gandalf@pro-electric.cts.com (Ken Hollis) (05/27/91)
Greetings and Salutations: rlk20269@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Richard Leon Kapusta) writes: > 5. On which STS were all of the astronauts veterans? And what is the > date of that mission? STS-26 (Return To Flight) had an all veteran crew. Commander : Hauck (Capt., USN) Pilot : Covey (Col., USAF) Mission Specialist : Lounge (M.S. - Astrophysics) Mission Specialist : Nelson (PHD. - Astronomy) Mission Specialist : Hilmers (Lt. Col. USMC) From: look@s30.csrd.uiuc.edu (Stephen Look) >I hope this isn't too ignorant a question but my son is doing a paper >for his 8th grade class about the space shuttle. He has not been able >to find what the "STS" before the shuttle mission number means. No question is too ignorant, if asked in Ernest. The STS acronym means Space Transportation System. Prior to "Return To flight" the flight number after the STS was decoded as follows : STS - 61-A. The "6" meant "Scheduled To Fly In 1986". The "1" meant "Scheduled To Fly From KSC ("2" was Vandenburg). The "A" meant it was the first flight of that year scheduled. Of course as the flights got moved around, the numbers did not fall in order. The flights are now numbered consecutively as to which flight in the STS it is scheduled. Already the numbers are not consecutive. From: jdeitch@umiami.ir.miami.edu (Jonathan Deitch) Subject: Speculative Questions on STS-51F ATO >Is it possible Challenger was experiencing sensor failures like those they >found on Columbia ? While the theory is the same for the operation of the temperature sensors, the transducers on the orbiter side are completely different from the ones put on the engines. The problem with the temperature sensors on Columbia is that a weld which hold a probe with a platinum wire on a mandrel is cracked, thus possibly causing ingestion into the low pressure oxidizer or low pressure fuel turbopump (LPOTP or LPFTP). >Where the sensors on Challenger that reported the excess engine temps the same >that were cracked on Columbia ? Two different manufactures & designs. Also, if the temp probe had failed, it would hae read offscale low, not offscale high. >If one of these sensors had broken off and entered the engine, wouldn't it >have caused more havoc ? Who knows. Either one of two things would have happened. Either the engine would have eaten the probe (about an inch or two long, 1/4" or less diameter, hollow) or it would have destroyed the LPOTP, LPFTP or the High pressure turbopump (HPOTP, HPFTP). >All this _is_ speculation since we, unfortunately and tragically, no longer >have Challenger to examine ... I'm interested in what others think, though. But we do still have the sensors to look at, and lots of flights on them. Ken Hollis Contact Ken Hollis through these paths: ProLine: gandalf@pro-electric ARPA: crash!pro-electric!gandalf@nosc.mil UUCP: crash!pro-electric!gandalf Internet: gandalf@pro-electric.cts.com