 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Back to the News Index | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defintions/Terms | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright © 2001 International Space Station Guide
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ISS News & Mission:
STS-98 (ISS-5A US Lab) |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| The US Lab 'Destiny' in a payload handling structure during launch preperations at the Kennedy Space Center | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
The Crew:
Commander: Kenneth Cockrell Pilot: Mark Polansky Mission Specialist: Robert Curbeam Mission Specialist: Thomas Jones Mission Specialist: Marsha Ivins Major Mission Goals:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shuttle Prepares for Liftoff
Launch of the ISS assembly mission 5A STS-98 was delayed by investigation and corrective actions for a failure of a SRB seperation pyrotechnic to fire on the preceding STS-97 flight. Although there was no problem caused by the failure, the cause which turned out to be faulty grounding of the device, had to be checked and corrected before launching STS-98. First a Progress Redocking In Decmember as the shuttle was preparing for launch, the ISS crew manually redocked the Progress resupply ship which had to be undocked to make way for the STS-97 docking (due to clearance issues). Redocking was done to provide the crew more space for trash disposal on the Progress, and to test a software patch correcting a problem encounted in the first docking attempt. A manual redocking was required because even with the software fix, once a Progress docks to the Zarya (FGB) Nadir port, its terminal rendezvous antenna is pryotechnically stowed to avoid hitting parts of the station, and once stowed, there is no way to deploy it again |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gidzinko pilots the Progress to the Zarya Nadir port at the upper center of the picture. The cross hairs are on the docking target mounted below the port. | The Progress pivets greatly from the docking target after soft docking due to minor remaining velocities in the Progress. Hard docking was soon completed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rollback to the VAB
A few days befire a scheduled launch on Jan. 18 more inspections of SRB seperation system wiring bundles found problems which could exist in the STS-98 shuttle stack even after the tests which had been carried out to date including X-ray tests. The real problem was intermittent conductivity in the circuits when the wires were wiggled and pulled as if in flight. Wiggle tests of the wiring in the STS-98 stack needed to be carried out in the VAB causing the shuttle to be rolled back to the VAB and incurring weeks of delays. Hundreds of wires were checked for continuity while under flight loads. The Mission |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Atlantis flys STS-98, carrying the US Lab, for a planned 11 days. After docking and being greeted by the station crew, the shuttle crew will transfer some computer hard drives and jumper cables needed by the station crew to install the Lab internally, and prepare for docking the LAB during an EVA. PMA-2 will be undocked from Node-1 using the shuttle manipulator arm and moved to a temporary docking position on the Z-1 truss. Astronauts will temporarilly connect PMA-2 to Z1 during their first EVA, and will bolt the Lab to Node-1 as the shuttles manipulator docks the lab to the node. Astronauts also will connect thermal system systems to the lab, and make electrical connections among other activities to ready the lab for operation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Atlantis flys near the ISS with the US Lab Desinty in its cargo bay. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The US Lab module was the centerpiece of the US ISS segment, the place much of scientific research is performed, and the nerve center of the US segment for control of the ISS. The computer control system on the US Lab provides redundant control (via the US side) of the stations attitude, communications, power disrtubution, life support, etc. and in the future propulsion. Up to the addition of the US lab, all these station control functions were performed only by the Service Module. With the addition of the US Lab , NASA gains greater control over the station, and still can have the Russian side as a backup. Other modules also support research like the COF, and JEM modules, and in fact the international partners share space in each others modules in accordance to a formula defined by each countries contribution to the construction and on-going support of the ISS.
The US Lab's development was eventful and its launch intamently tied to its proceeding components the FGB, Node-1, Service Module, Z1 Truss and P6 Truss. Only after these components were in orbit could the Lab be supported and function as intended. With each delay in launch of any of these elements, the Lab was delayed. During its development, the US Lab suffered 24 months of delay directly due to delays in launch of the Service Module or Z1 Truss, the majority due to the Service Module. But, it would be false to say the Lab could have been launched as planned if these other delays had not happened. Certianly several months of delay were experienced in development of the Lab on its own, the delays just did not exceed the delays of the Service Module or Z1 Truss. The Lab will be lifted out of the shuttle cargo bay and fliped end for end before its docked to the Unity Node (Node-1). This was due to the fact that the lab structure was strongest around the pins used to hold it in the shuttle cargo bay for launch, and these pins double as attachment points (scars) for other attachment of extermal structures of the station. In this case, the keel pin on which the lab rested during launch will be used as the attach point for the Station RMS (SSRMS) to ba launched on the 5A.1 mission, and during the 8A mission the S0 truss will be attached also as the beginning of the large truss strucutre holding all the US solar arrays, etc. in the future. Once the lab is in place, the ISS crew will begin pressurizing the vestibule space between Node-1 and the Lab, installing data networking jumpers. A thermal radiator will be deployed, systems activiate and checked out, and the Z1's gyro's will be spun up to operating speed (which takes a few hours).The ISS and Shuttle crews will activite power to the lab, followed soon by activiation of thermal control to cool the avionics (they have 4 hours to accomplish thsi before the avionics overheat).
Above left, ISS commander Bill Sheperd signs a document taking acceptance of the US Lab from the contractor Boeing. Above right, the shuttle and station crews start setting up equipment in the Lab. The station crew will enter the lab for the first time since seeing it being perpared for launch before their launch in October. The station crew will install fire extinguishers, oxygen masks, a rack will be moved from its launch position (only some rack positions support launch loads with fully loaded racks) to its on orbit position, install air filters, reconfigure cooling loops and humidity control lines from their launch configuration to support ling term habitation of the lab. New audio circuits will be configured for use of the new high rate S-band communications system, and the Z1 gryo's tested. The shuttle astornauts the next day again leave the shuttle to complete moving PMA-2 to its new position on the free end of the lab, and other minor tasks. A 3rd EVA is also planned to do a few final things like connecting PMA-2 electrical connections to the lab. In addition the shuttle and station crews will perform logistics transfers between the shuttle and station, preparing the staion crew to be left alone again as their mission has been extended from its original plan. Among the equipment carried to the station are a Service Module central post computer, a replacement Vozdukh CO2 removal system spare parts compressor fans and chemical reactent beds (to repair a defective unit on the Service Module) and a SDV power supply. The Shuttle will also be used to remove trash from the station. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Atlantis departing from the station with the Earth in the background and shadowed cargo bay lights shining brightly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Images from NASA | All material unless otherwise indicated is Copyright © 2001 International Space Station Guide all rights reserved. Please write for permission to use material. Additional material Copyright © as shown or supplied by NASA. | email:issguide@attbi.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
 |
A complete guide to the Soviet manned space program from 1960 to 1990
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||