Shuttle Atlantis is hurt !!

Directly from NASA this report. See the images of a scary hole
in the Atlantis shuttle port orbital maneuvering system pod they
found during inspection. This may be serious. Ill be checking the
developments.

FROM NASA: Last night during the robot arm checkout, the
robotic arm cameras were used to take a closer look at an
area of insulation blanket on the port orbital maneuvering
system pod that pulled away from adjacent thermal tiles.
Engineers are analyzing the imagery.

What is a port orbital maneuvering system pod and where is it located?

Ahhhh, man - that sucks. Let's hope that everything turns out fine. Shuttle disasters are depressing. We don't want a third to happen.

This is the perfect opportunity for all of those people who believe in benevolent aliens, for them to help out the shuttle astronauts by either repairing the damage, or returning them safely to Earth in their own space ships.

I don't think this story belongs in the UFO section of ATS, but since
the thread is started, I'll add this:

According to the Fox website, the 4 inch gap isn't a cause for big
concern because that section of the shuttle doesn't get very hot
on re-entry and other shuttles have had gaps this large (and larger)
in this particular location.

Story URL: www.foxnews.com...

.

I have to agree, never give up hope for a good out come. I will have to watch NASA tv tonight to see what they may say...

What is a port orbital maneuvering system pod and where is it located?

comeone earth2, a little googling can go a long way...

science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/

The orbital maneuvering system provides the thrust for orbit insertion, orbit circularization, orbit transfer, rendezvous, deorbit, abort to orbit and abort once around and can provide up to 1,000 pounds of propellant to the aft reaction control system. The OMS is housed in two independent pods located on each side of the orbiter's aft fuselage. The pods also house the aft RCS and are referred to as the OMS/RCS pods. Each pod contains one OMS engine and the hardware needed to pressurize, store and distribute the propellants to perform the velocity maneuvers. The two pods provide redundancy for the OMS. The vehicle velocity required for orbital adjustments is approximately 2 feet per second for each nautical mile of altitude change.

click link for image of location, its on the aft of the shuttle just to the right and left of the tail. Port is on the left side.



[edit on 6/9/2007 by bokinsmowl]

This damage isn't significant. It's actually pretty common.

www.cnn.com...

That actually looks to me like the thermal blanket at the far end of the cargo hold on the rear bulkhead. If so it may not be crucial. Also the rear of the spacecraft near the tail experience less atmospheric heating.

The real safety issue is whether this is something which may flap entering the atmosphere and/or unzip other protection ?

Probably no biggie. But NASA is the most checklist-happy organization on the planet. That this could be a chronic problem is unacceptable, IMO.

[edit on 9-6-2007 by Tuning Spork]

I have seen it on Sky News. It is on the exterior on the convex forward top side of the OCS pod. There are tiles ahead of it, but where it is the tiles are discontinued because there is a lack of need for it there.

The real issue is what if it unzips ?

The real issue is what if it unzips ?

Unfortunately, I think we all know how that works out. Still, for the amount of total STS flights, the failure rate is pretty low. With 114 successful missions, two failures leaves a rate of .017 to .018 of a percent odds for catastrophic failure. (the other two being Challenger and Columbia, also not counting this one, as it has not returned home yet.) I would take those odds for a chance to go up in the shuttle.

Originally posted by venom79x
I would take those odds for a chance to go up in the shuttle.

Time to get out the duct tape. I'd definitely take the opportunity to go into space, but not in that jalopy. I can't remember--when do they plan to mothball the shuttles?

Originally posted by sy.gunson
....The real issue is what if it unzips ?

The area that is covered by the blanket reaches "only" 700 to 1000 degress F on re-entry. That is a considerably lower temperature than the shuttle's underbelly receives. I heard a NASA engineer say that the skin could probably withstand those temperatures. They said that they were concerned with heat build-up at the loose blanket that could potentially damage the shuttle to the point that costly repairs would be necessary, but that a catastophic failure was unlikely.

Originally posted by yuefo
[Time to get out the duct tape. I'd definitely take the opportunity to go into space, but not in that jalopy. I can't remember--when do they plan to mothball the shuttles?

The shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired in 2010, but it's replacement -- the Ares I rocket together with the Orion Crew Vehicle -- may not be ready until 2014. Between 2010 and 2014, NASA plans to keep relying on the Russian Soyuz and hopefully private U.S. Space firms (See the C.O.T.S. program) to fill the gap to keep resupplying the space station.

You know they are spacewalking right now and i wonder why they just dont fly over there and fix it.
They are so close and outside why not just take there hand and tuck it back inside.

...just noticed that today's launch has been postponed. Look at the OP from earlier this year. Quite a big of damage to this shuttle. NASA is planning on sending it out tomorrow. Let's hope it's okay for flight.

www.nasa.gov...

Dec. 6, 10:30 a.m. EST: During tanking, two of four LH2 Engine Cutoff (ECO) sensors failed to respond appropriately, which is a Launch Commit Violation. The requirement to proceed calls for 3 of 4. The launch was scrubbed at 9:56 a.m. EST on the recommendation of Launch Director Doug Lyons.

Mission Management Team Chairman LeRoy Cain concurred following a short briefing on the issue. The ice inspection team will proceed with an abbreviated vehicle inspection prior to offloading the LO2 and LH2 and recycle for a launch attempt tomorrow, at 4:09 p.m.

A press briefing is tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m. An update is forthcoming on NASA TV.

[edit on 6-12-2007 by anhinga]

It seems that this tile and blanket method of heat protection needs to be scrapped on the new models coming out. Another way needs to be found.

Wishing the best for all of them, as always.

reply to post by NGC2736


As do I... this is the second day of delay(s). I heard that the 'web bot' predicts some sort of 'space disaster' this month -- doubt that could be anything but Atlantis. As I mentioned, judging from the OP, these tiles are the worst, already cost us a shuttle crew.

Plus, retiring what's left of the 'fleet' in 2010 seems pretty far off to keep repairing the shuttle. Could the U.S. use other agency's crafts for these missions and retire them earlier? That seems safest, whereas this is like death missions for two more years.

Originally posted by earth2
You know they are spacewalking right now and i wonder why they just dont fly over there and fix it.
They are so close and outside why not just take there hand and tuck it back inside.

It's a hell of a job to fix anything in zero G - just take the simple action of turning a screwdriver has to be planned thoroughly. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, here in normal G our fine motor skills compensate almost without us thinking. Clever old Newton.

Something like that would have such a huge risk and feesability assesment it is untrue, and in the end they may decide to leave it as is for fear of making more problems. Stress!! and they can't even smoke! See if I never started smoking I'd probably be an astronaut by now ~ thats my excuse, leave me alone.

...pushed back to Sunday. NASA press conference tonight, "no later then 9pm est" says the site. In about 15 minutes:

www.nasa.gov...

NASA now aims for January. 10 launch of Atlantis, so families can be together for the holidays.

Here is the updated story This is from a December 13th update.