[XBob]

"As I understand, they use Nitrogen early on, and Helium when they get to space."

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Nitrogen yes. I just don't remember any helium tanks used in the frcs or the ohms/rcs pods.

I do remember that we could never keep our test helium from leaking in the HMF (hypergolic maintenance facility) and we were always testing our levels to take into consideration the levels leaked test helium always present, so the test meters could be properly calibrated to account for it.

We need to get one of the mechanics who actually worked on the pods. we fairly regularly had hypergolic leaks or 'spills' from small amounts left in the lines. didn't take much - 1 teaspoon under a 55 steel gallon drum was enough to blow one into the air a pretty fair number of feet.

[lepton]

I just don't remember any helium tanks used in the frcs or the ohms/rcs pods.

According to the Diagram that Dan day posted at #263, there are at least 6 Helium tanks (two in each of the reaction control systems). Not that the item in question was neccessarily one of them.