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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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215 records · Page 12
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NASA NTRS1991

STS-37: TCDT Pad B Atlantis GRO (1 of 3)

Live footage shows the crewmembers of STS-37, Commander Steven R. Nagel, Pilot Kenneth D. Cameron, and Mission Specialists Jerry L. Ross, Jay Apt, and Linda M. Godwin, participating in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. The crew is seen in the breakfast room, in the Operations and Checkout Building suiting up and walking out to the Astronaut-Van. Scenes include the drive out to the launch pad, the boarding of the crew on the elevator, crew entrance in the White Room, and the ingress of the crew into the launch vehicle. Linda and Jerry are seen standing on the Gantry (bridge) looking out as they wait to enter the White Room to finish suiting up to enter the vehicle. Also shown are some beautiful panoramic views of the shuttle on the pad. This is tape 1 of 3. Tape 2 has a report # of NONP-NASA-VT-2000013417, and tape 3 has a report # of NONP-NASA-VT-2000013418.

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NASA NTRS2000

STS-97 Countdown Status

Joel Wells, NASA Public Affairs, introduces Steve Altemus, NASA Test Director, David Flowers, P-6 Truss Integration Engineer, and Ed Priselac, Shuttle Weather Officer. Mr. Altemus describes the successful countdown thus far, and some of the prelaunch activities. Mr. Flowers gives an overview of the P-6 Truss and its role on the International Space Station (ISS). Mr. Priselac gives a forecast for good launching weather. The men then answer questions from the press.

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NASA NTRS2000

STS-106 Countdown Status Briefing

George Diller, NASA Public Affairs, introduces Steve Altemus, NASA Test Director, Scott Higgenbotham, Kennedy Space Center Payload Manager, and Ed Priselac, Shuttle Weather Officer, who give an overview of the successful countdown for the STS-106 Atlantis mission thus far. Prelaunch activities are described, such as the engine preparations, the communications systems power up, final flight close outs, and payload status. The weather forecast for the upcoming launch is given. The men then answer questions from the press.

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NASA NTRS2000

STS-99 Countdown Status Briefing

The primary objective of the STS-99 mission was to complete high resolution mapping of large sections of the Earth's surface using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), a specially modified radar system. This radar system produced unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth's Surface. The mission was launched at 12:31 on February 11, 2000 onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. This tape presents a pre-launch briefing for the press held on Feb 8, 2000. Statements were given by Doug Lyons, Shuttle Test Director; Scott Higginbotham, STS-99 Payload Director and Ed Priselac, Shuttle Weather Officer. Mr. Lyons reported on the replacement of the Master Control Unit on board Endeavour, the part that had caused a delay in the launch. He reviewed the work that had to be done and the timeline for completion. Scott Higginbotham reported that there were no problems with the SRTM. Ed Priselac reported on favorable weather conditions for the launch. Discussion after the statements concerned a possible problem with a cable, and the possibility of a further delay to the launch.

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NASA NTRS2000

STS-99 Countdown Status Briefing

The primary objective of the STS-99 mission was to complete high resolution mapping of large sections of the Earth's surface using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), a specially modified radar system. This radar system produced unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth's Surface. The mission was launched at 12:31 on February 11, 2000 onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. This tape presents a pre-launch briefing for the press held on Jan. 28, 2000. Statements were given by Doug Lyons, Shuttle Test Director; Scott Higginbotham, STS-99 Payload Director and Ed Priselac, Shuttle Weather Officer. Doug Lyons reported on the checkout of the equipment. Scott Higgenbotham reviewed the steps required to assemble and test the SRTM instrumentation and equipment. Ed Priselac gave the weather forecast for the expected launch day. The questions concerned a possible problem with a part onboard the shuttle and the likely impact this might have on the launch.

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NASA NTRS2000

STS-99 Countdown Status Briefing

The primary objective of the STS-99 mission was to complete high resolution mapping of large sections of the Earth's surface using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), a specially modified radar system. This radar system produced unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth's Surface. The mission was launched at 12:31 on February 11, 2000 onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. This tape shows a pre-launch briefing. The panel members are George Diller, NASA Public Affairs; Scott Higginbotham, SRTM Payload Manager; Steve Altemus, NASA Test Director; and Ed Priselac, Meteorologist. The briefing opens with an announcement by Mr Diller that there were no further developments with the engine problems, and requests that questions about that issue be held for another press briefing. Steve Altemus summarized the situation and the steps to be taken. Scott Higginbotham reported that there were no problems with the mission hardware. Ed Priselac reported favorable weather for tanking and launch, and at emergency landing sites.

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NASA NTRS2011

Use of Flexible Body Coupled Loads in Assessment of Day of Launch Flight Loads

A Day of Launch flight loads assessment technique that determines running loads calculated from flexible body coupled loads was developed for the Ares I-X Flight Test Vehicle. The technique was developed to quantify DOL flight loads in terms of structural load components rather than the typically used q-alpha metric to provide more insight into the DOL loads. In this technique, running loads in the primary structure are determined from the combination of quasi-static aerodynamic loads and dynamic loads. The aerodynamic loads are calculated as a function of time using trajectory parameters passed from the DOL trajectory simulation and are combined with precalculated dynamic loads using a load combination equation. The potential change in aerodynamic load due to wind variability during the countdown is included in the load combination. In the event of a load limit exceedance, the technique allows the identification of what load component is exceeded, a quantification of how much the load limit is exceeded, and where on the vehicle the exceedance occurs. This technique was used to clear the Ares I-X FTV for launch on October 28, 2009. This paper describes the use of coupled loads in the Ares I-X flight loads assessment and summarizes the Ares I-X load assessment results.

Starr, Brett R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

STS-50 Countdown Status

George Diller of the NASA Public Affairs Office introduces Mike Leinbach, NASA Shuttle Test Director, Russ Lunnen, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) USML Payload Manager, and Ed Priselac, U.S. Airforce/KSC Weather Officer to give a briefing on the countdown status for STS-50. Leinbach gives an overview of when certain tests are run and what problems are encountered. Lunnen outlines the payload activities for the shuttle. Priselac describes the current weather as well as the conditions needed for launch. They also take questions from the press.

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NASA NTRS1991

Countdown to the 21st century in planetary exploration

The '90s promise to be an exciting decade for planetary exploration, providing a steady stream of challenges and discoveries stretching well into the 21st century. Four major planetary missions - Voyager, Magellan, Galileo, and Ulysses - are already in flight, while the Mars Observer, Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby, and Cassini missions are well along in their design, development, test, and evaluation phases and will launch in the early to mid-'90s. Studies continue for new missions such as Lunar Observer, Solar Probe, and Mars Environmental Survey, as well as for the space Exploration Initiative. Issues common to many of these missions - current and future - include budgetary concerns, launch vehicles, longer lifecycles, international cooperation, new technology developments, and multimission operations.

Casani, John R.↗
NASA NTRS2000

STS-99 Countdown Status Press Conference

Live footage shows the participants in the Press Conference disclosing the status of the STS-99 flight. The panelists consists of NASA's test Director Jeff Spaulding, the STS-99 Payload Manager Scott Higginbotham, and the Shuttle Weather Officer Ed Priselac. Bruce Buckingham NASA's Public Affairs introduces each panelist as they discuss the servicing of fuel tanks, checkout, closeouts, payload status, and favorable weather conditions. The panelists also answer questions from the audience. Also shown are various shots of the Shuttle on the launch pad.

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NASA NTRS1991

AI mass spectrometers for space shuttle health monitoring

The facility Hazardous Gas Detection System (HGDS) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is a mass spectrometer based gas analyzer. Two instruments make up the HGDS, which is installed in a prime/backup arrangement, with the option of using both analyzers on the same sample line, or on two different lines simultaneously. It is used for monitoring the Shuttle during fuel loading, countdown, and drainback, if necessary. The use of complex instruments, operated over many shifts, has caused problems in tracking the status of the ground support equipment (GSE) and the vehicle. A requirement for overall system reliability has been a major force in the development of Shuttle GSE, and is the ultimate driver in the choice to pursue artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for Shuttle and Advanced Launch System (ALS) mass spectrometer systems. Shuttle applications of AI are detailed.

Adams, F. W.↗
NASA NTRS2000

STS-99 Countdown Status Briefing

Live footage shows the participants in the Press Conference disclosing the status of the STS-99 flight. The panelists consists of NASA's test Director Steve Altemus, the STS-99 Payload Manager Scott Higginbotham, and the Shuttle Weather Officer Ed Priselac. Joel Wells NASA's Public Affairs introduces each panelist as they discuss the problems with the left hand ignition cable, the potential change of the GPS receiver, payload status, and favorable weather conditions. The panel members also answered questions from members of the audience. Also shown are various shots of the Shuttle on the launch pad.

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NASA NTRS2000

STS-99 Crew departs SLF after TCDT

The primary objective of the STS-99 mission was to complete high resolution mapping of large sections of the Earth's surface using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), a specially modified radar system. This radar system produced unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth's Surface. The mission was launched at 12:31 on February 11, 2000 onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. and led by Commander Kevin Kregel. The crew was Pilot Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie and Mission Specialists Janet L. Kavandi, Janice E. Voss, Mamoru Mohri from the National Space Development Agency (Japanese Space Agency), and Gerhard P. J. Thiele from DARA (German Space Agency). This tape shows the astronauts boarding jet planes at the Shuttle Landing Facility after the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test.

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NASA NTRS2001

A Co-Investigator Proposal for the Cornell University CAPER Rocket: Cleft Accelerated Plasma Experiment Rocket

The objectives are: 1) To support the Cornell wave instruments in a study of dayside ion outflow. 2) In conjunction with the U. of Alaska ground optical data, a prime objective was to measure the topside Cusp ion spectra responsible for dayside proton aurora. If such a correlative measurement could be made, then monitoring of this cusp precipitation from the ground could be routinely achieved. The nature of Cusp ions has and will continue to provide information about dayside magnetic reconnection. 3) A third objective was to study the dayside microburst electron precipitation from the BPS/CPS population. The Scifer rocket flight showed a bursty electron population at 1000 km altitude correlated closely with pulsation ground aurora on closed field lines. The frequency of this pulsating aurora is about 1 Hz. Ground pulsation measurements have recorded dayside bursts of Pc1 waves which could very well be the source of the electrons responsible for the pulsating aurora. In support of the Caper flight, UNH provided ground induction antennas to measure the equatorial Pc1 waves that might be dumping trapped electrons from the Central Plasma Sheet population. The Caper flight was launched on the last day of the window and all the Cornell and UNH instrumentation worked perfectly. Unfortunately the rocket trajectory flew very far to the west of the ground site at Longyearbyen missing conjugacy by several hundred kilometers. This meant the intended aurora was not crossed and all the ground experiments were far from being near the foot print of the rocket ruling out correlative science. The "miss" was primarily due to a decision during the countdown by the Andoya Rocket Range to move the azimuth of the rocket to the west to avoid Norwegian fishing boats at the splash point of the first two stages, and to make matters worse, the dispersion of the fourth stage of the rocket added entirely in this direction. Although no publications have resulted from the UNH data up to this point, a joint publication with the U. of Alaska group using both the Scifer and Caper data is in preparation. The data will continue to be worked on. There is interest in the Caper data as evidence by two recent papers presented at the "Low Latitude Boundary Layer Chapman Conference" held in New Orleans, Louisiana in April 2001.

Arnoldy, Roger L.↗
NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: Discovery L-3 Countdown Status Briefing

Bruce Buckingham of NASA Public Affair hosted this briefing. Jeff Spaulding, NASA Test Director; Scott Higgenbotham, STS-114 Payload-Mission Manager; Cathy Winters, Shuttle Weather Officer were present. Jeff specifically noted that the mission represents NASA's first step towards fulfilling the President's visions of returning to the Moon and then on to Mars and beyond. Scott reports that the 28,000 pounds of ISS hardware that is in the payload bay of the Discovery is ready to go, and completed final close outs. Cathy mentioned that Hurricane Dennis is not a threat, however, main threat of inland thunderstorms would result to 30% weather prohibiting launch. Cathy further gave current weather forecast supported with charts: the Launch Forecast, Tanking Forecast, SRB (Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster) Forecast, CONUS and TAL Launch Sites Forecast and with 24 hours and 48 hours turn around plan. Final inspections, ice formation, ice inspection, effect of weather conditions to the external tank, delays and contingencies were some of the topics covered with the News Media.

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NASA NTRS1991

Space Shuttle launch pad rescue plan

The final preparation of the Space Shuttle Orbiter for flight involves the loading of large quantities of hazardous propellants. Additionally, many pyrotechnially operated mechanical joints are armed and ready for flight. The personnel manning at the pad is minimized during these operations to reduce the risk. Upon completion of propellant loading, the flight crew must be boarded onto the vehicle which at this point has tremendous potential energy. Plans have been made to safely and quickly evacuate the crew should some unforeseen contigency occur. Both aided and unaided egress scenarios have been planned. Personnel protective equipment is an important consideration to assure the highest chance for survival. Rapid movement of personnel is enhanced by the use of the slidewire system and specially prepared armored personnel carriers. The end result is a system that provides a reasonable chance of survival should an emergency occur during late countdown at the pad.

Doerr, Donald F.↗
NASA NTRS2001

LOX System Prestart Conditioning on X-34

The X-34 is a reusable launch vehicle that will be carried underneath an airplane to altitude of 35000 feet where it will be launched. It utilizes a single Fastrac 60K rocket engine for propulsion. This engine burns RP-1 and Lox as propellants and has a single shaft Lox and RP-1 turbopump. With these features there are three important requirements that must be met during the prestart thermal conditioning of this engine and feed system. First, the Lox temperature prior to starting the engine must be cold enough to be in the predefined start box at that pressure. Second, the RP-1 in the single shaft turbopump in close proximity to the lox must not freeze significantly where it effects turbopump or engine operation. Third, the chill phase of the prestart countdown has been allocated 700lb of Lox which if exceeded starts to effect mission performance. Extensive testing and analysis has been performed to evaluate the chill characteristics of the Fastrac Engine as well as test facilities and X-34 Lox feed and bleed systems.

Goode, Brian K.↗