STS-114

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem STS-114
Mission dates
Mission: STS-114
COSPAR-ID : 2005-026A
Crew: 7th
Begin: July 26, 2005, 14:39:00  UTC
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39B
Space station: ISS
Coupling: July 28, 2005, 11:18 UTC
Decoupling: August 6, 2005, 07:24 UTC
Duration on the ISS: 8d 20h 4min
Number of EVA : 3
Landing: August 9, 2005, 12:11:22 UTC
Landing place: Edwards Air Force Base , Runway 22
Flight duration: 13d 21h 32min 22s
Earth orbits: 219
Track height: 355 km
Covered track: 9.3 million km
Payload: MPLM Raffaello, CMG-1, external stowage platform (ESP-2)
Team photo
v. l. No. Front: James Kelly, Wendy Lawrence, Eileen Collins, Back: Stephen Robinson, Andrew Thomas, Charles Camarda, Noguchi Sōichi
v. l. No. Front: James Kelly, Wendy Lawrence, Eileen Collins,
Back: Stephen Robinson, Andrew Thomas, Charles Camarda, Noguchi Sōichi
◄ Before / After ►
STS-107 STS-121

STS-114 ( English S pace T ransportation S ystem) is the mission name for a flight of the US Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103). The launch took place on July 26, 2005. It was the 114th space shuttle mission, the 31st flight of the space shuttle Discovery and the 17th flight of a shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission was "Return to Flight" and was the first space shuttle flight after the Columbia disaster in February 2003 (flight STS-107 ).

team

The role of the liaison spokesperson ( CapComs ) was taken over by Shannon Lucid , a. Kenneth Ham and Julie Payette were responsible for transmitting the wake-up calls . Flight director was LeRoy Cain .

Mission history

Start of the discovery

The mission's tasks included transporting goods to the International Space Station using the Raffaello logistics module built by Alenia Spazio in Italy . A total of around 8.3 t of freight was delivered in the module. In addition, for the three planned space exits , a new gyroscope was to be installed on the Z1 module to replace the station's defective CMG-1 device , and another external stowage platform for spare parts External Stowage Platform -2 (ESP-2) at the Quest airlock installed and methods of repairing the space shuttle's heat shield tested.

Another part of the mission was a test of the external tank that was converted after the Columbia disaster . Cameras were attached to both the orbiter and the outer tank in order to detect any detaching parts. In addition, the launch was filmed both from the ground and from US Air Force aircraft . In addition, the new extension of the robot arm, the Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS), with the help of which the heat shield of the space shuttle in orbit should be examined for possible damage during take-off, was subjected to a test. The OBSS has a laser range finder ( LDRI ) and a laser camera system ( LCS ). The sensors have a resolution of a few millimeters and can scan at a speed of 6.3 cm / s.

Start, July 26, 2005

After some postponements, the STS-114 mission was scheduled to begin on July 13, 2005, but the countdown was canceled about two hours before the scheduled start due to a technical problem. NASA named a faulty fuel sensor as the cause.

Positions of the low level cut-off sensors (ECO sensors) in the hydrogen tank of the external tank

The sensor in question is one of four ECO low level sensors (engine cut-off) built into the hydrogen tank of the external tank. In the event of a lack of fuel, these ensure that the three main engines of the orbiter are switched off. This prevents the hydrogen and oxygen lines from emptying, as otherwise the turbo pumps could run empty, spin over and explode, which could seriously damage the orbiter.

During the previous shuttle missions, the ECO system was used twice: In the case of the STS-51-F , an engine shut down after about six minutes due to an incorrectly reported overheating. The other two engines continued to run with increased power, but due to the reduced total thrust and the extended burn time, only a lower orbit than planned could be achieved. During the STS-93 mission (also under the command of Eileen Collins), a leak in one of the engines led to excessive oxygen consumption, which caused the ECO sensors to switch off the main engines three seconds too early.

Start of the space shuttle (STS 114)

The wiring of the ECO sensors ends in the rear of the orbiter in a microcontroller called a "Point Sensor Box" . During a refueling test in April 2005, two ECO sensors did not work reliably. To determine the cause, the Discovery's sensor box was removed and replaced by the box from the Atlantis shuttle . In the following tests, the Discovery box turned out to be fully functional. However, the Atlantis box then failed in further tests. It was replaced by the point sensor box removed from the Endeavor . In the meantime, the decision has been made to leave the originally intended external tank of the Discovery and thus the unreliable ECO sensors on the ground and to use the once again improved tank intended for the STS-121 . The process was initially recorded as an "inexplicable anomaly".

During the countdown on July 13th, the hydrogen ECO sensor no. 2 did not correctly switch from “wet” to “dry” during a simulation. In the days that followed, engineers worked around the clock to isolate and fix the problem. For test purposes, the wiring of sensor 2 and 3 was swapped for the next start and a possible problem with the grounding was fixed, because electrostatic charge could have caused the sensor to display incorrectly. However, a specific cause could not be determined. On July 21, 2005, NASA confirmed that another attempt at launch should take place on July 26.

A part of the insulating foam breaks off shortly after the solid booster has been separated from the external tank

On July 26, 2005, the Discovery started on schedule and without delays at 14:39 UTC . The fuel sensors worked fine. The next day, after evaluating the images from the shuttle launch, NASA announced that a large piece of insulating foam had detached from the outer tank and that all further space shuttle flights had been suspended until the causes were clarified. Thus, the following flight with the space shuttle Atlantis, with which the German astronaut Thomas Reiter was to fly to the International Space Station on September 9, 2005, as well as the further expansion of the ISS was generally stopped.

1st flight day, July 26, 2005

After the start of the space shuttle on July 26 and reaching the orbit, the payload bay doors were opened, the laptop - network of the shuttle and the robot arm into operation and checked the systems of the shuttle.

2nd flight day, July 27, 2005

On the second day of the flight (July 27), the Discovery's heat shield was examined for any damage that could have occurred during take-off due to pieces of insulating foam detaching from the outer tank. The new OBSS inspection arm, which was developed after the Columbia accident, was used for the first time.

The OBSS is a 15-meter-long “attachment” that is connected to the shuttle's robot arm. The head of the OBSS is equipped with laser sensors and high-resolution cameras and semi-automatically scans the orbiter's heat protection tiles.

At around 9:30 UTC, Andrew Thomas activated the RMS, mounted the OBSS and started the tile inspection half an hour later. Together with James Kelly and Charles Camarda, the sensitive heat shield was examined for damage throughout the day. After the first sightings did not reveal any abnormalities, the recordings were then subjected to detailed analyzes by the technicians in Houston.

Discovery is photographed from the ISS

3rd flight day, July 28, 2005

On July 28, Discovery approached the ISS. Eileen Collins carried out a spectacular 360 ° maneuver near the station, turning the space shuttle around its transverse axis within a few minutes. Meanwhile, the station's crew made high-resolution images of the shuttle heat shield. Several minor damage to the protective tiles was found on the images that were later transferred to Earth . NASA saw no cause for concern, however, as this is common practice for space shuttle launches. The number of damage was also significantly lower than in previous missions, as the deputy head of the shuttle program, Wayne Hale , explained.

At 11:18 UTC, the shuttle docked on the station's Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 . The hatches were opened at 12:50 UTC. The long-term crew of the space station, consisting of Sergei Krikaljow and John Phillips , stuck to the ISS tradition that every single newcomer is greeted with a double strike of a ship's bell in the Destiny laboratory module.

4th flight day, July 29, 2005

On July 29, the Raffaello logistics module was lifted out of the shuttle's loading bay using the ISS robot arm and docked on the Unity connection module. After the hatches were opened, the cargo in the module was brought to the station and the shuttle loaded with the goods that were supposed to return to earth. Furthermore, the underside of the shuttle hull was examined for further damage with the OBSS system.

5th flight day, July 30, 2005

Soichi Noguchi works on the International Space Station

On July 30th, the first space exit (EVA) was on the agenda. At 9:46 UTC Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson switched their spacesuits to internal energy supply, which marked the beginning of the exit. They left the Discovery through the hatch in the cargo bay of the shuttle, at the same time the exit hatch of the Quest module was opened by the ISS crew to serve as a substitute refuge for the astronauts working outside. First, the astronauts tested new methods of repairing the space shuttle heat shield. To do this, they worked on samples of prepared heat protection tiles in the Discovery's cargo bay. The astronauts later installed an ESPAD (ESP Attachment Device) holder for a new, external ESP (External Stowage Platform) on the Quest airlock, replaced a GPS antenna on the Z1 module , and laid a new power cable to gyroscope No. 2 (CMG-2) and carried out preparatory work for the replacement of CMG-1. At the request of flight control, Noguchi also took photos of the shuttle cockpit, where some insulation material on the port side had come loose. All scheduled tasks have been completed. The EVA ended at 16:36 UTC after 6 hours and 50 minutes.

It was also decided to extend the mission by one day in order to give the astronauts more time to transport additional cargo. These were taken from the space shuttle itself and included, for example, laptops and additional water.

6th day of flight, July 31, 2005

Astronauts Wendy Lawrence and Andrew Thomas in the Raffaello module

On the sixth day of the mission, the crew was mainly occupied with transporting the logistics from the Raffaello module to the station, and they also answered questions from some American television stations at a press conference. In addition, on that day it was considered for the first time to carry out a "repair" on two points of the Discovery's heat shield during the third external mission on August 3, where the filler material between the heat tiles came out slightly. In contrast to damaged heat tiles, this was not caused by falling insulating foam parts of the external tank, but by vibrations when the space shuttle took off. If the space shuttle re-entered the earth's atmosphere, the emerging filler strips could have led to undesirable turbulence and local overheating of the affected areas. Although this would not have led to such dangerous circumstances when the Discovery returned as the Columbia disaster, it could have damaged the nearby heat tiles, which might have had to be replaced for later missions. Such overheating has already been reported in previous missions such as B. STS-28 or STS-73 found, also at that time protruding filler strips were identified as the most likely cause. However, the heat shield in orbit was not examined at the time.

7th day of flight, August 1, 2005

The second field mission began on August 1 at 8:42 UTC. Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson removed the CMG-1 gyroscope, which had been inoperative since 2002, from the Z1 module and stowed it in the shuttle's loading bay for a later return to earth. The astronauts then installed a new gyroscope in its place, which was successfully put into operation by the ground control center. From this point in time, all four gyroscopes of the station, which are used for attitude stabilization, were functional again. After further minor work to prepare for later exits, the EVA ended successfully after 7 hours and 14 minutes at 15:56 UTC.

At a press conference, NASA announced that it would add repairs to two locations of the Discovery's heat shield, which had already been considered the day before, to the tasks of the third space exit. The filling material should either be simply pulled out or cut off by an astronaut attached to the robot arm of the station.

8th day of flight, August 2, 2005

On August 2, the crew was mainly busy reloading cargo between the Raffaello module and the station. In addition, the crew prepared for the third EVA planned for the 9th day of the flight. A press conference was also held that day.

9th day of flight, August 3, 2005

Astronaut Steve Robinson is carried by the ISS robotic arm during EVA-3
Damaged area of ​​the shuttle insulating mat

The repair of the heat shield, decided two days ago, was successfully carried out on August 3rd by Steve Robinson. He and Soichi Noguchi switched their spacesuits to internal power supply at 8:48 UTC and thus initiated the third and final EVA of the mission. First, the astronauts installed the external stowage platform ESP-2 (External Stowage Platform 2) on the Quest airlock, for which a bracket was already attached to the EVA-1. Then Noguchi attached the MISSE-5 (Materials International Space Station Experiment) experiment platform to the P6 solar module , while Steve Robinson prepared the instruments in the Discovery's cargo bay that could be used for repairs. It was then carried by the station's robotic arm to the underside of the Discovery, where it quickly and easily pulled out the two protruding filler strips. This represented a first in the history of the space shuttle: never before had such a procedure been carried out or rehearsed in space. Robinson then took some photos of the heat shield and returned to the shuttle with Noguchi at 14:49 UTC. The space exit, originally designed for 7 hours, lasted only 6 hours and 1 minute.

After the underside of the shuttle had been repaired during outdoor use, attention was drawn to a damage to the shuttle insulating mat underneath a window, which had been discovered on July 28, and which had apparently been caused by a piece of foam falling during take-off. Wayne Hale said at a press conference that the aim was to test the possible effects of the damage when re-entering the atmosphere in a wind tunnel. As such, the damaged insulating mat on the outer skin of the shuttle initially posed no danger. However, due to the high airspeed, parts could come loose at this point, which could develop into a projectile and, for example, hit the wings. NASA considered the likelihood of further exiting repairs to be low. However, if you consider that the outer hull of the orbiter has never been examined in previous missions, but instead always had problems with the air conditioning or with on-board computers, STS-114 turned out to be a very quiet mission, according to Hale.

10th flight day, August 4, 2005

Raffaello docked at the ISS

The further reloading of the total of 8.3 t of equipment and supplies into the ISS as well as of around 11 t of equipment, experiments that are further evaluated on Earth and the waste from the ISS into the shuttle determined the working day. In addition, NASA announced that after the tests in the wind tunnel, the damaged insulation mat would not pose any risk when re-entering the earth's atmosphere and that a fourth EVA was therefore not necessary. There was also a memorial service on the ISS for those who died in the Columbia disaster two and a half years ago.

11th flight day, August 5, 2005

The Discovery astronauts' stay on the ISS was drawing to a close. On August 5th, the Raffaello multipurpose module was closed, disconnected from the station and returned to the shuttle's loading bay. The OBSS was then fastened back in the shuttle loading bay. Preparations for undocking the space shuttle were also made.

12th day of flight, August 6, 2005

On August 6, at 4:36 UTC, the farewell ceremony was held on the ISS. The hatches between the shuttle and the station were then closed at 5:14 UTC and the Discovery separated from the ISS at 7:24 UTC. First, she circled the space station to take photos. At 9:05 UTC the Discovery fired its maneuvering engines and moved away from the ISS to enter its own orbit. The shuttle crew got the rest of the day off. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said of the Discovery mission that it was the "cleanest bird" ever seen up there. The resumption of shuttle flights is also being examined. If the technicians could get the problems with the outer tank insulation under control within a week, September 22, 2005 would be quite realistic as the next start date, according to Griffin.

13th day of flight, August 7, 2005

The 13th day of flight was determined by the review of the landing schedules. In addition, Soichi Noguchi made a film about some leisure activities on board the shuttle, Steve Robinson created a podcast that NASA provides for download and as a transcript. In addition, the crew was available for interviews with some US TV stations in a video transmission.

14th day of flight, August 8, 2005

The date for the landing in Cape Canaveral planned for August 8 at 9:47 UTC has been postponed by NASA due to poor weather conditions at the landing site. It was hoped that an additional 90-minute circumnavigation of the earth would improve the weather and thus optimal landing conditions. But even with the second and last landing opportunity of the day, scheduled for 10:22 UTC, the conditions were assessed by the ground control as suboptimal, so that it was agreed to postpone it by 24 hours.

15th flight day and landing, August 9, 2005

As the day before, the weather was not suitable for a landing in Florida. The first opportunity to land at 9:07 UTC was allowed to elapse due to an approaching thunderstorm. When there was no improvement, the flight control decided to land the ferry at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB). NASA would have liked to avoid relocation to California because returning the orbiter to Florida is costly and time-consuming.

Discovery lands in California.
Crew of the STS-114 after landing

The Discovery's maneuvering engines carried out the 162-second brake ignition from 11:06 UTC. At 11:40 UTC the shuttle entered the upper layers of the atmosphere. The landing took place at 12:11:22 UTC on runway 22 of the EAFB. This was the 50th landing of a shuttle in California, the last time the STS-111 mission ended there in June 2002. It was also the first night landing since STS-48 in September 1991 and the sixth overall in the space shuttle program.

Transfer to Florida

Transport back to Florida

The actual return transport of the Discovery to Cape Canaveral began on August 19, 2005; the orbiter had already been prepared for transport the days before. B. mounted a tail cover to improve the aerodynamic properties of the shuttle when flying on the back of a conventional aircraft. For the transfer, the shuttle was finally hoisted onto a converted Jumbo Jet Boeing 747 from NASA. Transportation back to the Kennedy Space Center took about two days. While a normal airliner takes about five hours to travel from California to Florida, NASA's Boeing had to stop at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma and Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana for refueling due to its heavy weight and greater aerodynamic drag .

Résumé

STS-114 was the first mission after the Columbia disaster of February 1, 2003. NASA wanted to use the time between the two missions to remedy the causes of the accident. NASA invested two and a half years of work and more than a billion US dollars in the investigations and fixes. Nevertheless, parts of the outer tank insulation fell off again at the start, which is why the criticism of NASA did not subside during the entire Discovery mission. The intense and sometimes exaggeratedly dramatic reports in the mass media also made the public aware of the predicament in which NASA found itself.

On the one hand, international treaties were required to carry out at least 19 more flights by 2010 that were necessary for the completion of the ISS. On the other hand, there is Template: future / in 3 yearsno successor model of the shuttle available to date (as of May 2018) . In addition, NASA stood by the announcement of George W. Bush , in the future people to the moon and later to Mars to want to bring, in terms of developing appropriate lunar and Mars mission plans under pressure.

There was also criticism of the rescue options of the STS-114 crew. If the damage to the Discovery had not made it possible to return, it would have been impossible for the Russians to bring the crew back, not only for technical, but also for political reasons. After the shuttle program was suspended as a consequence of the Columbia disaster, a contract signed between NASA and the Russian space agency regulated the further transport of astronauts and supply flights to the ISS. However, this contract expired with the launch of the Soyuz TMA 7 spacecraft in October 2005. Since 2000 , however, a decree by the Bush administration has banned the purchase of high-tech products in countries that support non-nuclear states such as Iran. This is the case with Russia and the purchase of additional supply flights to the ISS, which would have allowed the Discovery crew to stay longer on the space station, would have come under this embargo . However, this law was relaxed in September 2005 to such an extent that NASA now has the opportunity to buy seats in the Soyuz spacecraft.

The repairs to the shuttle in space also showed that NASA was not necessarily optimally prepared for any problems that might arise. The question arose as to what the astronauts should use to cut off the protruding filler strips on the underside of the shuttle. To do this, the Discovery crew first had to make a saw themselves in space. Some of the statements made by NASA employees during the mission were also met with incomprehension. Sun admitted Wayne Hale into a press conference that, in the past regarding the security arrangements with the astronauts literally " Russian Roulette 've played."

After the mission, NASA feared that fixing the construction flaws that continued to affect the safety of the shuttles would require a financial framework that the US Congress might not have approved.

Eileen Collins was very disillusioned at a first press conference. For her, who was not in space for the first time, the progressive environmental pollution was particularly terrifying. From space one can see very clearly the increasing deforestation of forests, the erosion and also numerous rivers that now carried brown instead of blue water.

When asked about the crew on the last Columbia mission, Collins said they had a STS-107 crew photo on board the Discovery. But it was not necessary to look at the photo, as one was always aware of this misfortune. The Columbia disaster brought about numerous improvements to the shuttle and, as a result, gave the Discovery crew a greater sense of security.

Addressing the critics of the shuttle program, Collins said that they usually underestimate the possibilities of manned space travel. The ISS, the completion of which is only possible through the shuttles, would give mankind the chance to get to know the earth further and could offer today's youth a better future. According to Collins, only the continuation of the program could one day bring a person to Mars, as announced by George W. Bush in 2004.

The space shuttle program ended in 2011 after 30 years of operation.

Wake-up calls

The STS-114 crew received the following wake-up calls from ground control for the new working day:

See also

Web links

Commons : STS-114  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steve Robinson: First Podcaster From Space . NASA, July 8, 2005
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on October 26, 2006 in this version .