Working At The Pad

So this past week I've been working out at the pad. We've been connecting our hardware to the shuttle, and my job has been supervising all the KSC techs...suuuuuuuper boring however, the nice thing is I can take a bunch of stupid pictures of me in the cargo bay!

The room we're in is called PCR (Payload Changeout Room). there's a big wall of stairs,(above) and plaforms that can move forward and away from the shuttle. Its called the PGHM has a bunch of hooks that grabs all our hardware from the 'can' and then sticks it in the shuttle bay.

Left side of PCR and PGHM

Here's me in front of the shuttle airlock.

PGHM hook. One of our carriers is on the right under the wrapping.

Looking up the Shuttle payload bay door

Canada Arm

Me playing with the PGHM

Shuttle at night

Two Shuttles...Again!

So we were able to get the once-in-a-lifetime shot for the second time this mission: shuttles on both pads. The closer one is atlantis, background is endeavour Here's some pics:









here's the picture from the last time they were up there:

The rainbow wasn't photoshop'ed (i don't think)

Double Shuttles

Here's some pretty pics when the shuttles were on their pads together (Pad A is closer with Atlantis, B is further away with Endeavour).

Commander Colin

Today was totally sweet: I got to sit in the commander's chair in space shuttle Discovery! Here's my pic:

Commander Colin

Our mission requires two shuttles to be prepared and ready to launch (one is backup). The Discovery is not being used for the mission and is in preliminary checkout phases which means nerds like me can go crawl around inside it. I also took a quick video of the inside:




Next week we will load our payload in the 'can' which drives out to the pad. I'm going to take some pics inside our clean room to give a better idea of what's going into space.

Cool VAB pics

I was browsing the pictures taken by the photo staff and i came across these cool pictures of when Atlantis was being lifted in the VAB, enjoy!

Atlantis rolling into the VAB

Starting to lift the shuttle

Cool hovering shot before Atlantis goes vertical

Vertical

Roll Out!!!

Today was roll out day for Atlantis! I scouted out a nice spot in the LCC (launch control center) parking lot. Here are some starting off pics:










Nice spot, huh? Well after a couple minutes of squeezing my camera lens through the fence, i realized 'Hey, I can get on the other side of the fence!'



So I did, and snapped these pics!

You can see the Pad A just to the right of the MLP.

After watching that all morning...it was time for lunch! After lunch, i saw that the stack made it to the pad so Greg and I drove out there to take more pics. It only took about 4 hours to get there, which was quick. I guess the normal 5 hour trip is to Pad B because that one is a bit farther. Greg and I drove around Pad A and took pictures the whole way:

Go Atlantis!

Looking down some old railroad tracks at the pad. Dunno what the tracks were for...

You can see the VAB at the far right of the picture.

So that's roll out! I thought the crawler was moving a lot faster than I imagined it did. Here's a video i took to show how fast it was going. I also have a video that shows how far it went in an hour...not that far.

I took waaaaaaaaay more pics than i put up here. I put them on my facebook for everyone to see.

We'll be loading the can up soon...which means i'll be all over the pad structure! Sweet!

Lunch Trip 4: Return to OPF and Inside the VAB

Today, Marty and I went to visit the OPF and the VAB. We went to see the Endeavour again because we wanted to get pictures of us in the pilot's seat...but we couldn't. They were just finishing the shuttle closeouts so we weren't allowed inside. We might try to get in the Discovery tomorrow...


I did take some more cool pics of the Endeavour:

Left is the Space Shuttle Main Engine room. On the right is looking forward over the wing of the Endeavour.








We were kinda bummed about not getting our cockpit pictures so we decided to mosey on over to the VAB. At the time of our visit, the VAB had the complete Atlantis stack and the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) for the Endeavour. In case I haven't explained before, two shuttle stacks will be prepared for our mission: Atlantis is our primary and Endeavour is our back-up.

Also in case if haven't explained before, the VAB is huge. It has a big main hallway and four staging areas. The shuttle barely takes up any of the building. See the double doors at the bottom? Only those and two of the rising doors open for the shuttle. Its so big because the Saturn 5 was assembled there. The Saturn 5 had only 4 feet of clearance between the tip and the top of the doorway.

Anyway, Marty and I started at the 16th floor and worked our way down, taking tons of pictures. Here are some sweet shots:

Looking down at the shuttle from the 16th floor

Left: Looking at the external tank. You can see the nose of the shuttle to the left just sticking out of the floor.

Right: Shot of where Endeavour will go. You can see the SRBs on either side of the empty place where the ET will go.

Looking up at the shuttle. You can see the mobile launch platform at the bottom

I also got some cool pictures in the middle floors, like this one I took next to the Atlantis wing:





On the left is a picture of one of the bolts that attach the SRB to the ET. The bolt is actually the little vertical piece of metal near the orange tank. There four per SRB, they are 2 1/2 inches in diameter and they can withstand 3 million pounds of force!

Doesn't that just make you want an ice cream cone?

Picture taken just under the ET, looking at the bottom of the shuttle (black thing).

Marty and I could walk on the mobile launch platform right under the shuttle's tail. Here's a picture looking up at the shuttle from right next to the tail.



While we were walking out, i snapped a picture looking up at the ceiling of the VAB. The yellow things at the top are the giant cranes that pick up the SRBs, ET and shuttle. It has to pick up the pieces and lift them up and into the open spot you can see in the wall. The open spot is up higher than my apartment building.


Next blog update will be very exciting! I'm going to get up and watch the Atlantis roll out to the pad! Check back real soon!

Exploring the OPF

Our resident tour guide Dr. Ed said he'd take us over to the OPF (orbiter processing facility) to go see the space shuttle. The OPF is where the shuttle is worked on before its next flight. At the time, Atlantis (our shuttle) was being worked on so we couldn't get in to see it, however our mission requires two orbiters to be prepared so we got to go look around Endeavour.


The OPF doesn't require you to wear bunny suits unless you are working in the payload bay area. And besides running around in the payload bay, you can pretty much go anywhere else. Here's some pics of the bay:



Both pics are looking from front to the back of the orbiter. The left one i'm standing to the left of the nose, right one is from right of the nose.




And speaking of the nose, here's a picture of Jeff, me and Greg:

For those who don't know, Greg is my boss and Jeff is a software guy working on the RNS camera system

The underside of the shuttle looks way more beat up that you can tell from TV. Here's a shot taken under the shuttle looking towards the front. You can see how the old tiles are kinda chalky colored. New ones are the dark black ones. Apparently you could lightly tap the older ones and they'd crack.


Another interesting factoid about the shuttle is on the side. The flag looks backwards when the shuttle is horizontal, but the public usually sees it mounted vertically on the external tank (orange thing), where it looks normal.



But, of course, the coolest feature of the shuttle are the engines. The shuttle has 3 main engines that each provide 1 million pounds of thrust for a total of 3 million pounds of thrust. The shuttle also has two OMS pods which are are used when the shuttle is in orbit. The OMS pods contain hypergols which are extremely reactive fluids that ignite on contact. The OMS will be used to reboost the hubble into its orbit as well as control the shuttle attitude.

Jeff, Greg and Dr. Ed (from left to right) in front of the rocket engines.

We were inches from the engine nozzles and were incredibly lucky to be there right as they were going to test Endeavour's hydraulic system which means we got to see all the wing flaps, rudder, and engines move! Here is a link to my youtube account where i posted all the videos i took. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cool.


One more cool fact: the shuttle is held on to the external tank (ET) by 3 bolts. The solid rocket boosters are held to the ET by, i think, 4 bolts...which means the 8 million pounds of thrust produced by the space shuttle stack is held together by 11 bolts. whoa.

oh and yet one more fact: Pete, the solid rocket boosters fuel is star shaped. that gives the most surface area to burn when it is first lighted. then the star shape burns to a circle, but there is more circumference so it remains about the same.

p.p.s. the fuel used in solid rocket boosters is crazy. nothing yet invented can stop the solid rocket fuel from burning. they did a test where they lit a cube of the fuel and immersed it in liquid nitrogen...and it kept burning. whoooooaaaaaaaa.