yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (09/01/90)
Thursday August 30, 1990 11:00 a.m. EDT
KSC SPACE SHUTTLE PROCESSING STATUS REPORT
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STS-35 -- Columbia (OV 102) - Pad 39-A
(Launch minus 2 days)
The countdown for Space Shuttle Mission STS-35 continues
this morning. The aft compartment of the orbiter has been closed
out and the flight doors were installed yesterday evening. At
midnight last night, the pad was cleared of all non-essential
personnel for the loading of the on board power reactant storage
and distribution system tanks with liquid oxygen and liquid
hydrogen reactants. Final loading operations were completed
around 10:00 a.m. this morning. Launch remains scheduled for 1:17
a.m. Saturday, Sept. 1.
Workers at Pad A are currently trouble shooting a problem
experienced last night shortly before 9:00 p.m. when launch team
members experienced a loss of telemetry from the Broad Band X-Ray
Telescope. BBXRT is part of the ASTRO-1 payload on Columbia. The
loss of telemetry is believed to be possibly associated with the
closing of the orbiter's payload bay doors since loss of data
occurred within minutes of the operation.
Current plans call for engineers to first make a step by
step check of all ground systems. This will be followed by a
power up of the BBXRT to see if data can be transmitted via RF
(radio) communication. Test results should be available by early
afternoon today.
Workers will hold off demating the umbilical used to load
cryogenics into the onboard storage tanks until the loss of
telemetry problem is resolved.
Also, workers will have to re-enter the orbiter's air lock
today to reposition two vent valves on airlock hatches A and B.
The seven member STS-35 crew arrived at KSC last night
around 11:00 p.m. The crew is split into two teams, red and blue,
to accommodate the 24 hour operations of the ASTRO-1 mission. The
red team is sleeping this morning. Tonight, both teams will eat
breakfast/supper together and participate in weather, vehicle and
payload briefings.
STS-41 -- Discovery (OV 103) - VAB
Work on the Shuttle Discovery continues in the Vehicle
Assembly Building today. Preparations to mate the liquid oxygen
electrical connector is currently in work. Overnight, engineers
discovered several bent pins in the connector on the external
tank side of the disconnect. Power-on testing of the electrical
connections is now targeted to begin Friday afternoon. First
motion of rollout to pad B is expected to occur early Sunday
morning with a possible slip to Sunday evening.
STS-38 -- Atlantis (OV 104) - OPF bay 2
SCAPE operations are scheduled at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon
to service the hypergolic offload of hazardous fuels from the
orbiter's auxiliary power units.