Like Discovery and Atlantis, Endeavour now is equipped to carry a 15-meter sensor boom, a vital extension of the orbiter’s robotic arm that allows astronauts to scan the orbiter’s heat shield in flight for signs of damage, Abadiotakis said. Atlantis first flew with the upgrade during its STS-101 mission in 2000, followed by Discovery in 2005 during NASA’s STS-114 flight. “Endeavour was the last orbiter to get that modification,” TassosAbadiotakis, NASA’s vehicle flow manager for Endeavour, told Space News. In addition to testing new shuttle technology, Endeavour now is equipped with hardware already installed aboard its sister ships Discovery and Atlantis.Įndeavour has been outfitted with a “glass cockpit,” a series of flat screen, full-color multi-functional electronic displays that present flight data to the orbiter’s astronaut crew. “We’ve got a far superior system, far safer, far more accurate to fly our big glider back home with,” Hale said. The three-string GPS system, which was tested in part on a shuttle flight last year, replaces Endeavour’s 1950s-era Tactical Air Navigation, or Tacan, system that gradually is being phased out worldwide, he added. “An engine would be shut down before it could progress to any catastrophic situation,” Hale said of the monitoring system. If an engine’s turbopumps vibrate too much, the new system is designed to shut it down. The turbopumps feed Endeavour’s three main engines with the nearly 2 million liters of propellant required for the 8.5-minute launch into space. The health management system is designed to monitor vibrations in each of the high-pressure fuel and oxidizer turbopumps-which rotate 34,000 times and 23,000 times per minute, respectively. Endeavour also sports the first fully activated Advanced Health Management System to watch over the shuttle’s three main engines during launch, as well as a three-string GPS for pinpoint navigation during landings, NASA said. “ssuming that it works, we’ll be able to fly a 14-day mission, so we can add three extra days to our flight,” Kelly said in a NASA interview. If successful, the new power transfer system will allow the STS-118 astronauts to conserve Endeavour’s own fuel cell supplies. The system then converts that power to feed the orbiter’s 28-volt system. Standing out among Endeavour’s nearly 200 modifications is a trio of systems making their first operational appearance on a NASA shuttle flight.Įndeavour will be NASA’s first shuttle to carry a Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS), which is designed to allow the shuttle to siphon electrical power from the station’s 120-volt grid via a docking port connection. Commanded by veteran astronaut Scott Kelly, the mission also features the first flight of teacher-turned-spaceflyer Barbara Morgan, who served as McAuliffe’s backup in 1986. Įndeavour rolled out of its then-Rockwell International- now Boeing- hangar in Palmdale, Calif., in 1991, to join NASA’s shuttle fleet.Įndeavour now is poised to make its 20th launch into space with NASA’s STS-118 mission to deliver cargo, spare parts and a new piece of starboard-side framework to the ISS. It was commissioned in 1987 as a replacement for its sister ship, Challenger, which was destroyed in January 1986, shortly after liftoff, killing its six-astronaut crew, which included “Teacher in Space” Christa McAuliffe. The work should not prevent Endeavour from its scheduled liftoff.Įndeavour is NASA’s youngest space shuttle. 1, NASA decided to replace the valve with one from the Atlantis shuttle. “It’s like driving a new car off the showroom floor.”ĭuring Endeavour’s down time, engineers inspected some 241 kilometers of wiring, enhanced its avionics interface, and added a new power transfer and engine monitoring systems, among other upgrades.Įngineers are working to fix a cabin leak traced to a pressure relief valve behind the toilet, but not a part of the plumbing, inside Endeavour’s crew module. “It’s like a new space shuttle,” Wayne Hale, NASA’s shuttle program manager, said of Endeavour, adding that the orbiter has been inspected from stem to stern. The upcoming spaceflight will mark Endeavour’s first flight since late 2002, following several years’ worth of maintenance and modifications. 8 on a construction mission to the international space station (ISS). The shuttle and its STS-118 astronaut crew are slated to launch Aug. NEW YORK - After almost five years on the ground, NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour is being primed for launch following a major overhaul to upgrade and refit the 100-ton space plane.
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