Updates STS-134 Updates

[Orbinaut Pete]

AMS-02 Processing Update: Introducing ELC, EVA and UMA.

A few days ago, on September 30th, the experiment was transported to the Express Logistics Carrier (ELC) Rotation Stand where we're going to verify all the mechanical and electrical connections between the Shuttle and the ISS. Integration activities were devoted to the installation of the interface panel for the Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) cables and to their routing. The Umbilical Mechanism Assembly (UMA) cables that will feed AMS from the ISS were added, as well as the shields that will protect the experiment from debris and small meteorites.

The UMA mounted to the EVA connector panel.

A lot of additional software tests are foreseen: simulations of how things will work when AMS is installed on the ISS, simulations of possible failures in order to check the corresponding procedures. But also verification of physical parameters: for example, last week we verified that the TRD had no pressure loss and consequently we can close the corresponding valves. The detector teams are very busy, collecting a large amount of cosmic ray data which will be used for calibration.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

BBC News: "Local artwork is blasted to space".

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

AMS was rotated upside down to finish some MLI closeouts. We will rotate to 12 degrees late today.

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ISS robot arm grapple fixture installed this week. Cable connected to camera system that will be the astronauts eyes during install on ISS.

Also, check out this awesome interactive 360° tour of the C-5M with AMS aboard - that is one huge aircraft!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

AMS-02 High Bay turned last week into a movie set to shoot Transformers 3...unfortunately AMS was not in the screenplay!

Aww.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

NASASpaceFlight: "STS-134 mission to officially increase by two days and one EVA".

Woo-Hoo! :hotcool: :woohoo:

 

[orb]

NASASpaceFlight: STS-134′s additional EVA to pick up on deferred ISS Stage work:

The changes to Endeavour’s final mission have been outlined at a Program Requirements Control Board (PRCB) meeting, which approved the addition of two docked days and a fourth EVA for STS-134. The additional work will focus on the installation of the FGB Power Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF), which was deferred from ISS US EVA-15, due to the successful changeout of a failed Pump Module.

...

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

It's great that STS-134 has picked up the FGB PDGF installation task - I think this mission is going to be epic!

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NASA: "AMS Discoveries Will Surprise, Lead Scientist Predicts".

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

AMS update:

End-to-end test ongoing till the end of the week to verify ISS interfaces...24 hours per day of data acquisition!

---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:57 PM ----------

Spaceflight Now: "Shuttle boosters swap rooms inside Vehicle Assembly Building".

SpaceRef: "Stacked Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters On the Move".

Some hi-res photos of the move are available at the KSC Media Gallery.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Another AMS update.

AMS completed tests with the ISS data systems to show that science data collected in space will successfully reach scientists on the ground.

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AMS ISS Laptop is on-board Shuttle Discovery awaiting launch to ISS. Go Discovery!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Grapple fixture (PDGF) to pick AMS-02 up with the Shuttle robotic arm installed today.

Some great images of AMS-02 on the ELC rotation stand can be found at the KSC Media Gallery.

---------- Post added 4th Nov 2010 at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was 3rd Nov 2010 at 07:57 PM ----------

AMS has been moved to the weighing stand for balancing & CG (Center of Gravity) work.

Higher-res images can be found here.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

More AMS updates:

The Remotely Operated Electrical Umbilical passive side was added to AMS today. It provides a power and data connection to Shuttle.

Thanks to our chief mechanical JSC engineer AMS-02 mechanical integration is completed!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

I just came across these beautiful close-up images of AMS hardware in the SSPF! Check them out - hardware heaven!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

We have completed all mechanical integration activities on AMS at KSC. With a few more electrical checks, we will be ready for launch.

Way to go, AMS team! :thumbup:

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

AMS-02.org: "A Very Busy Week".

Last week was a very busy one for the AMS team at the Kennedy Space Center, where the main integration operations are now almost done. On Monday, AMS-02 underwent a 180° rotation that rolled it upside down. This was requested in order to reach some otherwise inaccessible areas of the experiment, for interventions which were performed on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, after another 180° rotation, AMS-02 was again “head up” and a very important component was installed: the grapple fixture for the SRMS (the Endeavour’s robotic arm). Called Flight Releasable Grapple Fixture (FRGF), it’s a stick-shaped projection that the arm will grasp to pick up AMS-02 from the shuttle bay and hand it off it to the ISS arm for berthing on the Space Station truss. (The grapple fixture for the ISS Canadarm, called Power Video Grapple Fixture, or PVGF, had been installed previously).

On Thursday, AMS-02 was moved from the ELC rotation stand to its last “home” in the SSPF, the Cargo Element Work Stand (CEWS), where it will remain until its final move into the canister, the container used to transport the payload to the launchpad.

However, moving around a 7-ton spectrometer is not a joke: some twenty people – all NASA, JCS, KSC staff and people from the AMS team – where involved in the operation, that lasted nearly four hours. AMS-02 had to be hanged by a hook and a huge frame to the bridge crane, a roof railway that runs along the highbay walls, where it “flew” suspended up to the opposite side of the bay.

Then AMS-02 was lowered in another stand where the Weight & Center of Gravity Check was performed. This is a very sensitive check, used to refine the finest details of the AMS-02 computer model used by the robotic arms to “know” how to manipulate the experiment. Finally, on Friday the last important installations needed to configure AMS-02 for launch and on-orbit operations were performed, adding a Debris Shield and the Remotely Operated Electrical Umbilical (ROEU), the component through which are made the electrical attachments within the shuttle payload bay.

It has been a crucial week for AMS-02, a lot of important tasks were accomplished. Unfortunately, in the same days the STS-133 launch was delayed and then scrubbed because of technical issues that are currently troubleshooted by NASA engineers: the Discovery launch is now scheduled not earlier than November the 30th, a delay that will not cause delays on the STS-134 mission. The disappointment for the delayed STS-133 had a silver lining for us: many of the VIPs arrived at KSC for the launch came to visit AMS-02, among them NASA Chief Administrator Charles Bolden and Florida Senator Bill Nelson.

Next weeks we will continue with software tests and computer upgrades, while in the highbay the experiment will receive the final touch, the completion of the MLI blankets, the Multi-Layer Insulation material covering various components and sub-detectors of the AMS payload.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

AMS-02.org: "The STS-134 crew visit to AMS-02".

Last Monday, November 8th, AMS-02 received the STS-134 astronauts visit.

Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson and Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and Roberto Vittori arrived at KSC early in the morning for the scheduled Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT), two days of hands-on training that the astronauts undergo a couple of months before the launch, checking out all the actual tools, hardware and equipment they will use in space.

The astronauts spent the first day of training at the SSPF to familiarize with the payloads, ELC-3 and AMS-02, they will deliver to the International Space Station. Nobel laureate Samuel Ting and all of us of the AMS Collaboration team were in the Highbay to welcome them and answer all their questions about the experiment.

Of course, they already knew very well AMS-02, which they had visited at CERN in October 2009, but in the SSPF the experiment was integrated in the flight configuration, so they needed to understand and see for themselves new details about it. The crew appreciates the importance of the experiment, the first particle physics detector on the ISS; all along their time in the SSPF, between a check and a question, they told us many times how proud they are to be the crew that will deliver it to the Station.

Indeed, as the experiment doesn’t request any involvement by the ISS crew, the STS-134 astronauts should be the only ones to handle it, performing the key operations to install AMS-02. However, should the need for a Contingency EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) arise, during the integration in SSPF the experiment has been equipped with nine handrails and two WIFs (Worksite Interface Fixture) to help the astronauts in their work.

Later in the afternoon of the 8th November, the STS-134 crew had finally a rest, enjoying a beer with us at the Shuttle’s Dugout Sports Bar & Grill, close to the KSC. The day after, they spent their time with the Endeavour in the Orbiter Processing Facility-2 (OPF-2). In the afternoon, Commander Mark Kelly and Pilot Gregory Johnson moved to the Shuttle Landing Facility to practice with the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA), the NASA training vehicle used to simulates the Shuttle landing, that flies at the same speeds, dive angle and approach trajectory as the Shuttle. Every Shuttle commander and every pilot has to practice at least 1000 landings with the STAs, but in fact, Commander Kelly, who was pilot in STS-108 and STS-121, and commander in STS-124, already did more than 3000 landings.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

We completed an astronaut review of our on-board software today. AMS has a laptop computer that will allow ISS crew to help with AMS.

Just as a note, if STS-133 slips to February (which seems increasingly likely), then STS-134 would slip to either April or June.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

New launch & landing dates/times:

Launch:
Friday 1st April 2011 at 3:15:55 AM EDT / 7:15:55 AM GMT (Night launch).

Landing:
Friday 15th April 2011 @ TBD.

This means that Mark Kelly will not get to meet his twin brother, Scott, aboard the ISS.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

NASASpaceFlight: "STS-134: Endeavour’s slip to aid AMS change – New EVA protocol in work".

 

[orb]

NASASpaceFlight: STS-134: Endeavour’s milestones realigned for April launch target:

Pending the successful outcome of STS-133′s External Tank (ET-137) clearance for flight, managers have created a preliminary schedule for Endeavour’s realigned milestones. Currently, STS-134′s April 1 launch date is only a placeholder, but remains a target that can be achieved – providing Discovery doesn’t slip from her early February launch window.

{...}

The youngest orbiter in the fleet was set to rollover from her Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-2) in January, following what is currently a very smooth flow, with only 20 IPRs (Interim Problem Reports) charged against her flow – although IPR-20 has been undergoing troubleshooting for weeks.

{...}

Updated milestones then list the Payload Readiness Review on January 20, leading into the Orbiter Rollout Milestone Review. Should all go to plan, Endeavour will rollover from her OPF on February 8, for a nine day stay inside the VAB for mating operations with her stack.

With rollout to Pad 39A on February 17, Endeavour will have a slightly longer than usual stay out at the pad ahead of the April 1 launch date target, with the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) and Agency FRRs taking place in March, ahead of the March 30 L-2 Mission Management Team (MMT) meeting.

{...}

 

[Kyle]

STS-134 looks like it will be moved to April 18th.