just not a lot of profit. as long as there's an economic demand for satelite payloads (and, in the future, resource collection) it'll keep going.. at least we can thank them for all of the work they've done to kickstart further space ventures.

the engineering behind those launches was incredible, and they're so expensive, real-world testing and incremental improvements of any changes is nearly impossible.. all you have to rely on is a giant team of number crunching physists... no wonder there were a few faults here and there

at least they knew what they were in for, you should kinda plan to die in a fireball if that's your chosen profession

[Hog]

Coming in October there is a launch planned of the new NASA vehicle "Orion". It is capsule based and will launch atop the Delta IV Heavy configuration. The Orion will be orbitted out to 33,000 miles then will deorbit at speeds not seen since the Apollo program. This will test the new parachute systems, heatshield-plasma temps exceed the BOILING point of steel. The test will be unmanned.

Then for the new NASA launch vehicle, SLS (Space Launch System) will launch from pad 39-B, the same location some of the Shuttles launched, using teh same but modifield crawler transports, same but modified MLP(Mobile Launch Platform) that Apollo and Shuttle missions launched from(these huge platforms are lifted by the Crawlers and transport the rocket, supply tower-each MLP weighs about 8,000,000 pounds empty and about 11 million lbs with an unfuel SHuttle aboard.

MLP

Saturn V on the MLP


New SLS rocket


SLS evolving



The new SLS rocket will load the MLP up to its max weight of 18 million pounds because the launch tower along with the rocket must be carried. With Shuttle the launch tower stayed at the pad.
Currently there are 16 of the SSME's(Space Shuttle Main ENgines) in storage.
SSME thrust production at percentage of rated thrust.

100% thrust	380,000 lbf	470,000 lbf
104.5% thrust	390,000 lbf	490,000 lbf
109% thrust	420,000 lbf	510,000 lbf

Normally the engines are run at 104% then throttled down to 65% as the stack breaks the sound barrier(maximum aerodynamic loading or Max Q) then throttled back up to 104%. In an engine shutdown occurs, the remain 2 would then be upped to 109%. And then use 1 of teh following abort modes,\
Return to Launch Site (RTLS) Can only occur after solid boosters jettison after 124 seconds, then the Shuttle and main fuel tank perform a 180° turn (engines still thusting) then shut off engines, drain the tank, jettison tank then glide back to the Shuttle LAnding Facility near the launch pad.
Trans Atlantic Landing(TAL) Shuttle lands in PSain or the other available sites suitable ofr Shuttle landings. NASA send out C5 Galaxy cargo planes to the TAL landing sites before each launch. Just in case.$$$$$$
Abort Once Around (AOA) Shuttle is going too fast for an RTLS or TAL abort, so it lands back in teh USA after 1 orbit which takes about 90 minutes.(The windoiw where teh AOA can be used is only seconds in duration.
Abort To Orbit (ATO) This abort mode was used when there was sufficient thrust avaolable to reach orbit SAFELY albeit slightly lower than planned. This was the ONLY in flight abort which was EVER used. It was during STS 51-F with Challenger. 3 minutes 31 seconds into flight the #2 engine had a primary sensor fail, then 2 minutes 12 seconds later the secondaty backup sensor failed thus shutting down engine #2. And an Abort To Orbit was called. Meanwhile back down in Houston a female Booster Systems Engineer was seeing the remaining engines sensors approaching redline and if those sensors tripped further engine shutdowns would occur thus chaning the ABort to Orbit to different scenario that would put the crew/vehicle into a possible LV/LC(Loss ofVehicle/Loss of Crew) scenario. Quickly the engineer Jenny M. Howard made teh call to "set limits to inhibit" essentially telling the Main ENgine Controller to ignore the redlining sensors and to NOT shutdown the remaining 2 SSSME's from shutting down from those particular sensors. MS. Howards quick thinking saved the mission(which was deemed a success) but more importantly possibly saved the Astronauts lives.

Each SAL launch will use 4 SSME's, and 2 solid rockets boosters, similar to the SHuttle, but longer with a 5th segment vs. 4 segmants for SHuttle The Block 1 rocket will be able to carry 70 metric tons to Low earth Orbit. Since th SSME's AKA RS25D will not be reused, there are enough main engines for 4 flights. These SSME's are worth about $50 million a piece. There will be a new engine RS25E, E for expendable which is almost the same as the SSME/RS25D except the that building an expendable engine allows for much less work, costsing about $20 million a piece. After the existing solid rocket boosters are used up, tehre will be a competition to either use new solid boosters, or possibly liquid fueled boosters. In its Block 1-A and Block 2 the SLS rocket will be able to launch over 130 metric tons into low Earth Orbit. This newer configuration will use 4 RS25E's, 2 new solid/liquid boosters and 5 3rd stage brand new J2X engines which were tested in 2013.
The launch rate for SLS will be around 1 launch every 1.5 years.
Eventually SLS will be taller than the Saturn V that was used for Apollo space launches. SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever launched.

A very preliminary and unofficial schedule based on a worst case budget has outlined some early SLS flights as:

Mission	Targeted date	Variant	Notes
SLS-1/EM-1	December 2017	Block I	Send Orion/MPCV on unmanned trip around the Moon.
SLS-2/EM-2	2021[110]	Block I	Send the Orion (spacecraft) with four members to an asteroid that had been robotically captured and placed in lunar orbit two years in advance.
SLS-3	August 2022	BlockIA
SLS-4	August 2023	BlockIA
SLS-5	August 2024	BlockIA	Mars Sample Return Mission
SLS-6	August 2025	BlockIA	Manned "Exploration" Mission: Orion BEO picks up Mars sample & returns to Earth
SLS-7	August 2026	BlockIA	Cargo launch
SLS-8	August 2027	BlockIA	Manned launch
SLS-9	August 2028	Block1A	Cargo launch
SLS-10	August 2029[	BlockIA	Manned launch
SLS-11	August 2030	BlockIA	New configuration, Cargo launch
SLS-12	August 2031	BlockIA	Manned mission
SLS-13	August 2032	Block II	New configuration, Cargo launch

NASA is now usincommercial contracts to replenish the International SPace Station, and it is also providing finding to companies to deliver humans to and from the ISS now that ISS will stay on orbit until at least 2024. Some of the crew commercial flights are to take place in 2017 as well.
Here isDreamchaser which is in teh running for NASA' Commercial crew contracts.


Shuttle on MLP/Crawler


SSME's awaiting testing for the new SLS rocket. Certification of tehse engine for SLS usuage will begin in 2014.


peace
Hog
















SSME thrust settings

100% thrust	380,000 lbf	470,000 lbf
104.5% thrust	390,000 lbf	490,000 lbf
109% thrust	420,000 lbf	510,000 lbf