Octopus Overlords

NASA is gearing up for a valve swap deemed critical to plans to launch Discovery Feb. 12 on a mission to deliver a final set of American solar wings to the International Space Station.
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Standard launch preparations are continuing without major problems, but NASA contractor technicians still must install three refurbished flow control valves that arrived at KSC this morning. NASA program managers ordered the change-out after gaseous hydrogen flow control valves failed to work properly during the launch last November of shuttle Endeavour.

Similar to pop-up lawn sprinklers, the poppet valves are critical to keeping pressure within the external tank's liquid hydrogen reservoir at proper levels as the shuttle is thundering toward orbit and propellant in the tank is fed into the orbiter's three main engines. One of the three GH2 flow control valves on Endeavour failed to operate as intended during ascent, but the other two compensated and the spaceship zoomed into orbit. NASA nonetheless wants to make certain that Discovery is equipped with three good GH2 flow control valves. The valve swap must be completed and the new poppets must pass subsequent testing for NASA to remain on track for the planned Feb. 12 launch.
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Senior NASA managers, meanwhile, will meet at KSC next Tuesday for an executive-level flight readiness review. Assuming the valve swap-out and other prelaunch work goes as planned, NASA is expected to firm up the Feb. 12 launch date at the conclusion of that meeting.

Isgrimnur wrote:You might want to keep an eye out on the status of the valve swap.

NASA is gearing up for a valve swap deemed critical to plans to launch Discovery Feb. 12 on a mission to deliver a final set of American solar wings to the International Space Station.
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Standard launch preparations are continuing without major problems, but NASA contractor technicians still must install three refurbished flow control valves that arrived at KSC this morning. NASA program managers ordered the change-out after gaseous hydrogen flow control valves failed to work properly during the launch last November of shuttle Endeavour.

Similar to pop-up lawn sprinklers, the poppet valves are critical to keeping pressure within the external tank's liquid hydrogen reservoir at proper levels as the shuttle is thundering toward orbit and propellant in the tank is fed into the orbiter's three main engines. One of the three GH2 flow control valves on Endeavour failed to operate as intended during ascent, but the other two compensated and the spaceship zoomed into orbit. NASA nonetheless wants to make certain that Discovery is equipped with three good GH2 flow control valves. The valve swap must be completed and the new poppets must pass subsequent testing for NASA to remain on track for the planned Feb. 12 launch.
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Senior NASA managers, meanwhile, will meet at KSC next Tuesday for an executive-level flight readiness review. Assuming the valve swap-out and other prelaunch work goes as planned, NASA is expected to firm up the Feb. 12 launch date at the conclusion of that meeting.

NASA wrote:During a review of space shuttle Discovery's readiness for flight, NASA managers decided Tuesday to plan a launch no earlier than Feb. 19.
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The Space Shuttle Program will convene a meeting on Feb. 10 to assess the analysis. On Feb. 12, NASA managers and contractors will continue the flight readiness review, which began Tuesday, to address the flow control valve issue and to select an official launch date.

Isgrimnur wrote:Launch date was pushed back at least a week.

NASA wrote:During a review of space shuttle Discovery's readiness for flight, NASA managers decided Tuesday to plan a launch no earlier than Feb. 19.
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The Space Shuttle Program will convene a meeting on Feb. 10 to assess the analysis. On Feb. 12, NASA managers and contractors will continue the flight readiness review, which began Tuesday, to address the flow control valve issue and to select an official launch date.

Isgrimnur wrote:Sorry to hear that the plans have gone awry. But I'm sure that you would much rather they make sure they get it right than do it anyway, yes?

Isgrimnur wrote:Discovery cleared for 9:20 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11.

NASA postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery just hours before it was to head to the international space station Wednesday because of a hydrogen gas leak that could have been catastrophic at liftoff. The leak was in the same system that has already caused a vexing one-month delay. Shuttle managers were shooting for another launch attempt Thursday night provided they could fix the problem quickly.
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As NASA drained the external fuel tank and pondered its next move, Mission Control notified the three astronauts aboard the space station that their visitors would not be arriving on time. Commander Mike Fincke asked to be kept abreast of any developments.

NASA has until Monday to send Discovery to the space station, otherwise the flight will have to be put off until April. That's because a Russian Soyuz rocket is slated to blast off in two weeks, on a higher priority mission, with a fresh space station crew.

Neal's Easy Science Page a Day Calendar, for Friday 13 March 2009, wrote:How many astronauts have died during missions?
Since manned spaceflights began in 1961, twenty-seven astronauts have died in service. Three were Soviet cosmonauts, who died in 1971 of suffocation when oxygen leaked from their spaceship. The rest have been Americans, almost all in accidents on launch or re-entry. In proportion to the total astronaut population, this makes being an astronaut the most dangerous job there is.

Wiki on the Space Memorial wrote:

• Theodore Freeman, one of the "Astronaut Group 3" recruits from 1963, died in a T-38 training accident on October 31, 1964.
• Elliott See and Charles Bassett were killed in a T-38 accident on February 28, 1966 when their aircraft crashed into McDonnell Building 101 on a foggy day. They were originally slated to be the crew of Gemini 9. Bassett was another Group 3 recruit, whereas See was an Astronaut Group 2 recruit from 1962.
• Clifton Williams died in a T-38 training crash on October 5, 1967. Another Group 3 recruit, he was in the Apollo astronaut rotation, and would have been on the crew of Apollo 12. He was also memorialized by a fourth star on the official Apollo 12 mission badge.
• Michael J. Adams died in an X-15 crash on November 15, 1967. He was not a NASA astronaut recruit, but made the memorial by virtue of having earned the Astronaut Badge in the X-15 program.
• Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. died on December 8, 1967, when the F-104 he was testing crashed and his ejection seat parachute failed to open. He was in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program at the time...
• M. L. "Sonny" Carter died on April 5, 1991, in the crash of Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311. Carter was a passenger traveling on NASA business.

NASA feels it has a good shot at sending shuttle Discovery to the international space station on Sunday following repairs out at the launch pad. A half-dozen or so workers were out at the Florida launch pad Friday, putting in a new hydrogen vent line hookup and fresh seals.
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Forecasters expect an 80 percent chance of good weather for the evening launch.

NASA paused Thursday to remember the 17 astronauts lost in the line of duty. The so-called Day of Remembrance — always the last Thursday of January — has special meaning this year. Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the shuttle Challenger launch disaster.
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NASA's three space-related fatalities occurred within days of one another but years apart. Three astronauts were killed in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire on Jan. 27, 1967. Seven more died aboard Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. And the seven-member crew of Columbia perished during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003.

"The legacy of those who have perished is present every day in our work and inspires generations of new space explorers," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "Every day, with each new challenge we overcome and every discovery we make, we honor these remarkable men and women."

Bolden took part in wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Kraken wrote:Twenty-five years later, I still remember how sick I felt when I watched the footage of Challenger's explosion played over and over and over.

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Kraken wrote:Twenty-five years later, I still remember how sick I felt when I watched the footage of Challenger's explosion played over and over and over.

I was in middle school. Everyone was watching it. The teachers panicked and sent us to lunch early and when we got to the lunch room, the lunch women were just sitting there crying with the news on the radio.

It was an hour before us students actually knew what happened, we were speculating about parachutes and escape pods and such before anyone told us.

"I would lie in bed once in a while at night and think of the capsule and the booster and ask myself, 'Now what in hell do you want to get up on that thing for?' ... But I knew the answer: We all like to be respected in our fields," Grissom said in a 1962 interview.
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The spacecraft designers initially tailored the Gemini spacecraft around the short Grissom (who reports say was 5 feet 6 inches), leading some to call it the "Gusmobile". (Design changes were made when officials discovered most astronauts could not fit inside.) Grissom also co-flew the inaugural Gemini 3 flight of the program with John Young. In a joke concerning Liberty Bell 7, they named the spacecraft after the protagonist of the 1960s Broadway musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."

As his older brother, Carl, recalls, McNair started dreaming about space in South Carolina, where he grew up. And he wanted to study science. But first, he needed to get his hands on some advanced books. And that was a problem.

"When he was 9 years old, Ron, without my parents or myself knowing his whereabouts, decided to take a mile walk from our home down to the library," Carl tells his friend Vernon Skipper.

The library was public, Carl says — "but not so public for black folks, when you're talking about 1959."

"So, as he was walking in there, all these folks were staring at him — because they were white folk only — and they were looking at him and saying, you know, 'Who is this Negro?'

"So, he politely positioned himself in line to check out his books.

"Well, this old librarian, she says, 'This library is not for coloreds.' He said, 'Well, I would like to check out these books.'

"She says, 'Young man, if you don't leave this library right now, I'm gonna call the police.'

"So he just propped himself up on the counter, and sat there, and said, 'I'll wait.' "

The librarian called the police — and McNair's mother, Pearl.

When the police got to the library, Carl says, "Two burly guys come in and say, 'Well, where's the disturbance?'

"And she pointed to the little 9-year-old boy sitting up on the counter.

"And he [the policeman] says, 'Ma'am, what's the problem?'

By then, the boys' mother was on her way, Carl says.
"She comes down there praying the whole way there: 'Lordy, Jesus, please don't let them put my child in jail.' And my mother asks the librarian, 'What's the problem?' "

"He wanted to check out the books and, you know, your son shouldn't be down here," the librarian said, according to Carl.

"And the police officer said, 'You know, why don't you just give the kid the books?'

"And my mother said, 'He'll take good care of them.' "

So, the librarian reluctantly handed over the books. And then, Carl says, "my mother said, 'What do you say?' "

And Ron answered, "Thank you, ma'am."

Opened in 2011, the Ronald E. McNair Life History Center is a museum that pays tribute to the life of Dr. McNair, a Lake City-born astronaut and physicist who died in the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle explosion.

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Housed in Lake City’s old public library, the museum sits next to Dr. McNair’s gravesite along with a statue and square erected in his honor.

Isgrimnur wrote:Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger loss. The oldies radio station was paying tribute and then revisiting the music of the day.