STS-134 Endeavour

-Trek-

Thanks Beeker and lord lucan for clearing that up for me. Cant wait to see those photos

Beeker

Trekmad wrote: »

Thanks Beeker and lord lucan for clearing that up for me. Cant wait to see those photos

Yeah it should be something special:)

lord lucan

Looks like the TPS issue is cleared according to the MMT briefing on now. Certainly didn't look too serious but great to see them take as much time as possible to go over everything in such detail.

CO19

Beeker wrote: »

Yeah it should be something special:)

Should look spectacular ! Where will we get to see the photo ?

clln

Beeker wrote: »

Got there before me:)

Is'nt that what Alan Shepard said to Yuri?:pac:

CO19 wrote: »

Should look spectacular ! Where will we get to see the photo ?

Hi Co since America's Space program has not yet gone fully commercial they should be free on NASA's website:)!
*Are you reading this BULLER?:D*

lord lucan wrote: »

Looks like the TPS issue is cleared according to the MMT briefing on now. Certainly didn't look too serious but great to see them take as much time as possible to go over everything in such detail.

That is great news because the spacewalks are slightly behind schedule due to the carbon monoxide sensor failure on EVA 1.
some concern expressed today about what would happen if it failed again on EVA 3,they have sent up spare sensors on previous flights but Crews not yet trained on how to replace them as they were meant for use after Shuttle retirement.

i cannot find an image of the spare parts that were on a 'pallet',the other big payload delivered by Endeavour besides the AMS,anybody help?

Crew are awake now and prepping for EVA-2 which is due to start at 07.00.
there will be a lot of work done which they are fairly sure will contaminate the suits with toxic amonia,but if things go to plan that should be in the first three hours of the hoped for six hours-30 minutes spacewalk and the Sunlight should burn it off.
lots of work on the 'Quick disconnects' to be done, they turned out to be very slow disconnects when the station's pump assembly failed last year.
best of luck to them!:)

for those who cannot get enough of Endeavours launch,great set of pics here from the other side of the very low clouds;
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/110521stalaunch/index.html

and another great set of pics of Spacewalk number 1 at link below;

http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/110521eva1gallery/

clln

The official start time of the second spacewalk was 07.05.an EVA is judged to have begun when both Astronauts are being supported fully by their suits internal power.

The primary objective of Sunday's EVA is to route about five pounds of ammonia through a long multi-section hose stretching from a tank near the center of the station's power truss to the left-side outboard set of solar arrays, known as P6. About 55 pounds of ammonia circulate through radiators on each set of arrays to cool internal electrical components and P6 has a small leak somewhere in its coolant system.

This will be the 157th spacewalk devoted to space station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the sixth so far this year and the second of four planned by the Endeavour astronauts. It is the fifth spacewalk overall for Feustel, veteran of the most recent Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the seventh for Fincke, who conducted six EVAs during earlier long-duration stays aboard the station.

A quick wave and smile before before leaving to go for a walk!

like most big occasions the live feed went down just as the first Astronaut was going to stick his head out!:),but first view of them here after signal came back as they were closing the thermal cover on the airlock;

CO19

Cool pictures,where do you get them ?

Beeker

clln wrote: »

i cannot find an image of the spare parts that were on a 'pallet',the other big payload delivered by Endeavour besides the AMS,anybody help?

That would be the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 3. Images from the Beeker archive:D

Beeker

CO19 wrote: »

Cool pictures,where do you get them ?

We get most the images from screen shots on the nasaspaceflight forum
here http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/
But you can get images in a large number of places including NASA.:)

Beeker

I like this:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj9dEuFbc9I

12april1981

I hope Iam wrong,but as far as things stand now,neither sts 134 or 135 Landing will be daylight landing we all may have seen the last time a orbiter makes that glorious decent.Tonight I applied for my Press site badge,about 100 hurdels to jump to get out to floriday in July but I hope too make it

Beeker

12april1981 wrote: »

I hope Iam wrong,but as far as things stand now,neither sts 134 or 135 Landing will be daylight landing we all may have seen the last time a orbiter makes that glorious decent.Tonight I applied for my Press site badge,about 100 hurdels to jump to get out to floriday in July but I hope too make it

I was thinking that myself the other day. Both will be night landings as things stand:(
Best of luck with the 135 launch. I think we will all be with you in spirit. Would love to go:(

Beeker

Soyuz due to undock tonight at 22:35. They will then begin to photo and video document the ISS/Endeavour. We will not get to see any of the footage until sometime tomorrow but it should be worth waiting for:)

CO19

Beeker wrote: »

Soyuz due to undock tonight at 22:35. They will then begin to photo and video document the ISS/Endeavour. We will not get to see any of the footage until sometime tomorrow but it should be worth waiting for:)

How come they can't show live streaming of it like they do when the shuttle is undocking ?

clln

CO19 wrote: »

How come they can't show live streaming of it like they do when the shuttle is undocking ?

Hi CO, it is because the Soyuz is divided into three parts,normally the three returning on a Soyuz go straight into the tiny descent module but this time Paolo Nespoli the Astronaut who's mother died while he was a long stay member on the ISS will take the pics from the Orbital Module and even then will leave the camera behind and just bring the memory cards to descent module.

Hatch closing has already taken place on the Soyuz:

@ below, nice for the songwriters!

HOUSTON -- NASA announced the winners of its "Original Song Contest"
after six weeks of public voting. The songs will awaken the STS-134
astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour during their ongoing
mission.

"Sunrise Number 1" by Jorge Otero and the band Stormy Mondays from
Oviedo, Spain, earned first place. Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly,
Pilot Greg H. Johnson, Mission Specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel,
Greg Chamitoff and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency will
hear the song at 5:56 p.m. EDT on May 31 - the day before the crew
returns to Earth. "Sunrise Number 1" received 787,725 votes, or 49.8
percent of the total ballots.

"Dreams You Give" by Brian Plunkett from Halfway, Mo., earned second
place with 612,959 votes, or 38.8 percent. It will wake the crew at
6:56 p.m. on May 30.

The Original Song Contest received 1,350 entries for consideration,
and NASA selected 10 songs as finalists. The public cast 1,581,531
votes for their favorite song from March 29 through May 16. To listen
to the songs and see the all the results, visit:

https://songcontest.nasa.gov/voteOrigResult.aspx

songs can be heard by clicking on link nice choice's! IMO

clln

Undocking occured at 22.35, this marked the end of Expedition 27 and began Number 28, after that there was one of two seperation burns,Nespoli is now in posistion to take pics and HD vid.
This was the first ever undocking by a Soyuz while a Shuttle was docked.
already it has provided these unique views from ISS Camera's.


Soyuz undock.

Soyuz and Endeavour.

Soyuz after 1st sep burn

The distance Soyuz is from Station whilst Paolo is taking the pics and vids,He says it is beautiful sight,Soyuz crew reminded him to remember to start taking the Video while he has time!:D

and now He has been STRONGLY reminded by MCC in Moscow not to forget the memory cards!:)

CO19

That soyuz is one weird looking thing looks like it couldn't hold anyone in it,can you even see out it ?

-Trek-

CO19 wrote: »

That soyuz is one weird looking thing

I agree , I think that main reason I'm going to miss the shuttle is that to me it always looked like a proper spacecraft (or imagined what a spacecraft should look like), even though the soyuz is a more than capable spacecraft.

clln

CO19 wrote: »

That soyuz is one weird looking thing looks like it couldn't hold anyone in it,can you even see out it ?

Lol yes it is weird looking and only the Orbital/habitation module has a window because NASA ordered it,but its been a while since NASA could ask Roscosmo's to do anything unless very very nicely:)
i am really tempted to post the video's of Endeavour and station on youtube already,but will not spoil it,better to wait for the color version!:)

clln

The four minute sixteen seconds de-orbit burn is just about to begin.
Cady and Palo will be flown back to the US.
Commander Kondakrov will be flown to Star City.
i hope Matt Molloys flute gets home undamaged,after all a man needs his flute even if it is one hundred years old,as Beeker can vouch for!:pac::D.

The Soyuz re-entry method(eight of twelve recovery helicopters are already in the air)



NASA TV PAO reporting the de-orbit burn was "Nominal" or as normal people would call it "Normal"
Coming up next Soyuz divides in three with only the descent module surviving re-entry.

at 03.01 seperation of all modules are reported ,as normal, the beep of the Soyuz Radio beacon can be heard clearly as can the crews voice's.
just hitting the athmosphere where the Soyuz will encounter temps of 2500 F.
next is deplyment of drouge parachute followed by enormous parachute followed by firing of soft landing engines and touchdown.
this is the really hairy time for them.

03.14 parachute deploy was eyeballed by the Search and recovery team,made up of Helicopters,all terrain vehicles and a plane that co-ordinates all of them.
they are heading towards a touchdown bang on target due in about eight minutes.
search and recovery vehicles ready for a ballistic re-entry have been stood down.
video already of Soyuz with Chutes deployed,no loss of signal during re-entry really unusually good re-entry so far.touchdown bout 5 mins.

clln

This Soyuz landing really deserved a thread of its own,it landed upright bang on target,bang on time,with TV coverage almost to touchdown(some guy put his car in the way right at the end!:()


First view of the Soyuz by S&R Helicopters.

This Heli pilot wanted his moment of fame too!:)

best video ever of a Soyuz return

clln

TO BOLDLY play where no Irish traditional musician has played before – that will soon be the proud boast of American Nasa astronaut Catherine “Cady” Coleman who blasts off today from Kazakhstan for a six-month stint on the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting the Earth.
Packed with her space suit and gear for the voyage ahead is a priceless traditional Irish concert flute, given to her by a man who is considered to be out of this world himself by traditional music lovers.
Matt Molloy of The Chieftains and Planxty got to know the Nasa astronaut more than 10 years ago after playing a gig in Houston, Texas.
“We had done a concert and as always we had a tune afterwards with local musicians,” said the Westport-based musician. “It transpired she played the flute and we have been friends ever since.”
A veteran of two space shuttle flights with 500 hours in space behind her, the former US Air Force colonel – who has a doctorate in science and engineering to boot – is a huge fan of the Ballaghaderreen man’s music. On a previous trip into space, she packed his Shadows on Stone CD in her space suit.
“Cady told me: ‘Your music always brings me to a special place, so I thought I’d bring yours to one’. I was really moved,” said Molloy.
For her first voyage to the ISS, however, she has gone one better.
“She told me she was going to be heading there for six months and asked me if I had a flute that she could play while on the station.” While joking that his response may have been “a moment of weakness”, Molloy gave her one of his most prized possessions, his E-flat flute. He played the instrument on his landmark first solo album made with Dónal Lunny in 1976.
“It was made in the late 1890s or early 1900s and I couldn’t possibly put a value on it but it’s very special to me. Cady is a fine accomplished flute-player, so it will be in good hands,” Molloy added.
Along with Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and Italian Paolo Nespoli, Ms Coleman blasts off from Baikonur today to dock with the ISS where they will join two Russian crew and another fellow American.

Cady's Home!

clln

and Dimitro and Paolo,shortly off for medical tests.great job Soyuz TM-20 and your help with Endeavour and especially to Paolo for taking the pics/vids of Endeavour!:)






They have been in Space 159 days,157 onboard the ISS!

Soyuz TM-02 is due to launch June 7th so ISS Expedition 28th shold be back to full compliment of six June 9th!:)

Views in of touchdown from a diffrient angle

Beeker

Nice coverage of the Soyuz landing there clln! I was in bed due to early start this morning. Cant wait to see the photos they took.
Here are some video stills from last night to give us a taste of what to expect:)

Beeker

Beeker

Beeker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N-92p49Gn0

Beeker

Timelapse...cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRcZbwlnUMI

lord lucan

Playing catch up on last nights events,Can't wait to see the pics. The footage from the Soyuz undocking was spectacular,the HD footage and pics should be amazing.

CO19

Trekmad wrote: »

I agree , I think that main reason I'm going to miss the shuttle is that to me it always looked like a proper spacecraft (or imagined what a spacecraft should look like), even though the soyuz is a more than capable spacecraft.

clln wrote: »

Lol yes it is weird looking and only the Orbital/habitation module has a window because NASA ordered it,but its been a while since NASA could ask Roscosmo's to do anything unless very very nicely:)

yea it looks like a tin can with a coat hanger stuck ontop for an aerial,must be very very cramped in that thing,do they have navigation systems inside it or do they just hope they launch and hit the right spot in the Earth to come back down ?

lord lucan

CO19 wrote: »

or do they just hope they launch and hit the right spot in the Earth to come back down ?

Sounds like how an Irish Soyuz (Sóyúz?!) would work. Sure it'll be grand,we'll land somewhere on Earth.:pac:

CO19

lord lucan wrote: »

Sounds like how an Irish Soyuz (Sóyúz?!) would work. Sure it'll be grand,we'll land somewhere on Earth.:pac:

Too true

Beeker

Third spacewalk underway. This is the second last spacewalk of the shuttle programme:(

lord lucan

Yay,an EVA that i can actually watch!:D

Worrying noises on NSF about the whereabouts of the memory cards with the pics from the flyaround. Hope they haven't gone AWOL!!:eek:

Beeker

lord lucan wrote: »

Yay,an EVA that i can actually watch!:D

Worrying noises on NSF about the whereabouts of the memory cards with the pics from the flyaround. Hope they haven't gone AWOL!!:eek:

I know, I read that. Seems they can't find the memory card! It may of floated out of a pocket and they could find in somewhere in the capsule or it may have floated into one of the discarded sections of the Soyuz:eek::eek:

I hope they find it! What a waste if not:(

clln

Thought this had a place here as it is NASA planning to make life easier for themselves and the private companies:

In a pre-flight interview, Greg Chamitoff talked more about the ISLE protocol that appears to have gone very well today:

"When you watch those science fiction movies and two people go out the door for a spacewalk, they don't take 48 hours to do it. They just somehow jump in the suit and they're gone. In real life it takes us a lot of time and we'd like that to be faster. For example on the first spacewalk we're doing campout which is one of the normal things we do on the space station. We go into the airlock the night before, we depressurize the airlock down to 10.2 [pounds per square inch] -- 14.7 is a normal atmospheric pressure -- down [to] 10.2. We breathe some oxygen off masks in that process, and we sleep at the lower pressure, and it's just like scuba diving in a sense.

"What you're trying to do is get the nitrogen out of your body, out of your bloodstream, out of your tissues, and that process by sleeping at 10.2 overnight you get a certain amount out, by breathing oxygen it helps that, and then the rest of the process to getting out the door makes sure that when you go all the way out it's like coming up from depth. It's the opposite of scuba diving: in scuba diving you go down, it pressurizes, then it pushes nitrogen into your tissues and if you come up too fast the nitrogen can't escape and can give you the bends. Here it's the opposite. We're going to a lower pressure first, and so that you would get the bends on the way out not on the way back in. This is the normal process we go through by sleeping overnight in the airlock.

"Another technique is to do exercise where we're breathing hundred percent oxygen and we do exercise on a bike and do a certain prescription of that which is based on our particular physiology, body weight and aerobic capacity and then another sequence of oxygen breathing and pressure changes before we go out the door.

"This is a brand new technique that would allow us not to have to spend the night sleeping in the airlock locked up, not have to do the exercise before basically get in the suit and spend a little more time in the suit doing some with hundred percent oxygen, doing very small motions just to make sure that you have some metabolism going. You're not sleeping in there, you have to be doing something; you're in there a little longer waiting to go out the door but overall the whole process is much simpler and you can do it on the day of the spacewalk.

"We're going to try that on, and a lot of work has been done by a lot of people to make this protocol work out. We'll try that on third spacewalk and, if it works great, we can do it on the fourth one, too."

clln

And this description of the purpose of the third EVA which is now coming to a close.They have managed to finish the unfinished tasks from EVA 1 and even got some get ahead tasks done!:)
just catching up myself but i notice that this mission has had more than its normal share of loss of signals from the tracking and data relay Satellites,i wonder may a certain Military Shuttle be getting to use them?

In a pre-flight interview, Drew Feustel offered this preview of the spacewalk:

"This involves installing a power and data grapple fixture, or a base, for Canadarm2. So the Canadarm space station arm has a capability of walking around the space station from end to end to do different tasks. The Russian segment doesn't really have any of those bases for the arm to walk on to, and this is an opportunity for us to actually attach one of these base station mechanisms onto what we call the FGB or Functional Cargo Block portion of the space station (Zarya), to allow the arm to walk onto that position and do some tasks in areas that it wouldn't have been able to reach previous to this.

"So this is an activity that's been on the book, I believe, for a number of years and, hasn't found a home and we think we've found an opportunity to do it then on our mission. The advantage to doing it on our mission on EVA 3 is that Mike Fincke has spent a considerable amount of time on the Russian segment in the Orlan spacesuit, so by having he and I go out on that task, being that he has some familiarity that I don't have, that's an advantage to us as a team to get out there and do that work."

clln

EVA 3 is now over at least thats a relief,no repeat of the Carbon Monoxide sensor failure, its official start time was 06.43 and end time 13.37,a total of six hrs 54 minutes.
now where are those Memory sticks? i will be keepng an eye on ebay i can tell You!


Sealing the hatch,job done!:)

lord lucan

Apparently the flyaround memory card is still in the Soyuz and will be removed once it reaches Moscow. A bit strange given the urgency and excitement displayed by NASA but we'll wait and see.

lord lucan

CO19 wrote: »

Is that website that showed the rocket boosters falling back to earth showing it for this launches boosters ?

They've just being showing the SRB launch replays on NASA TV. Here's a couple of rips of the coverage so far. One of the NASA TV Youtube channels should have it up in a couple of hours in higher def.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6TJk6WPUdo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Ee0knGxO8

clln

Let the video's do the talking!:)

lord lucan

And the full SRB package from NASA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJla-JsVNpw

Beeker

Final inspection of the heatshield complete and the Orbiter Boom Sensor system {OBSS} has been transfered to the station for future use in extending the reach of the stations arm.
Final spacewalk by Endeavour due tomorrow ewhick of course will also be the final spacewalk of the Shuttle programme. The end of an era started on STS-6 in 1983.:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtcDhGircEc

clln

The crew of Endeavour where woken at 00.58 to a terrible song by Max-Q singing to a familiar tune but with words changed(i could not identify the song that they slaughtered:)) (We'll have fun fun fun till we put the Shuttle away)
mentions come up of Max-Q all the time,well My learning curve on it was:

Max-Q do brilliant video's set to music by 'proper' Bands.

then i found out it is the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure on a spacecraft which explained to me why they throttle down as Gravity does its best to pull them back or pull a Spacecraft apart......and when past that point they 'Throttle Up' again.

then i found out they are also Astronauts/come singer songwriters,the members have changed as Astronauts have moved on after their NASA days,i would post a link to their Youtube songs but i could not be so Cruel!:D.

Anyway i just watched yesterdays flight day highlights and the infamous early late inspection(as it was tweeted from the FRR) taken because the OBSS will be left stowed away on Station (makes me wonder what will be done on 135,but will leave that to the 135 thread)
with a thread running at the moment about the future of manned Spaceflight this video i thought was extra special as there is so much of "out with the old,in with the new" about it,from the crew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbJ2xL7Tpeo

If you can stick with it there is a priceless response by Mark Kelly when asked during the joint crew presser when asked about the challenge of a night landing about two minutes from end!

eilejh

I have a question about the landing. How much impact does weather have on that landing? Meaning if they come in in stormy weather et al.....

clln

eilejh wrote: »

I have a question about the landing. How much impact does weather have on that landing? Meaning if they come in in stormy weather et al.....

they would not land in Stormy Weather,they have options all over America,as well as around the Globe.
Usually on the first day of Landing opportunities they will only try for KSC,2nd day west and East coast,has never come to it but they could land overseas if needed.

clln

This historic last EVA began ahead of schedule at 05.15,Superlatives galore by the Astronauts and seemed to be well aware of this 'last' close to choking up so they were!
Again no signal as they left the airlock but this is the best pic so far that fits to boards window shortly after egress;



Hopefully somebody will post the best of the them re-entering later(hint hint:))
bit about the EVA below;

Fincke and Chamitoff are getting situated outside the space station before heading to the starboard truss to help lock the 50-foot-long Orbiter Boom Sensor System within a fixture that is already in place.

Chamitoff gave this preview of the EVA in an interview before the flight: "This is an exciting spacewalk for me, partly because I get to ride on top of the robotic arm. Box will be flying the arm. But what we’re doing is we’re leaving the boom, there’s an orbital, it’s called OBSS [Orbiter Boom Sensor System], it’s the inspection boom we have on the shuttle to use to inspect the tiles. That boom will be left behind on the space station with the idea that at some point if the space station has to do some work, it would give the robotic arm more reach if it could use this boom as well. We have left it up there before; we have the mechanisms in place to leave it up there."

Beeker

Thats it ! Job done the 162nd and final Space shuttle space walk complete.

Beeker

Back inside

lord lucan

Another moment of finality.:(