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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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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

[STS-51C Launch and Landing]

This NASA KSC video release is comprised of live shots covering the day launch and landing of STS-51C/Discovery. The flight crew members were: Thomas K. Mattingly II, Commander; Loren J. Shriver, Pilot; Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist; James F. Buchli, Mission Specialist; and Gary E. Payton, Payload Specialist. The launch video is presented from several different vantage points and covers the countdown from the launch pad, main engine ignition, liftoff, and solid rocket booster separation. The landing footage contains final descent and approach, landing gear deployment, and touchdown, which was also captured from different locations including a helicopter. STS-51C carried the DoD 85-1 payload and was the first mission dedicated to the Department of Defense.

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NASA NTRS1995

Atlas/Centaur-SOHO Pre-Launch News Conference

Live coverage of a pre-launch news conference on the Atlas/Centaur SOHO mission is presented. George Diller, NASA Public Affairs, introduces the panel. Floyd Curington, NASA Launch Manager, Kennedy Space Center, presents countdown activities. Pat Symons, Launch Vehicle Manager, NASA Lewis Research Center, analyzes the time duration from liftoff to spacecraft separation. Fabrizio Felici, SOHO Mission Director European Space Agency (ESA), explains the important features of SOHO, which includes a payload of 650 kilos and 12 major instruments with multisensors. Ken Sizemore, International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Project Manager Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), talks about the successful international collaboration between the ESA and NASA. Joel Tumbiolo, Launch Weather Officer United States Air Force (USAF, presented the weather forecast. SOHO was launched aboard an Atlas II rocket on November 23, 1995. The news conference ends with a brief question and answer period.

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NASA NTRS2001

STS-104 Countdown Status Briefing

George Diller, NASA Public Affairs, introduces Jeff Spaulding, NASA Test Director, Louie Garcia, STS-104 Operations Engineer, and Ed Priselac, Shuttle Weather Officer, in this launch minus one day press conference. An overview is given of the launch vehicle status, countdown procedures, payload status, and weather forecast. The men then answer questions from the press.

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NASA NTRS2001

STS-104 Countdown Status Briefing

George Diller, NASA Public Affairs, introduces Pete Nickolenko, NASA Test Director, Scott Higginbotham, STS-104 Mission Manager, and Ed Priselac, Shuttle Weather Officer, in this STS-104 launch minus two days press conference. An overview is given of the launch vehicle status, countdown procedures, payload status, and weather forecast. The men then answer questions from the press.

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NASA NTRS2004

[Activities of System Studies and Simulation, Inc.]

Contents include the following: 1. Launch Vehicle Interface Work Performed: a. S3 provided to KSC the new launch inclination targets needed for the April '04 launch date. 2. Prelaunch operations work performed: a. S3 updated the staffing plan for MSFC on-console personnel\during the Final Countdown prior to launch. 3. Software Assessment Work Performed: a. S3 evaluated and recommended approval for Program Control Board (PCB) proposed change 649 for ground software changes, as well as change 650 and 650A for Stored Program Commands. 4. Education and Public Outreach Work Performed: a. S3 continues to coordinate the effort for the design and fabrication of scale models of the GP-3 for use at the launch site, education forums, and management/technical briefings. S3 also prepared a Change Request for additional funds needed for fabrication of additional scale models. S3 drafted the planned uses of these models, including the possibility of participation in the Boston, MA showings of the traveling Einstein Exhibit. 5. Program Management Support Work Performed: a. S3 prepared the input for and closed three MSFC Centerwide Action Item Tracking Systems (CAITS) actions during this period.

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NASA NTRS1975

Titan/Centaur T/C-1 post flight evaluation report

The first Titan/Centaur launch vehicle, TC-1, was launched from the Eastern Test Range Complex 41 at 09:48:01.46 hours Eastern Daylight Time on February 11, 1974. The vehicle carried a dynamic mass model of the Viking spacecraft and a SPHINX spacecraft, intended to study high voltage interactions in space. This launch was a Proof Flight of a vehicle con- figuration integrating the Air Force Titan booster and the NASA Centaur upper stage. It also was the first flight of the Centaur Standard Shroud developed for the Titan/Centaur. The countdown for the launch proceeded normally except for an additional 45 minute hold which was required to resolve a question concerning interpretation of booster hydraulic system data. The launch window opened at 09:03:00 hours Eastern Daylight Time. The vehicle was launched o on a flight azimuth of 105°. The Titan boost phase of flight was satisfactory. Solid Motor operation, Stage I and Stage II operation were normal. Venting of the Centaur Standard Shroud during ascent was successful and shroud separation and jettison was accomplished without incident. At the completion of the Titan Stage II burn, the Centaur successfully separated from the Titan. At this time, the Centaur main engines were sequenced through the first planned starting cycle but failed to achieve steady state operation. The vehicle flight control system, not sensing vehicle acceleration, commanded engine shutdown, and recycled, as programmed, through a back-up engine start attempt. The second engine start attempt was also unsuccessful. The flight control system then placed the vehicle in a coast-phase mode and the vehicle continued downrange in free fall. The vehicle was destroyed by Range Safety when the impact point was approximately 2200 nautical miles downrange, 12 minutes, 28.5 seconds after liftoff.

S. V. Szabo, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Mission-Clock-Display Software Tool

Displays including images of alarm clocks illustrate temporal statuses of multiple events. MCLK is customizable clock-display computer program with Motif user interface. Used to keep track of such multiple "milestone" events as those occurring during countdowns in spacecraft launches, and alerts user when event time reached. In addition, program displays time from several time zones. Real time measured in Coordinated Universal Time. Written in C language.

Aguilera, Christine↗
NASA NTRS1992

STS-53 Countdown Status Briefing

George Diller, NASA Public Affairs, introduces Mike Leinbach, Shuttle Test Director, and Ed Prisella, Shuttle Weather Officer, USAF. They give a summary of the countdown for the launch of STS-53 Discovery and information on the weather for the launch time. They then answer questions from the press.

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NASA NTRS2001

STS-98 Mission Highlights Resource Tape

An overview of the STS-98 mission is given through footage from each flight day, starting with the prelaunch preparations (crew breakfast, suitup, and boarding of Atlantis), countdown, and Atlantis' launch and ending with the activities of flight day four. Footage from the fourth flight day is continued on the video 'STS-98 Mission Highlights Resource Tape, Part 2 of 3' (internal ID 2001054059), which shows mission activities through flight day seven. 'STS-98 Mission Highlights Resource Tape, Part 3 of 3' (internal ID 2001054060) shows the end of the mission, including footage from flight days 8-11 and the landing of Atlantis.

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NASA NTRS1979

Space Shuttle Orbiter - Countdown

The status of Orbiter launch planning is reviewed, with consideration given to major structure elements, subsystem and component development, readiness for launch, and follow-on Orbiters. It is noted that timelines in the completion of each increment of development of the first Orbital Flight Vehicle become increasingly crucial as the scheduled launch date approaches. Concurrent with the testing and finalization of this vehicle's software and hardware construction are the preliminary developmental stages of future Shuttle Orbiters.

Cohen, A.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Fluid Dynamics of Small, Rugged Vacuum Pumps of Viscous-Drag Type

The need to identify spikes in the concentration of hazardous gases during countdowns to space shuttle launches has led Kennedy Space Center to acquire considerable expertise in the design, construction, and operation of special-purpose gas analyzers of mass-spectrometer type. If such devices could be miniaturized so as to fit in a small airborne package or backpack them their potential applications would include integrated vehicle health monitoring in later-generation space shuttles and in hazardous material detection in airports, to name two examples. The bulkiest components of such devices are vacuum pumps, particularly those that function in the low vacuum range. Now some pumps that operate in the high vacuum range (e.g. molecular-drag and turbomolecular pumps) are already small and rugged. The present work aims to determine whether, on physical grounds, one may or may not adopt the molecular-drag principle to the low-vacuum range (in which case viscous-drag principle is the appropriate term). The deliverable of the present effort is the derivation and justification of some key formulas and calculation methods for the preliminary design of a single-spool, spiral-channel viscous-drag pump.

Russell, John M.↗
NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: Discovery Launch Readiness Press Conference

This press conference, attended by representatives from the national, Florida, and aerospace media, addresses launch, weather, and safety issues related to Space Shuttle Discovery prior to its launch on the STS-114 Return to Flight mission. The Master of Ceremonies is George Diller from NASA Public Affairs, and the panelists are: Space Shuttle Program Manager Bill Parsons, ISS Program Manager (JSC) Bill Gerstenmaier, Space Shuttle Deputy Program Manager Wayne Hale, Director of Shuttle Processing Mike Wetmore, ISS Program Manager (JAXA) Dr. Kuniaki Shiraki, and Launch Weather Officer (USAF) Mindy Chavez. Questions included the following topics: predicted weather conditions at launch, contingency rescue plans, countdown procedures, and risk management, as well as implications of the Return to Flight for the International Space Station (ISS).

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NASA NTRS1999

Apollo 11 Launch

This NASA Kennedy Space Center video release presents the countdown and liftoff of Apollo 11, the first manned journey to the Moon which began at Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Florida at 9:32 a.m. EDT on July 16, 1969. The crew of Apollo 11 included Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. Several different camera viewpoints of the spacecraft as well as over-head shots of the Kennedy launch control center are presented prior to liftoff. Other footage includes shots of President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife among the Florida audience viewing liftoff. During the countdown several audio updates from Kennedy launch control are presented as to the status of pre-launch testing and system readiness. Captivating footage from liftoff to the spacecraft nearing the outer Earth atmosphere is shown as the video ends with Neil Armstrong's confirmation of engine skirt separation and launch escape tower separation from the spacecraft.

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NASA NTRS2005

Fault-Detection Tool Has Companies 'Mining' Own Business

A successful launching of NASA's Space Shuttle hinges heavily on the three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) that power the orbiter. These critical components must be monitored in real time, with sensors, and compared against expected behaviors that could scrub a launch or, even worse, cause in- flight hazards. Since 1981, SSME faults have caused 23 scrubbed launches and 29 percent of total Space Shuttle downtime, according to a compilation of analysis reports. The most serious cases typically occur in the last few seconds before ignition; a launch scrub that late in the countdown usually means a period of investigation of a month or more. For example, during the launch attempt of STS-41D in 1984, an anomaly was detected in the number three engine, causing the mission to be scrubbed at T-4 seconds. This not only affected STS-41D, but forced the cancellation of another mission and caused a 2-month flight delay. In 2002, NASA s Kennedy Space Center, the Florida Institute of Technology, and Interface & Control Systems, Inc., worked together to attack this problem by creating a system that could automate the detection of mechanical failures in the SSMEs fuel control valves.

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NASA NTRS2000

ISS Service Module Pre-Launch

Various shots show Discovery at the launch pad during the final 30-minute countdown. The prelaunch conditions are described and information is given on the upcoming launch and the orbiter's docking with the International Space Station (ISS). A brief collage of rollout and launch footage of STS-92 Endeavour commemorates the 100th Space Shuttle mission and the 100th anniversary of the Philadelphia Orchestra (also seen). The music of '2001: A Space Odyssey) is played by the orchestra.

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NASA NTRS1992

STS-50 TCDT Activities

Terminal Countdown and Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities are shown, such as the STS-50 crew (Commander Richards, Pilot Kenneth D. Bowersox, Payload Commander Bonnie J. Dunbar, Mission Specialists Ellen S. Baker and Carl J. Meade, and Payload Specialists Lawrence J. DeLucas and Eugene H. Trinh) emerging from T-38 aircraft and being introduced by Commander Richards. Emergency egress training is seen, as is the crew's departure from the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building. Footage shows the launch pad and launch control room as the countdown nears the engine ignition simulation.

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NASA NTRS2013

Launch Support Video Site

The goal of this project is to create a website that displays video, countdown clock, and event times to customers during launches, without needing to be connected to the internal operations network. The requirements of this project are to also minimize the delay in the clock and events to be less than two seconds. The two parts of this are the webpage, which will display the data and videos to the user, and a server to send clock and event data to the webpage. The webpage is written in HTML with CSS and JavaScript. The JavaScript is responsible for connecting to the server, receiving new clock data, and updating the webpage. JavaScript is used for this because it can send custom HTTP requests from the webpage, and provides the ability to update parts of the webpage without having to refresh the entire page. The server application will act as a relay between the operations network, and the open internet. On the operations network side, the application receives multicast packets that contain countdown clock and events data. It will then parse the data into current countdown times and events, and create a packet with that information that can be sent to webpages. The other part will accept HTTP requests from the webpage, and respond to them with current data. The server is written in C# with some C++ files used to define the structure of data packets. The videos for the webpage will be shown in an embedded player from UStream.

OFarrell, Zachary L.↗
NASA NTRS2005

STS-114: TCDT Soichi Noguchi Press Briefing

Mission Specialist, Soichi Noguchi, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is seen during a pre-launch interview. He talks about his first Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) which is a standard training session that precedes every shuttle launch.

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