March | 2009 | An engineering student's Blog

03.15.2009 • 17.13 0

Discovery looks good to go

The ET is fueled, the crew is aboard, the hatch is closed and the skies are clear. Go Discovery!

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Filed under: Space

03.11.2009 • 14.12 0

Discovery Launch for tonight scrubbed

The next launch window begins at 849pm and ends at 9pm if they can fix the LH2 leak and fuel the ET by tomarow night.

Strange thing – my first impression with all of the delays is that these things are falling appart and its a good thing theyre being retired but Im not sure this is historically a long setback. Maybe they’re used to these sort of things at NASA. I suppose launching a rocket is not at all like unparking a car. (:

UPDATE :: Taken from spaceflight now

2245 GMT (6:45 p.m. EDT)

The post-scrub press conference is underway at the Kennedy Space Center.The next launch opportunity is being targeted for no earlier than Sunday, with a liftoff time of 7:43 p.m. EDT.

The leak was found near the end of fueling space shuttle Discovery’s external tank this afternoon in the gaseous hydrogen venting system. Troubleshooting and efforts to cycle valve in the system failed to fix the leak. Engineers are sure there is a hardware problem, most likely on the launch pad-side of the interface.

The tank has been drained of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen following the scrub. A 20-hour inerting of the tank must be performed before technicians can get their hands on the hardware.

More meetings are planned for tomorrow to assess the schedule.

We’ll have a full story from the news conference later today.

Filed under: Space

03.11.2009 • 08.54 0

Shift happends

Found this video at the JSC Advanced Planning Office Blog
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/JSC%20Advanced%20Planning%20Office%20Blog.blog/posts/post_1226512633416.html
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/JSC%20Advanced%20Planning%20Office%20Blog

Its not exactly News – was posted November of last year – but still EYE OPENING and highly recommended that you watch it and meditate on it if you have a minute. Me I dont have a minute and this is probably going to be my last post in a while – vector calculus is kicking my ass and I have a test tomarow morning. If I didnt I would be entertaining the idea of driving up to see the shuttle launch tonight at 920pm – but I cant. Maybe will go to Miami beach and hope theres no clouds. Sad – yeah I know – maybe we’ll just watch it on NASA TV or www.spaceflightnow.com and look out the window (:

Spaceflightnow.com will have mission coverage from 430pm including an interview with Astronaut Leroy Chiao and Damaris Sarria, Coalition Advisory Board Member and aspiring astronaut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q