NASA on HDNet: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 Launch

[james99]

Live coverage from Cape Canaveral of the launch of Shuttle Endeavour on its last mission. Commanded by Mark Kelly, the husband of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in a shooting on January 8, the Endeavour crew will be delivering a $2 billion cosmic ray detector to the International Space Station. This is scheduled to be the next-to-last shuttle mission ever.

Fri, Apr 29th
3:30 PM

[james99]

Kennedy Space Center, Florida (CNN) -- The scheduled launch of the space shuttle Endeavour has been delayed for at least 48 hours, NASA said Friday.

The shuttle had been scheduled to lift off at 3:47 p.m. on its final space flight.

[scampbell]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ain/index.html

Engineers and Managers to Assess APU Issue
Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:14:11 PM EDT

Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach stated that Endeavour's launch will be no earlier than Monday at 2:33 p.m. EDT. Engineers need that time to troubleshoot an issue that resulted in today’s launch scrub.

During today’s countdown, engineers detected a failure in one of two heater circuits associated with Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) 1. Heaters are required to keep the APUs’ hydrazine from freezing on orbit. Attempts to activate the heater were not successful and engineers now believe the problem might be associated with a Load Control Assembly, which is a switchbox, located in the aft end of Endeavour, or an electrical short in the wires leading into or out of the switchbox.

Endeavour’s external tank will be drained, technicians will enter Endeavour’s aft compartment overnight and by tomorrow afternoon, will put in a platform to gain access to the avionics bay where the Load Control Assembly is located. Once there, they will assess whether they need to remove and replace the switchbox, or fix an electrical wiring short.

Because of this, Leinbach said there will be a minimum 72-hour scrub turnaround.

Engineers and managers will meet this afternoon to further refine their troubleshooting plan. NASA has scheduled a news conference at 4 p.m. to discuss today’s scrub and the plan.

[scampbell]

Air Force One just arrived at Cape Canaveral. President Obama has arrived to tour the facility and watch the shuttle launch. It's live on NASA-TV right now.

[dosborne]

Obama will get the tour, but obviously not see the launch unless he comes back Monday


Too bad, I was looking forward to watching it today. oh well, hopefully Monday It'll go as planned.

[JamesK]

^^^^
I had my PVR programmed for both HDNet and NASA channels. I guess I can delete those recordings.

[reidw]

This is one of the only times for me that Bell's dropping of HDNET hurts. Nothing and I mean nothing shows off HD like a shuttle launch. I have an earlier launch recorded which I use as demo. material on my 60 inch SXRD.

[JamesK]

^^^^
Does Bell carry NASA? Rogers has NASA in HD.

[Pinza]

No, Bell TV do not carry NASA, in SD or HD.

[scampbell]

The launch will be no earlier than May 8th
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ain/index.html

Technicians and engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have identified the likely source of what caused heaters on a fuel line for space shuttle Endeavour's auxiliary power unit-1 (APU-1) to fail on Friday, scrubbing the first launch attempt for the STS-134 mission.

The failure appears to be a power problem within the aft load control assembly-2 (ALCA-2), a box of switches controlling power feeds.

The plan is to remove and replace the box, but that work and related testing will take several days to complete. Once the new box is installed, the team must verify it's working properly -- at least a two-day process -- and perform forensics on the failed box.

Managers are expected to meet over the next day or two to determine the next launch attempt, but it is expected to be no earlier than May 8.

Workers at Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A have drained space shuttle Endeavour's external fuel tank of all cryogenics. The Rotating Service Structure was moved back around the spacecraft in order to protect the shuttle from the elements and to gain access to Endeavour's aft section.

After returning to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the six STS-134 astronauts will be involved in some additional training before they return for the next launch attempt.

[james99]

Latest HDNet news here:

http://www.hd.net/programs/nasa-on-hdnet/

Mon, May 16th
8:45 AM