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STORY WRITTEN FOR & USED WITH PERMISSIONPosted: November 9, 2006UPDATED to include solar array software details Discovery arrived at pad 39B this morning. Photo: NASA-KSCRollout images available The shuttle Discovery was hauled to launch pad 39B today for work to ready the ship for blastoff Dec. 7 on a critical space station assembly and re-wiring mission. NASA managers considered moving launch up an additional day, to Dec. 6, but ruled that out today based on time needed to complete crew training and to develop software intended to prevent damage to the station's new solar arrays.The software in question is designed to constantly monitor the positions of the sun-tracking arrays and warn flight controllers of possible rocket plume contamination or excessive structural loads, Sources said the new monitoring software - and the training needed to use it - likely cannot be formally certified before Discovery's current December launch window closes.Instead, engineers hope to have a workable system in place by Dec. 7, although details about what needs to be done are not yet clear.Mounted atop a powerful crawler-transporter, Discovery and its mobile launch platform began the 4.2-mile trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the pad at 12:29 a.m. The MLP was "hard down" at the pad by 9:03 a.m.Discovery's crew - commander Mark Polansky, pilot William Oefelein, Nicholas Patrick, Robert Curbeam, European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Sunita Williams - plans to fly to the Kennedy Space Center next week to review emergency procedures and participate in a dress rehearsal countdown Thursday.A two-day flight readiness review to assess Discovery's processing is scheduled for Nov. 28-29. If no problems develop, launch will be targeted for no earlier than Dec. 7. The launch window that day opens at 9:30:42 p.m. and closes at 9:40:42 p.m. Liftoff will be targeted for the middle of the window, at 9:35:42 p.m.The goal of the flight is to attach a short spacer segment to the station's solar array truss and to carry out a complex two-spacewalk re-wiring job to switch the station over from interim power to its permanent electrical system. That change over, which requires extensive realtime ground commanding and system power cycling during ongoing spacewalks, makes Discovery's flight the most complex station assembly mission yet attempted.Mission STS-116 initially was baselined for 11 days with the possibility of extending the flight one day in orbit if on-board supplies permitted. NASA managers recently made that official, baselining a 12-day flight and adding a post-undocking (flight day 11) heat shield inspection to the crew's timeline. Here is a :FD-1 (12/07): Launch at 9:36 p.m.FD-2 (12/08): Heat shield inspectionFD-3 (12/09): Space station docking; P5 truss removal from bayFD-4 (12/10): Spacewalk 1: P5 attachment to P4 solar array segmentFD-5 (12/11): P6 port solar wing retractionFD-6 (12/12): Spacewalk 2: Electrical channel 2/3 re-wiringFD-7 (12/13): Crew off duty time; crew news conferenceFD-8 (12/14): Spacewalk 3: Electrical channel 1/4 re-wiringFD-9 (12/15): Equipment transfersFD-10 (12/16): Discovery undocks from space stationFD-11 (12/17): Heat shield inspectionFD-12 (12/18): Cabin stowFD-13 (12/19): Landing at 4:37 p.m.Senior NASA managers meeting today at the Johnson Space Center ruled out moving the launch date up to Dec. 6. The flight already had been moved up a week, from Dec. 14 to Dec. 7. Crew trainers and the flight control team argued against another move to Dec. 6 to avoid losing another day of preparation.Completing development of the new solar array monitoring software is a bit of a wild card in mission planning.Before the station can be switched from interim to permanent power, one of the two solar array wings providing interim power must be retracted. In addition, the new array panels attached to the left side of the station's main solar power truss in September must begin rotating like a giant paddle wheel to keep face on to the sun.As the arrays rotate on the end of a massive solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, their masts are moved at right angles, by so-called beta-gimbal joints, to change their pitch as required.Engineers always knew the start of that complex, automated sun tracking would require careful monitoring to make sure station or shuttle thrusters did not deposit contamination on the solar cells or impart excessive loads that might damage or even break the fragile hardware.As it turned out, the requirements for the software were late and development is not yet complete. Engineers are racing the clock to get a workable, if not certified, version in place by the opening of Discovery's launch window.With that issue percolating in the background, Program Manager Wayne Hale asked the shuttle team to consider moving launch up to Dec. 6 as a way to add a day to Discovery's launch window. An extra day would provide a bit of insurance getting the shuttle mission off before running up against the end of the year.When the shuttle's flight control software was developed in the 1970s, NASA managers did not envision the possibility of flying missions during the transition from one year to the next. Internal clocks, instead of rolling over to Jan. 1, 2007, would simply keep counting up, putting them at odds with navigation systems on the ground."It's an interesting problem because if you remember a few years ago, we went through the Y2K change and there was a lot of concern about what computers would do," Hale told reporters earlier this week. "The interesting thing about the shuttle computers and the ground computers that support the shuttle is they were never envisioned to fly through a year-end change over. So the shuttle computers actually keep counting and they believe it's day 366 instead of day 1 of the year."That sounds rather trivial, but the fact of the matter is to keep the navigation in synch with the rest of the world, which has changed from day 365 to day 1, you've got to make that change appropriately and it was never designed in."Space station software, on the other hand, was designed from the ground up to handle year-end rollovers and in the wake of the 2003 Columbia disaster, engineers re-evaluated the shuttle's software to make sure an emergency rescue mission, if needed, could safely fly across a new year."We had certified that for contingency use in the sense that if we ever had to fly a launch-on-need rescue mission and it happened to cross a year-end rollover, it would work," Hale said. "So we did quite a bit of testing on the software at that point. But there is a different level of testing that you need to do when you want to execute a procedure like that for a normal, planned, not contingency kind of operation."In April, we asked the team to go off and do that work. There had been a series of problems with that work and it turns out while we feel confident that it would work if we had to use it, we did not get the normal amount of testing and a normal amount of runtime on what are some very complicated procedures, both on the ground and with the crew to keep everything in synch across the end of the year."So right now, coming out of a review last week, it looks like we will not try to execute the flight over the year end," Hale said. "We're going to review that at the flight readiness review, so I would not call it a hard constraint at this time but rather a recommendation to take forward."NASA managers today officially ruled out a Dec. 6 launch. A requirement to be back on the ground by Dec. 31 at the latest means Discovery must take off by Dec. 17, which would result in a landing Dec. 29 and still preserve two additional landing days in case of bad weather or other problems.Florida's nighttime December weather is relatively mild and with 11 launch opportunities from Dec. 7 through Dec. 17, flight controllers are optimistic they'll get Discovery into space before the 2006 window closes."With the more benign weather that we have in Florida in December," Hale said, "we think that would probably be adequate to get us off."Additional coverage for subscribers:VIDEO:DISCOVERY MATED TO TANK AND BOOSTERS VIDEO:SHUTTLE HOISTED VERTICALLY INSIDE VAB VIDEO:DISCOVERY HAULED FROM HANGAR TO VAB VIDEO:PORT 5 TRUSS PAYLOAD PACKED UP VIDEO:CREW VISITS KENNEDY SPACE CENTER VIDEO:EXTERNAL FUEL TANK MATED TO BOOSTERS Final Shuttle Mission PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The crew emblem for the final space shuttle mission is now available in our store. Get this piece of history!STS-134 PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The final planned flight of space shuttle Endeavour is symbolized in the official embroidered crew patch for STS-134. Available in our store!Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Project OrionThe Orion crew exploration vehicle is NASA's first new human spacecraft developed since the space shuttle a quarter-century earlier. The capsule is one of the key elements of returning astronauts to the Moon.Fallen Heroes Patch CollectionThe official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Discovery moved to launch pad for upcoming blastoff BY SPACEFLIGHT NOWPosted: November 9, 2006Space shuttle Discovery journeyed to launch pad 39B overnight to begin final preparations for its nighttime blastoff December 7 on a delicate space station re-wiring mission. Discovery nears pad 39B at sunrise. Photo: Ben Cooper/Spaceflight NowMore images available The four-mile trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building, which began at 12:29 a.m. EST (0529 GMT), saw an Apollo-era transporter haul Discovery's mobile launch platform along Kennedy Space Center's crawlerway at a top speed less than one mph.The transporter is powered by 16 traction motors feeding from two 2,750 horsepower diesel engines and consumed over 100 gallons of diesel fuel in each mile of the trip.The shuttle reached the pad entrance at sunrise under clear, crisp skies. The rollout crew activated the transporter's jacking and leveling system for the slow creep up the ramp of pad 39B. The crawler uses hydraulic lifts to keep the shuttle level during the ramp ascent by jacking up the front-end of the platform. Once on the flat pad surface, a precision laser guidance system helped align the platform over the pad pedestals.Technicians called the platform harddown on the pedestals at 9:03 a.m. EST (1403 GMT), officially completing the rollout.The methodical process of hooking up the crew module assess and hydrogen vent arms extending from the launch tower, as well as electrical, propellant, communications and other lines between the ground systems and launch platform will begin. A hot-fire test for Discovery's auxiliary power unit system is scheduled later today. The APUs provide the hydraulic pressure needed to move the ship's wing flaps and main engine nozzles and deploy the landing gear. Then the gantry-like rotating service structure will be moved around Discovery.In the coming days, the shuttle's payload bay doors to be opened and the mission cargo loaded aboard the orbiter. And a practice countdown with the astronauts is planned for next week.Liftoff remains targeted for December 7 at 9:36 p.m. EST. It will mark the first night shuttle launch in four years.For extensive details on the mission, see our preview .Additional coverage for subscribers:VIDEO:DISCOVERY MATED TO TANK AND BOOSTERS VIDEO:SHUTTLE HOISTED VERTICALLY INSIDE VAB VIDEO:DISCOVERY HAULED FROM HANGAR TO VAB VIDEO:PORT 5 TRUSS PAYLOAD PACKED UP VIDEO:CREW VISITS KENNEDY SPACE CENTER VIDEO:EXTERNAL FUEL TANK MATED TO BOOSTERS Final Shuttle Mission PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The crew emblem for the final space shuttle mission is now available in our store. Get this piece of history!STS-134 PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The final planned flight of space shuttle Endeavour is symbolized in the official embroidered crew patch for STS-134. Available in our store!Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Project OrionThe Orion crew exploration vehicle is NASA's first new human spacecraft developed since the space shuttle a quarter-century earlier. The capsule is one of the key elements of returning astronauts to the Moon.Fallen Heroes Patch CollectionThe official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Discovery nearing the station BY WILLIAM HARWOOD