Posted on 03/15/2002 4:46:53 PM PST by RightWhale
Inspections Reveal Location of Debris Inside Columbia Cooling Line
By Jim Banke Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 05:00 pm ET 15 March 2002
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inspections Thursday discovered the location of the debris that clogged a cooling line and briefly threatened shuttle Columbia's just-completed Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
"The first place we looked we found something," said Jack King, spokesman for United Space Alliance, the company responsible for taking care of NASA's space shuttle fleet.
The clog jeopardized the mission during its first few days as the shuttle's cooling system is critical for ridding the orbiter of unwanted heat given off by the spaceplane's electronics. Two loops of Freon are used and with only one fully working, flight rules called for the mission to be ended as quickly as possible.
During the 11-day mission that ended March 12, flight controllers had a pretty good idea where the flow of Freon was blocked, but until ultrasound and x-ray inspections were performed on the plumbing no one could say for sure. With one loop working fine and the clogged line working well enough, mission managers decided they could deal with the situation and allowed the mission to continue.
Within hours of Columbia's touchdown at Kennedy Space Center technicians took the vehicle back to its hangar.
Normal post-landing work was done to make the vehicle safe to work around and then the detective work began in earnest on Thursday. However, the hunt ended almost as soon as it began with the discovery of the clogged line near a collection of electronic black boxes inside Columbia's rear engine compartment, King said.
Now the trick is to remove the so-far unidentifiable debris. It is believed to be some kind of dense material, however the exact source of the intruder still is not known. Officials continue to suspect the debris was introduced during Columbia's recent overhaul in California, where the Freon cooling system was serviced.They are not sure how they are going to fix the problem.
"We're going to assess the situation and determine the most efficient way to get the debris out," King said.
Officials say it's too early to predict what -- if any -- delay there will be in Columbia's next launch because of the repair work that will have to be done.
As it stands, NASA's oldest orbiter is targeted to launch July 11 on a 16-day science research mission called Freestar.
Meanwhile, King reported that work is going well at launch pad 39B, where workers are preparing Atlantis for its next mission: an 11-day trip to the International Space Station beginning April 4.
Atlantis' seven-person crew is scheduled to fly to Florida's spaceport next week for routine training that will include their formal dress rehearsal of launch day.
Their mission will feature an exchange of the Expedition Four and Expedition Five crews at the outpost, as well as the installation of the so-called S-0 truss
, which will be attached to the Destiny science module, laying the cornerstone for the next series of missions to expand the station's capabilities.
What could it be? Tobacco?
"The S5 truss will be transferred to the Space Station Processing Facility where it will be fit checked for a Photo-Voltaic Radiator Grapple Fixture. It will also undergo a fit check to a truss simulator to make sure S5 will fit together with the S4 and S6 truss segments. "
They should call the ISS the International Truss Assembly.
History and science articles go under G.I.
Philosophy goes under News.
????
I hope it all works out.
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