 KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA - Why does NASA sometimes schedule a rocket launch for the middle of the night, or aim for a liftoff time when weather is notoriously unlikely to cooperate?
The simplicity of the question belies the complexity of the answer. The best time to start a mission is based on a blend of factors: the flight's target and goals, the needs of the spacecraft, the type of rocket, and the desired trajectory, which refers to the path the vehicle and spacecraft must take to successfully start the mission. Not only do these variables influence the preferred launch time -- the ideal time of departure -- but the overall length of the launch window, which can vary from one second to several hours.
The dynamics change from mission to mission, and determining the launch window is an important part of the overall flight design.
"The interesting thing about our job is each mission is almost completely different from any other mission," said Eric Haddox, the lead flight design engineer in NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Haddox leads the team of agency and contractor personnel overseeing and integrating the trajectory design efforts of the spacecraft team and launch service contractor for each LSP mission. Once the spacecraft team identifies its needs, a rocket is selected, and the work of hammering out the best launch window and trajectory begins. Ultimately, the launch window and preferred liftoff time are set by the launch service contractor.
"We help everybody understand the requirements of the spacecraft and what the capabilities are of the launch vehicle, and try to mesh the two," Haddox explained.
The most significant deciding factors in when to launch are where the spacecraft is headed, and what its solar needs are. Earth-observing spacecraft, for example, may be sent into low-Earth orbit. Some payloads must arrive at a specific point at a precise time, perhaps to rendezvous with another object or join a constellation of satellites already in place. Missions to the moon or a planet involve aiming for a moving object a long distance away.
For example, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft began its eight-month journey to the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2011 with a launch aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. After the initial push from the powerful Atlas V booster, the Centaur upper stage then sent the spacecraft away from Earth on a specific track to place the laboratory, with its car-sized Curiosity rover, inside Mars' Gale Crater on Aug. 6, 2012. Due to the location of Mars relative to Earth, the prime planetary launch opportunity for the Red Planet occurs only once every 26 months.
Additionally, spacecraft often have solar requirements: they may need sunlight to perform the science necessary to meet the mission's objectives, or they may need to avoid the sun's light in order to look deeper into the dark, distant reaches of space.
Such precision was needed for NASA's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) spacecraft, which launched Oct. 28, 2011 aboard a ULA Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Earth-observing satellite circles at an altitude of 512 miles, sweeping from pole to pole 14 times each day as the planet turns on its axis. A very limited launch window was required so that the spacecraft would cross the ascending node at exactly 1:30 p.m. local time and scan Earth's surface twice each day, always at the same local time.
All of these variables influence a flight's trajectory and launch time. A low-Earth mission with specific timing needs must lift off at the right time to slip into the same orbit as its target; a planetary mission typically has to launch when the trajectory will take it away from Earth and out on the correct course.
According to Haddox, aiming for a specific target -- another planet, a rendezvous point, or even a specific location in Earth orbit where the solar conditions will be just right -- is a bit like skeet shooting.
"You've got this object that's going to go flying out into the air and you've got to shoot it," said Haddox. "You have to be able to judge how far away your target is and how fast it's moving, and make sure you reach the same point at the same time."
But Haddox also emphasized that Earth is rotating on its axis while it orbits the sun, making the launch pad a moving platform. With so many moving players, launch windows and trajectories must be carefully choreographed.
Of course, weather or technical problems can interfere with the team's best plans. Launch windows are intended to absorb small delays while still offering plenty of chances to lift off on a given day. However, launching at a time other than the preferred time could reduce the rocket's performance, potentially limiting the payload mass.
"To launch at any time other than that optimal time, you're going to have to alter the trajectory, steer the rocket to get back to that point," Haddox said. "So that's where it becomes a trade of, 'Okay, if my window were a half hour long, how much performance would I need to fly at any time within a half hour? Or, if my window were an hour long, how much performance would I be able to get out of the rocket to fly at any time within that one hour?'"
Likewise, if a spacecraft has to use any of its onboard propellant to make up for any difference in the trajectory, that could impact the entire mission.
"The more propellant they have, the longer they can do maneuvers or adjust things" during the flight, Haddox explained. "It basically equates to how long they can stay in orbit and do their science."
These potential give-and-take situations are carefully considered during flight planning. Mission managers must find a way to balance the sacrifices while maximizing the chance of getting off the ground.
Even when the launch and mission teams have chosen the best launch window, they face an additional challenge from the U.S. Air Force: collision avoidance, also called COLA. The U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing controls the Eastern Range surrounding Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida; the 30th Space Wing operates the Western Range, including Vandenberg Air Force Base. The range determines whether any orbiting spacecraft or debris could strike the vehicle during its climb to space, and cut out portions of the launch window that are too risky.
Collision avoidance can get tricky, because even though the trajectory has been carefully planned, real-time factors result in some uncertainty. For example, during the trajectory design process, the team assumes certain propellant temperatures. But if the temperatures are slightly different on launch day, that will affect the propellant, which in turn alters the efficiency of the rocket's engines or solid rocket motors.
"The navigation system on the rocket is going to do what it needs to do to get the spacecraft where it needs to be, but it's not going to be the same trajectory you looked at before," said Haddox. "When you've got things that are moving seven to eight kilometers a second, half a second can result in a big distance."
"So it just makes things a lot harder to predict," he added.
On launch day, Haddox and other members of the flight design team are involved in the countdown. Even in the final hours before liftoff, they continue to fine-tune the trajectory analysis based on real-time data collected from weather balloons, ensuring the safety of the rocket and spacecraft as the window opens for another successful mission.
|  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - Space shuttle Discovery was powered up hundreds of times during prelaunch processing over the course of 26 years of spaceflight. But Dec. 16, 2011 was different. That morning, technicians inside NASA Kennedy Space Center's orbiter processing facility powered the ship up -- and then down -- for the final time. Less than a week later, on Dec. 22, Atlantis followed.
"After working so many years -- since 1988 -- on these vehicles, it's a little hard to say, 'I'm taking my best car and I'm going to not drive it anymore. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and fix it so it can't ever crank anymore,'" said United Space Alliance's Walter "Buddy" McKenzie. After overseeing preparations of several space shuttles during his career and witnessing both Discovery's and Atlantis' power-down, he reflected, "The realization really hits you when you're powering down a vehicle for the last time."
One by one, flight deck switches and displays were turned off by spacecraft operators inside the crew module, while in the firing room inside the nearby Launch Control Center, test conductors gave direction as system engineers monitored the process. Finally, the lights on the flight deck went out for good.
These are important milestones in the shuttle's transition and retirement activities. Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour all are being prepared for their retirement roles as museum attractions, and the team still has plenty of work to do before the vehicles are safe and ready for public display. But that doesn't make the transition easier for those who cared for these spacecraft, sometimes for decades, and were there to see two shuttles into permanent sleep.
"My gut's tied up in knots, because I know I won't be doing it again," said Gene Dixon of United Space Alliance. A spacecraft operator for the past 27 years, he was one of three technicians working through the checklist for the last time inside Discovery's flight deck.
The world knows NASA's most-flown orbiter as space shuttle Discovery, but to the shuttle team, it's OV-103, short for Orbiter Vehicle-103. After landing at Kennedy for the final time on March 9, 2011, preparations began for its public display at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.
Shuttle processing activities typically required that the vehicle be powered. But the team reached a point in mid-December when all of those tasks were complete, and vehicle power would no longer be needed. So Discovery was powered up, the payload bay doors were closed, and the spacecraft then was powered down.
"Everyone that's used to working in the midbody or seeing those (payload bay) doors open, all of a sudden were watching them close, and knowing that that was the final time that we here at Kennedy Space Center would ever see inside that midbody," said Stephanie Stilson, the NASA flow director overseeing all the orbiters' transition and retirement activities.
"Even at the Smithsonian, there are no plans to open the payload bay doors on Discovery, so as far as we know right now, those doors will never open again."
When the power-down checklist was complete, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana pulled the plug on the "Vehicle Powered" sign near the operations desk.
"I just want to thank everybody on the loop for an outstanding job you guys have done over the years," Cabana said, referring to the communications channel used by the shuttle team during processing activities. "It's kind of a momentous day, and I just appreciate everybody's hard work, and the team's doing absolutely outstanding. It is special to see you power down the vehicle for the last time."
Atlantis, or OV-104, touched down before dawn on July 21, 2011, wrapping up the STS-135 mission and completing the last flight of 30 years of Space Shuttle Program missions. Destined for display at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, it's temporarily moving to the Vehicle Assembly Building to make room in the orbiter processing facility for Endeavour.
"We basically laid out the work so we could get what we had to get done to be able to power down," Stilson explained. "We got all that work taken care of right away, so we could continue with the safing efforts over in the Vehicle Assembly Building. We can't do everything over there, but it will allow us to continue and keep our schedule if we can continue that work."
With the shuttle's robotic arm and Ku-band antenna stowed and the payload bay doors closed, Atlantis' power was shut down.
"And, 10:28," says spacecraft operator Bill Powers, pausing to glance around Atlantis' flight deck. "OV-104 final power-down's complete."
Endeavour's final power-down is yet to come as the spacecraft is readied for delivery later this year to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
Stilson compares the shuttles' pending departures to sending your children off to college.
"You don't want to see them go, you're going to miss not having your hands on them every day, and knowing that you can really look out for them, but you're happy for this progression of their career," Stilson said. "And you just trust that there will be other people there to take care of them and look out for them."
In addition to those participating in the work to power the vehicles down, several other shuttle team members gathered to observe and honor the spacecraft they know so well.
"You're with them more than you are with your family. They actually become part of you," McKenzie says of the shuttle fleet. "You work on them so much, you know where their weaknesses are and you know where their strengths are. You get familiar with them. At some point, they leave the machine stage, and they become part of your soul."
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| Atlantis just before the lights went out Photo Credit: NASA Jim Grossman |
Anna Heiney
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center |  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - The relocation of the RS-25D space shuttle main engine inventory from Kennedy Space Center's Engine Shop in Cape Canaveral, Fla., is underway. The RS-25D flight engines, repurposed for NASA's Space Launch System, are being moved to NASA's Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi.
The Space Launch System (SLS) is a new heavy-lift launch vehicle that will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is leading the design and development of the SLS for NASA, including the engine testing program. SLS will carry the Orion spacecraft, its crew, cargo, equipment and science experiments to destinations in deep space.
"The relocation of RS-25D engine assets represents a significant cost savings to the SLS Program by consolidating SLS engine assembly and test operations at a single facility," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
The RS-25Ds -- to be used for the SLS core stage -- will be stored at Stennis until testing begins at a future date. Testing is already under way on the J-2X engine, which is planned for use in the SLS upper stage. Using the same fuel system -- liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen -- for both core and upper stages reduces costs by leveraging the existing knowledge base, skills, infrastructure and personnel.
"This enables the sharing of personnel, resources and practices across all engine projects, allows flexibility and responsiveness to the SLS program, and it is more affordable," said Johnny Heflin, RS-25D core stage engine lead in the SLS Liquid Engines Office at Marshall. "It also frees up the space, allowing Kennedy to move forward relative to commercial customers."
The 15 RS-25D engines at Kennedy are being transported on the 700-mile journey using existing transportation and processing procedures that were used to move engines between Kennedy and Stennis during the Space Shuttle Program. They will be relocated one at time by truck.
Built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. the RS-25D engine powered NASA’s space shuttle program with 100 percent mission success.
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| SSME being prepared for shipment to Stennis Photo Credit: NASA |
|  DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER - Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California's high desert, where NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center is located, was selected as the initial primary landing site for the space shuttles because of the safety margin presented by Rogers Dry Lake and its long runways, one of which stretches 7.5 miles. It was also the location of the approach and landing tests of the prototype shuttle Enterprise in 1977 that proved the bulky, high-drag shuttle could be safely maneuvered to a precise landing on a runway after returning from space.
After NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast became the primary site for operational landings, Dryden continued to serve as an alternate landing site when unfavorable weather precluded recovery in Florida, or special circumstances (such as heavy payload weight) necessitated a lakebed landing.
Scores of NASA Dryden personnel supported each shuttle landing at Edwards. Support activities included operating the Dryden Mission Control Room where orbiter re-entry and descent parameters were monitored, post-landing orbiter servicing and processing operations; post-landing crew physicals, hosting agency and program visitors viewing the landings, and staffing a media information center for domestic and international news personnel covering the landings. The Western Aeronautical Test Range (WATR) at NASA Dryden supported all segments of the space shuttle program, including launch, on-orbit, and landing phases of each mission. The WATR provided telemetry, radar, voice communication and video support of shuttle missions to NASA's Johnson Space Center, support that continues today for the International Space Station.
During the more than 30-year orbital program, 54 shuttle landings occurred at Edwards, beginning with STS-1 on April 14, 1981, and ending with STS-128 on September 11, 2009. Another 78 missions landed at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility, while one – STS-3 in 1982 – landed at White Sands Space Harbor, part of the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
NASA Dryden's Shuttle and Flight Operations Support Office also provided management and coordination of facilities, systems, and ground servicing equipment in support of space shuttle launch, on-orbit, landing, recovery, and turnaround operations including:
- Navigation and visual landing aids for the shuttles and Shuttle Training Aircraft approach and landing flight activities at Edwards.
- Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System (MSBLS) Precision Approach Path Indication (PAPI) lighting system, the Ball/Bar lighting system and the Xenon lighting system, the latter of which bathed the approach end of the runway in brilliant white light before a nighttime landing.
- The Mate/De-mate Device to place the orbiter atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Servicing of the shuttles to prepare them for the cross-country ferry flights also took place in this gantry-like structure.
- The shuttle hangar, a 25,580 square-foot hangar with 8,200 square-foot office and shop space.
- A ground operations control room for landing, recovery, & turnaround operations.
- A 10,000 square foot logistics warehouse.
- A 4,000 square-foot Payloads Processing Facility.
- A 4,000 square-foot Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ground service equipment and spare parts storage facility.
- 4,000 square foot Post-flight Sciences Support Facility.
- Maintenance of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft– the two modified Boeing 747 aircraft that transported the shuttle back to the Kennedy Space Center after landings at Edwards.
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| Space Shuttle Discovery touches down on Runway 22L at Edwards Air Force Base to conclude the almost 14-day STS-128 mission to the International Space Station on Sept. 11, 2009, the final shuttle mission to land at Edwards. (NASA / Jim Ross) |
|  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - Plants are critical in supporting life on Earth, and with help from an experiment that flew onboard space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission, they also could transform living in space.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center partnered with the University of Florida, Miami University in Ohio and Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation to perform three different experiments in microgravity.
The studies concentrated on the effects microgravity has on plant cell walls, root growth patterns and gene regulation within the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Each of the studies has future applications on Earth and in space exploration.
"Any research in plant biology helps NASA for future long-range space travel in that plants will be part of bioregenerative life support systems," said John Kiss, one of the researchers who participated in the BRIC-16 experiment onboard Discovery's STS-131 flight in April 2010 and a distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Botany at Miami University in Ohio.
The use of plants to provide a reliable oxygen, food and water source could save the time and money it takes to resupply the International Space Station (ISS), and provide sustainable sources necessary to make long-duration missions a reality. However, before plants can be effectively utilized for space exploration missions, a better understanding of their biology under microgravity is essential.
Kennedy partnered with the three groups for four months to provide a rapid turnaround experiment opportunity using the BRIC-16 in Discovery's middeck on STS-131. And while research takes time, the process was accelerated as the end of the Space Shuttle Program neared.
Howard Levine, a program scientist for the ISS Ground Processing and Research Project Office and the science lead for BRIC-16, said he sees it as a new paradigm in how NASA works spaceflight experiments. The rapid turnaround is quite beneficial to both NASA and the researchers, saving time and money.
Each of the three groups was quite impressed with the payload processing personnel at Kennedy.
Kiss said the staff at the Space Life Sciences Lab at Kennedy did an outstanding job and that the experienced biologists and engineers were extremely helpful with such a quick turnaround. Kiss and his group published a paper on their initial findings of plant growth in microgravity in the October 2011 issue of the journal Astrobiology.
They found that roots of space-grown seedlings exhibited a significant difference compared to the ground controls in overall growth patterns in that they skewed in one direction. Their hypothesis is that an endogenous response in plants causes the roots to skew and that this default growth response is largely masked by the normal gravity experienced on the Earth's surface.
"The rapid turnaround was quite challenging, but it was a lot of fun," said Anna-Lisa Paul, research associate professor in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at the University of Florida. "The ability to conduct robust, replicated science in a time frame is comparable to the way we conduct research in our own laboratories, which is fundamentally a very powerful system."
Paul's research and that of her colleague Robert Ferl, professor at the University of Florida and co-principal investigator on the BRIC-16 experiment, focused on comparing patterns of gene expression between Arabidopsis seedlings and undifferentiated Arabidopsis cells, which lack the normal organs that plants use to sense their environment - like roots and leaves. Paul and Ferl found that even undifferentiated cells "know" they are in a microgravity environment, and further, that they respond in a way that is unique compared to plant seedlings.
Elison Blancaflor, associate professor at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, discovered that plant genes encoding cell-wall structural proteins were significantly affected by microgravity.
"This is exciting because this research has given us the tools to begin working on designing plants that perform better on Earth and in space," Blancaflor said.
Blancaflor has now extended his findings from BRIC-16 to generate new hypotheses to explain basic plant-cell function. For example, the BRIC-16 results led the Noble Foundation team to identify novel components of the molecular machinery that allow plant cells to grow normally.
According to Levine, plants could contribute to bioregenerative life support systems on long-duration space missions by automatically scrubbing carbon dioxide, creating oxygen, purifying water and producing food.
"There is also a huge psychological benefit of growing plants in space," said Levine. "When you have a crew floating around in a tin can, a plant is a little piece of home they can bring with them."
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| Arabidopsis seedlings. Image credit: NASA |
|  DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER - From August 1976 to February 1982, a Lockheed JetStar research aircraft at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base was used to test and certify the space shuttle’s Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System (MSBLS). This aircraft navigation system provided the precise position of the shuttle orbiter in relation to the runway to the shuttle pilots during landing approach.
The MSBLS consisted of specialized equipment installed on the aircraft and on the ground near the runways. Dryden pilots logged 671 flight hours during 346 missions to check out MSBLS equipment at the three primary shuttle landing sites.
The JetStar was first flown to Long Island, N.Y., where the AIL Division of Cutler Hammer installed MSBLS equipment. Preliminary trials took place at the Grumman Corporation’s microwave test facility at Peconic, New York. In August 1976, NASA research pilots flew 21 MSBLS approaches to lakebed Runway 17 at Edwards. A laser tracking system provided the airplane’s exact position in flight to validate the accuracy of the MSBLS. These tests certified Runway 17 for use by the prototype orbiter Enterprise in the Approach and Landing Test program in 1977.
A second set of MSBLS ground stations were installed for the main 15,000-foot concrete runway at Edwards, and tested with the JetStar making numerous landing approaches over the course of 83 flights through October 1977.
Dryden pilots took the JetStar to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., in April 1978 for certification of runway 33/15. By December, the crew had completed more than 100 data runs. A year later, the JetStar crew began a series of 46 MSBLS flight tests at Northrup Strip, later renamed White Sands Space Harbor, near White Sands, N.M.
Modifications to the MSBLS system necessitated a return to KSC followed by additional certification tests at White Sands and Edwards in 1980.
Testing continued even after the successful landing of the shuttle Columbia following its maiden flight in April 1981. The final MSBLS tests involving the JetStar occurred in June 1982. After this, a Learjet 25 from NASA’s Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center took over the task of conducting further testing of the MSBLS system.
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| NASA Dryden's now-retired Lockheed JetStar flies a low landing approach to lakebed runway 17 at Edwards during checkout of the space shuttle's microwave scanning beam landing system housed in the enclosure at right. (NASA photo) |
Peter W. Merlin, Historian
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center |  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently made way for a new generation of rockets when workers took down the gantry that stood in support of space shuttles for 30 years and replaced it with, well, not much really.
But that was the idea.
Whatever rocket heads out to the pad in the future, it's going to bring its support structure with it. With that in mind, Pad B will provide all the fluids, electrical, and communications services to the launch platform.
"This is progress," said Regina Spellman, deputy project manager for the pad's makeover.
NASA decided to use the Mobile Launcher, or ML, to carry the new Space Launch System rocket to the pad, and use one of the Mobile Launcher Platform, or MLP, for commercial vehicles, Spellman said that “all Pad systems are being designed to support both the ML and the MLP.”
Construction will start soon to build two electric elevators at the pad to replace the aged one there now. The new ones will be sized to reach all levels of the ML, which is being used as the platform that carries the new Space Launch System rocket to the pad, and the MLP. The MLP will be used for any commercial rocket that will be interested to fly from the Pad B.
"Pretty much everything that's staying is for access to the ML and the MLP," Spellman said. "What we're trying to do is not preclude a mobile launcher or mobile launcher platform because there are a number of scenarios with commercial companies possibly using the MLP. With anything we do, we want to make it so you can still use the Pad with an ML or MLP."
Along with the dramatic changes on top of the pad that removed the shuttle structures, there is a considerable amount of refurbishment under way inside the launch pad perimeter.
A million feet of cables already have been removed, as have the storage tanks for hypergolic fuels, the corrosive chemicals that powered the shuttle's thrusters in space. Instrumentation that monitors and controls the facility and ground systems as well as the communications systems have been replaced with new state-of-the-art equipment. A new weather instrumentation system has been installed at the pad that monitors meteorological conditions and detects lightning.
“We are also going to spend a large amount of funds upgrading the existing infrastructure” said Regina.
Chipped and damaged concrete pedestals supporting propellant lines running from storage tanks to the pad's surface are being fixed and sealed to handle at least 25 more years beside the ocean.
The huge white spheres that held liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen have been emptied, too. They will be repainted, but not taken down. The old liquid oxygen water-cooled vaporizer will be replaced with modern, air-cooled one that is far more efficient than the water-cooled system used the past 30 years.
The reworking of the pad began while the shuttle fleet was still active. Three large lightning towers, each taller than the Vehicle Assembly Building, were completed in time for the shuttle Endeavour to be positioned on the pad as a backup for Atlantis ahead of the STS-125 mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Pad B was the starting line for the astronauts of Apollo 10 and on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission before it hosted space shuttle liftoffs and then the Ares I-X flight test on Oct. 28, 2009.
The flame trench, lined with fireproof bricks and concrete, also will see significant changes. For one, the flame deflector, which is the pyramid in the middle of the trench, may need to be moveable, as it was during Apollo. That's because the launch pad is to be set up to serve different rockets, and each one needs a different flame deflector arrangement.
The flame deflector splits the exhaust from the rocket into different directions of the flame trench. The water that is dumped into it at liftoff keeps sound waves from reverberating directly back on the rocket.
"I think the flame deflector's going to be our biggest challenge if we have to make it moveable," Spellman said.
While Pad B undergoes its extensive work, its twin, Pad A, will be put into a mothball state, the pad may be reactivated if a commercial company decides to launch from it.
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The flame trench at Launch Pad 39B will be refurbished and the flame deflector in the middle could become portable to handle future rockets. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
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Steven Siceloff, KSC |  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - When Atlantis’ STS-135 mission lifted off from Launch Pad 39A on July 8, 2011, on NASA’s final space shuttle launch, it was carried aloft by the last two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) assembled at Kennedy Space Center for the Space Shuttle Program. Two of the SRB’s major components also helped launch Columbia on the first space shuttle launch.
External Fuel Tank/SRB Vehicle Manager Alicia Mendoza said the cylinder on the left-hand forward motor segment and the forward skirt on the right-hand forward assembly flew on STS-1 in 1981.
“Components flown on the first and last missions of the program are a fitting testament to the robustness of the reusable design of the SRBs,” Mendoza said. “Even of greater significance is the professionalism of the unique team of thousands of individuals who have retrieved, refurbished and assembled the hardware during the past 30 years.”
For three decades, the twin SRBs provided the main thrust to help send space shuttles and hundreds of astronauts on 135 missions into space.
The SRBs generated a combined thrust of 5.3 million pounds, which is equivalent to 44 million horsepower or 400,000 subcompact cars. Each SRB was 149.2 feet tall, which is only two feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty. However, each 700-ton loaded booster weighed more than three times as much as the famous statue. The left SRB sported a black stripe on the forward assembly, just below the nose cone, to distinguish it from the right SRB during re-entry into the atmosphere and retrieval operations out in the Atlantic Ocean.
Several facilities at Kennedy were used to process the SRBs major components.
The boosters arrived in eight segments by railcar from ATK in Utah.
“It takes 22 days to build the four segments into a flight-ready SRB stacked on the platform,” Mendoza said.
At Kennedy, about 600 NASA, USA and ATK engineers and technicians worked to process the SRBs from beginning to retrieval until after launch.
“Their skill, dedication and passion are the reasons for the success of this great nation’s Space Shuttle Program,” Mendoza said
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| The Space Shuttle Atlantis sits on the launch pad prior to the last Space Shuttle mission. The Solid Rocket Booster is highlited in this photo. Photo Credit: Robert Gass |
Linda Herridge
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center |  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - It is a riveting sight – the External Fuel Tank attached to a space shuttle, with twin Solid Rocket Boosters on either side, as they emerge from the Vehicle Assembly Building perched atop the mobile launcher and carried by the crawler transporter to the launch pad. Moving slowly along the crawlerway, the tank’s distinctive orange color shines like a beacon as if to indicate that something exciting is about to happen.
External Fuel Tank 138, or ET-138, helped launch NASA's last space shuttle flight, Atlantis' STS-135 mission, on July 8, from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Though not the last tank built for the Space Shuttle Program, it was the last flight tank.
Arriving at Kennedy Space Center on July 13 last year, it had, like all of the tanks before it, made the 900-mile journey to Kennedy from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana. After offloading, it was transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and stored in a test cell for NASA’s last space shuttle mission.
Unfueled, each tank weighs in at 58,000 pounds and 1.6 million pounds when fuel. At more than 15-stories tall, it is the largest single part of a shuttle stack, sometimes referred to as the "backbone" of the space shuttle.
"The external tank actually provides the structural background of the space shuttle system by absorbing the thrust loads produced at launch by the orbiter and the boosters," said Alicia Mendoza, the ET/SRB vehicle manager.
The tank’s familiar orange color comes from the foam insulation sprayed on its aluminum structure. The insulation helps the tank act as a thermos bottle to keep the super cold propellants from evaporating too quickly. It also helps prevent ice from forming on the tank’s exterior and promotes the right aerodynamic shape for launching into space.
The external tank’s main job is to hold about 535,000 gallons of super cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The lower portion of the tank holds the liquid hydrogen, which is the fuel for the engines. The second-coldest known chemical, it is stored in the tank at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit. The upper part of the tank holds liquid oxygen, chilled to minus 297 degrees.
A section call the intertank holds the two tanks together. It is made up of a ring of 108 aluminum alloy support beams known as "stringers" that give the intertank its familiar ribbed appearance. It also contains the tank’s instrumentation and a vent to safely release pressure in the hydrogen tank during the countdown.
During final processing in the VAB, technicians fill plug pull test cylindrical holes with a special type of foam that is hand-poured for small or irregularly shaped repairs and install and connect the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUP to the Intertank.
"The purpose of the GUP is to provide the interface to the launch pad for purging and venting hydrogen gas as well as provide for electrical pneumatic connections," Mendoza said. The chemicals are funneled from the tank into the shuttle’s three main engines at liftoff and throughout the shuttle’s eight-and-a-half minute climb into space.
The tank, like the shuttle itself, has undergone numerous upgrades and weight-saving improvements.
The ET was painted white for the first two shuttle flights. But in order to reduce launch weight by 600 pounds, the tank was left in its natural orange state beginning with mission STS-3.
After a few revisions to designs and materials, the latest version of the tank, known as the Super Lightweight tank, is 17,000 pounds lighter than the first one Columbia used in 1981.
"The quality of tanks has definitely improved over the years," Mendoza said. "For instance, the tanks are lighter and several process improvements were implemented at the Michoud plant."
After the Columbia accident in 2003, engineers implemented changes to the foam and the way it is applied to the ET. Some foam was removed altogether to eliminate further risk. Cameras were attached to the tank so engineers could see any possible debris coming off the tank during ascent.
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| STS-135 on the launch Pad. Photo Credit: Robert Gass |
Linda Herridge
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center |  GREENBELT, Md - From the time a space shuttle launched until it landed at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA's space communication networks provided the constant communication link necessary for every mission.
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) managed 'Integrated Network' combined NASA owned ground based antennas, the Near Earth Network (NEN); NASA's space based communications relay satellite network, the Space Network (SN); commercial communications services, and Air Force ground stations to provide crucial tracking, telemetry, and command services during space shuttle missions. The SN and NEN are funded and managed by NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, and the Space Communications and Navigation Program at NASA Headquarters.
"Every Human Space Flight mission from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo to the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs, has relied on the communications assets managed by Goddard," said Jeff Volosin, Deputy for Goddard's Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division. "Beginning at lift-off, any time an astronaut talked to mission control, whenever you saw video from the shuttle or the International Space Station, all system performance data received during flight, or when information was sent to the astronauts, it always traveled through Goddard's networks."
At launch, the shuttle team utilized the NEN ground-based antennas located near the Kennedy Space Center at the Merritt Island Launch Annex (MILA). That site, located about seven miles southwest of the launch pad, provided tracking, telemetry and command services for all shuttle missions.
MILA, a Goddard facility, utilized a plethora of antenna resources including two 9-meter (30-foot) S-Band dish antennas to fulfill its responsibilities. That location was critical to the flow of information between the shuttle and ground controllers. Two UHF antennas also provided voice communication with the orbiting astronauts.
However, MILA did not always have the line-of-sight to the launched vehicle. One minute into flight, the shuttle would begin rotating which obscured its antenna from the MILA site because of the highly reflective plume from the shuttle's solid rocket boosters. This 'plume impingement' during those crucial second and third minutes of flight necessitated a hand over of the communications links.
The Ponce De Leon Inlet Tracking Annex (PDL) located in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, 30 miles north of the Kennedy Space Center would accept the MILA hand off. A hand-over back would be completed a few minutes later as the shuttle antenna regained its line-of-sight with the MILA antennas. Together, MILA and PDL ensured uninterrupted communication with the shuttle during those first seven critical minutes after liftoff.
As the shuttle moved farther up the east coast the NEN ground station at Wallops Island (WPS), Va., would take the responsibility for providing command, telemetry, and tracking support. WPS also captured the video stream from cameras positioned on the shuttle's External Tank (ET) during separation from the orbiter. This data was crucial in determining if foam from the ET had been lost and possibly struck the orbiter during ascent.
Although ground based antennas at MILA, WPS, Dryden Flight Research Center, and Santiago, Chile, continued to play a supporting role once the shuttle reached orbit, the primary communication link was provided by the space based relay satellites of the Space Network (SN).
Approximately seven minutes into the flight a series of geosynchronous communication satellites acquired the communications support for the mission until about 30 minutes before landing. These Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) are the core of NASA's space network.
An enormous amount of shuttle data is relayed through the TDRS to the SN communication hub in White Sands, New Mexico and onto mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. This critical data included voice and video communications, information about the orbit, stats on astronauts' health, and more. All of the command and control of an orbiting shuttle was sent through this same bent-pipe relay system.
As long as the shuttle orbited Earth, there was a continuous handoff of communication service provided by the prepositioned TDRS in view, much like the cell phone communication handoffs on earth. TDRS hand-offs occurred hundreds of times, ensuring a direct link to Earth, no matter where the shuttle was positioned in its orbit.
Approximately 30 minutes before touchdown, the shuttle is at an altitude of 400,000 feet. The rapid descent produced high temperature air surrounding the shuttle creating the only communications “blackout” of the mission. During the next 10+ minutes, the crew was unable to communicate with mission control. Seventeen minutes after entering the atmosphere, the MILA ground station would again acquire the shuttle signal, providing the communication link for the final 13 minutes of support. During a shuttle landing there were no second attempts for the gliding vehicle, precision was key. MILA provided the final communications link necessary for a safe shuttle return.
"The monumental task of implementing shuttle communication requirements would not have been possible if not for the technical expertise and professionalism of our contractors and civil servants here," said James Bangerter, Networks Director for Human Space Flight at Goddard. "This integrated network approach brought together assets on the ground and in space to meet the challenge of shuttle communications."
This well choreographed communications flow from MILA, to Ponce De Leon, to Wallops, to the space network satellite system TDRS, and back to MILA occurred during every shuttle mission. Goddard Space Flight Center had the awesome responsibility to integrate these complex systems providing the vital communication path throughout NASA's shuttle era.
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The communication networks team members sit on console in Goddard Space Flight Center’s Networks Integration Center monitoring the communications link with the orbiter. Credit: NASA/Pat Izzo
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Amber Hinkle
Dewayne Washington
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. |  DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER - The landing of space shuttle Endeavour on the 15,000-foot concrete runway at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to conclude shuttle mission STS-49 in 1992 demonstrated a new capability for the shuttle fleet. A 39-foot-diameter braking parachute was used to slow the vehicle, relieving stress on the brakes and tires and reducing the landing rollout by as much as 2,000 feet.
Engineers had initially considered such a feature for the shuttle, but eliminated it from preliminary designs in 1974 after deciding it wouldn’t be needed for planned lakebed landings at Edwards. Endeavour was the first orbiter to be built with the drag chute that would soon become a standard feature on the shuttle fleet. In 1990, researchers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards used the center's modified NB-52B to test the drag parachute system that would be used on the shuttle orbiters. In a series of eight chute deployment tests, the B-52 landed at speeds ranging from 160 to 230 miles per hour on one of the lakebed runways, as well as on the 15,000-foot concrete strip. Instrumentation on the B-52 obtained data during chute deployments to validate predicted loads that an operational shuttle orbiter would sustain with a drag chute deployed during landing and rollout. Successful test results led to incorporation of the drag chute system on Endeavour as it was being built. The other three orbiters – Columbia, Discovery and Atlantis – were retrofitted with the system as they underwent normal periodic maintenance.
Endeavour’s first landing on May 16, 1992 was the first operational demonstration of the system. The drag chute was deployed as the nose gear touched down, and the orbiter came to a stop following a landing roll of 9,490 feet. Though this fairly typical rollout was the result of conservative mission planning, subsequent landings of Endeavour demonstrated that the drag chute could reduce landing rollouts by 700 to 1,500 feet.
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| An experimental space shuttle drag chute deploys in a cloud of dust behind NASA's NB-52B research aircraft just after landing on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Aug. 2, 1990. The tests helped validate the effectiveness of the chute in reducing the rollout distance and brake wear during shuttle landings. (NASA photo) |
|  DENVER - Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE:LMT] state-of-the-art Space Operations Simulation Center (SOSC) has completed its first orbital simulation test with hardware and data that was flown on NASA’s STS-134 space shuttle Endeavour mission to the International Space Station. The test for STORRM (Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation) demonstrated the center’s ability to replicate on-orbit conditions that affect relative navigation, lighting and motion control in space -- providing a simulated space dynamics and lighting environment that is unparalleled in the space industry. During STS-134, the Endeavour crew successfully tested the STORRM unit’s Vision Navigation Sensor (VNS) and Docking Camera during docking and undocking operations with the space station. The flight test represented the first and only opportunity for in-flight collaboration of NASA’s three human spaceflight programs -- Space Shuttle, International Space Station and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). “The test went perfectly and we were able to recreate the STS-134 STORRM test in a flight-like environment right here on Earth,” said John Karas, Vice President and General Manager, Human Space Flight, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. “We’ll compare the data and telemetry we collected in the lab with the on-orbit data and telemetry to calibrate the SOSC to a real space environment, further increasing the fidelity of this extraordinary facility for future simulations.” The on-orbit test validated the performance of an innovative navigation sensor suite developed for Orion and other future spacecraft. STORRM demonstrates a robust relative navigation design that provides the required docking accuracy and range capability necessary to meet crew safety, mass, volume and power requirements for a wide variety of future NASA missions, including those into deep space. The VNS, an eye-safe laser ranging system, was mounted on the SOSC’s large motion base carriage which is capable of providing the six degrees of spacecraft motion at equivalent rates in the identical approach and departure trajectories of STS-134. A full-scale, high fidelity mockup of a space station docking port equipped with reflective sensors served as the target environment for this demonstration. Lockheed Martin’s SOSC test environment was used to accurately replicate the hardware, lighting conditions and vehicle motion that was observed on orbit, and validated its ability to provide an on-orbit simulation environment for critical risk mitigation for the Orion spacecraft. The SOSC represents part of Lockheed Martin’s multi-million dollar investment in testing and validating future human spaceflight programs to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable space exploration. This system and other cutting edge capabilities demonstrate how Lockheed Martin employs full-scale motion to test and verify multiple mission scenarios. STORRM is an innovative technology development effort led by NASA’s Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program Office at NASA Johnson Space Center in partnership with NASA Langley Research Center, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation. This technology has Earth-bound applications for terrain mapping, robotics, military operations and transportation, including collision avoidance systems for vehicles. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor to NASA for the Orion MPCV Program and leads the industry team that includes major subcontractors as well as a nationwide network of minor subcontractors and small businesses. In addition, Lockheed Martin contracts with hundreds of small and disadvantaged business suppliers across the United States through an expansive supply chain network. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion. Photos and Videos are available for download at: www.lockheedmartin.com/orion |  DRYDEN SPACEFLIGHT CENTER - Space shuttle Discovery touched down on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 19, 1985 at the conclusion of mission STS-23 (51D), the 16th shuttle flight. Although the touchdown was uneventful, what happened at the end of the rollout was anything but.
This was the fifth time an orbiter had landed at Kennedy on the new runway built especially for space shuttle landings. At touchdown, Discovery weighed just over 198,000 lbs, one of the lowest weights of a returning orbiter to that point. At very nearly the end of the roll out, the unexpected happened - the inside tire on right main landing gear blew.
"The whole orbiter shook-I thought one of the fuel tanks had blown up," recalls Jeffrey Hoffman, a mission specialist on the flight. While engineers found high tire wear on previous landings, the tire failure on 51D's landing shocked everyone.
There were several contributing factors to the blown tire, the only time a shuttle tire failed during a mission. The crosswind was not an obvious factor, particularly since it did not exceed the maximum allowable crosswind for a shuttle landing.
However, because the nose gear had only a single strain control system, shuttle pilots were reluctant to use it at all, preferring differential braking with the main landing gear instead to control the shuttle's rollout down the runway in a crosswind situation. The strength of the crosswind on this landing led commander Karol Bobko to apply greater brake force than normal to the right main gear. Not surprisingly, the brakes on the right wheels heated to higher than expected temperatures.
But it wasn't the heat that caused the tire to fail. The largest factor in tire wear - and this tire's failure - was the surface of the Kennedy runway.
One of the final tests of the shuttle tire systems in August 1995 resulted in the destruction of the wheel, following a fire caused by a mixture of heat, aluminum particles, and rubber. (NASA photo) As a result of studies done by NASA as early as 1968, there had been a push to carve deep grooves into runways around the nation to help shed water in case of heavy rain, thus avoiding hydroplaning and allowing greater aircraft control at landing. This was even done on major highways for the same purpose. Not surprisingly, it was done at Kennedy, where rainfall is often extremely heavy, to a runway that was particularly rough to begin with.
Nevertheless, based on tests and assurance from the tire maker, designers assumed that the shuttle's main landing gear tires would stand up to five or six landings before needing to be replaced. They quickly found that the tires could sustain only one landing, after which they had to be replaced with a new set. The nose gear tires fared a bit better. Allen Louvaire, a NASA shuttle engineer, later remarked: the runway at Kennedy was "a lot rougher than you think-that's no good for a big tire" like the shuttle's. "Man, what were we thinking?"
Until the tire explosion was resolved, shuttle flights would conclude at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in California for the foreseeable future, not at Kennedy as originally planned.
Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia began tests at their Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility and at a tire test facility at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Suspecting the runway as a factor following some preliminary tests at Kennedy, a contractor was brought in to begin shot-peening the runway.
Realizing the limitations of controlled studies being done elsewhere, Johnson Space Center management then asked Dryden to undertake tire tests in real conditions, something the other centers could not do. Dryden engineers extensively modified an old Convair CV-990 jetliner as a test bed - "Put the "Brooklyn Bridge" inside the fuselage after we cut the keel," said project manager Bob Baron - and came up with the Landing Systems Research Aircraft, or LSRA.
With the new structure inside the fuselage able to lower and raise a shuttle tire on landing, even turn it sideways to mimic crosswind landings - that "Brooklyn Bridge" at work - Dryden engineers and pilots conducted tests on the lakebed and concrete runways at Edwards to see how much abuse shuttle tires could take, and what led to failure. The shuttle landing gear test unit, operated by a high-pressure hydraulic system, allowed engineers to assess and document the performance of space shuttle main and nose landing gear systems, tires and wheel assemblies, plus braking and nose wheel steering performance. The series of 155 test missions provided extensive data about the life and endurance of the shuttle tire systems.
They eventually flew the LSRA to Cape Canaveral and landed on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at Kennedy where they deployed the shuttle tire during landings. Among their findings: Initial claims for the shuttle's crosswind capabilities were too optimistic. This was especially important since the shuttle had to have Return To Launch Site capability should more than one main engine fail after launch. If between launch and return crosswinds developed at the Cape, the orbiter needed the ability to handle them, and that margin mattered.
In addition to grinding down a portion at both ends of the runway surface at Kennedy, a new tire evolved from the research with more layers of rubber. The nose wheel was given greater steering authority, and the drag parachute was put back on the orbiters to help slow them during landing rollout, a feature originally intended to be installed but then removed from the vehicle before the first shuttle mission, STS-1. Largely as a result of the work done by Dryden and the LSRA, along with research performed at Langley and elsewhere, the shuttle's crosswind landing limits were raised, making it possible once again to land at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility.
Christian Gelzer, historian
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center |  DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER - During the formative years of the space shuttle program, NASA Dryden F-15 and F-104 jets were used to flight-test various advanced Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials for the shuttles.
These tests included TPS materials from different locations on shuttle orbiters, and they were tested for everything from rain impact integrity, to air-loads strength and surface bonding.
During one such effort, NASA Dryden engineers conducted flight-testing of the orbiter’s advanced, flexible Felt Reusable Surface Insulation (FRSI) and Advanced Flexible Reusable Surface Insulation (AFRSI) TPS materials. These were the soft, sewn blanket-like materials that covered most of the upper surfaces of the orbiters, while black silicon tiles covered the underside, and reinforced carbon-carbon materials protected the nose and leading edges of the wings.
Up until the space shuttle, only disposable, one-use-only ablative materials were used as TPS materials on spacecraft. Ablative materials are layered and are designed to burn off, carrying heat with them in order to keep the heat away from the spacecraft. The idea of using reusable materials was radical, especially lightweight and flexible materials, to withstand the super-hot friction heating that spacecraft encounter while returning through Earth’s atmosphere.
The objectives of the FRSI and AFRSI tests were to evaluate the performance of the materials at simulated shuttle launch aerodynamic loads, and also to provide a database for future advanced TPS flight tests.
These flights were flown mostly on Dryden’s F-104 test bed aircraft in the 1980s, with the TPS materials attached to a fin-like structure called the Flight Test Fixture (FTF) underneath the F-104.
During this series of tests, the material samples were exposed to 40 percent higher aerodynamic loads than they were designed to withstand. The test articles required tailoring of the airflow over them to accurately simulate shuttle conditions over the FTF.
To accomplish this tailoring, an elliptically shaped nose was designed for the FTF to produce a high-pressure shockwave at the location of the TPS material samples attached on the sides of the FTF.
Data-wise, it was extremely important that the required flight conditions be maintained. This was accomplished by using a flight trajectory guidance system called the Uplink Guidance System (UGS). The UGS used an analog cockpit display to alert the pilot, in real-time, of any deviations from the desired flight conditions. For example, one parameter displayed on the UGS was sideslip, which is the flight condition in which an airplane is no longer flying straight along the path of its longitudinal axis.
During the FRSI and AFRSI flights, the pilots could keep precisely on track by keeping an eye on the UGS indicator.
The FRSI and AFRSI flight-test projects were a success, both in terms of accomplishing their test objectives and that the TPS materials passed these tests with no material failures noted during post-flight inspections.
NASA Dryden’s expertise in such work continues today, as the center uses F-15 aircraft to flight-test the next generation of aerospace sensors and materials.
Gray Creech, Public Affairs
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
|  KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - Atlantis carried many science and research experiments in its middeck during NASA’s last shuttle flight, STS-135, in July. Among these was a plant experiment developed at Kennedy Space Center’s Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLSL) that could have an impact on long duration missions to the moon or Mars.
Principal Investigators Dr. Gary Stutte and Dr. Michael Roberts with QinetiQ NA, and NASA Project Scientist Dr. Howard Levine created the Biological Research in Canisters-Symbiotic Nodulation in a Reduced Gravity Environment (BRIC-SyNRGE). A first of its kind to fly on a space shuttle, the purpose of the experiment was to study the symbiotic relationship between plants similar to alfalfa, which is in the legume family, and specific nitrogen-reacting bacteria in microgravity.
"It’s a distinct honor to have had an experiment onboard Atlantis, the final space shuttle mission, and I am indebted to everyone who worked so hard to make it possible to be a part of this historic mission," Stutte said.
About four hours after Atlantis landed at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility, the BRIC-SyNRGE experiment was retrieved and returned to the SLS Laboratory. Stutte said that initial reviews show that there was 100 percent germination of the plant seeds and excellent growth was observed.
"The SyNRGE science team has begun processing the samples and looks forward to learning the effects of microgravity," Stutte said. "Plants and the microbial world have been of interest at Kennedy for many years."
According to Stutte, the bacteria were introduced to each plant sample’s root hairs in order to study the effect. What he and the SyNRGE team are hoping to find is that the plants have formed specialized nodules where the bacteria can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form the plants can use to produce proteins.
The alfalfa-like plant, Medicago truncatula, was grown in a plant chamber at the SLSL. The day before Atlantis’ launch, several laboratory rooms were abuzz with activity. In one lab, samples were carefully harvested and inserted into Petri dish units. In another lab, technicians added the nitrogen-fixing bacteria and a liquid preservative to the dishes. In yet another room, plant units were inserted into the canisters. A total of 120 Petri dishes were installed in eight canisters. Each canister contained five units and a temperature sensor. The experiment was transported to the launch pad and added to Atlantis middeck as a late stowage item the evening before launch.
Stutte said this kind of study could provide a path for better food production, improve agricultural areas in third world countries, and reduce resupply costs for fertilizer. It could also have an impact on how food sources are grown during long duration space missions.
"Legumes are a major direct source of food for man," Stutte said. "These include soybeans, peas and beans. Also, forage for livestock, including alfalfa and clover."
During the STS-135 mission, crew members monitored the temperature of the BRIC-SyNRGE samples, added a fixing liquid to half of the samples to preserve them and left the other half untouched.
"We hope that our results provide information on how synergistic relationships form between plants and bacteria, and that we use that knowledge to benefit food and fiber production on Earth," Stutte said. "We hope our research brings us closer to achieving sustainable life support systems that permit long term habitation and colonization of space."
Levine said funding for the project was initiated in September of 2010 for the experiment to fly in July of 2011.
"It takes an incredible amount of skill and effort on the part of both the science and engineering teams. They are all to be commended." Levine commented.
Linda Herridge
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center |
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