1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,360 \h Music 2 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:17,350 \h Welcome to the show. 3 00:00:17,350 --> 00:00:18,500 \h I'm your host, Damon Talley of 4 00:00:18,500 --> 00:00:20,410 \h NASA's Digital Learning Network. 5 00:00:20,410 --> 00:00:23,680 \h We're counting down to the scheduled launch of space shuttle Endeavour on its 6 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:29,150 \h STS-126 mission and I'm here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to 7 00:00:29,150 --> 00:00:31,180 \h take you behind the scenes. 8 00:00:31,180 --> 00:00:35,520 \h Endeavour is embarking on NASA's 27th flight to the International Space Station, 9 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:40,330 \h orbiting more than 200 miles above us. During the 15-day mission, a well-trained 10 00:00:40,330 --> 00:00:44,640 \h astronaut crew will install several pieces of key hardware and conduct four 11 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:47,300 \h spacewalks outside the station. 12 00:00:47,300 --> 00:00:51,710 \h More on that coming up. But first there's no better place on Earth to get a 13 00:00:51,710 --> 00:00:55,370 \h space shuttle ready to fly than right here at Kennedy Space Center. 14 00:00:55,370 --> 00:00:59,890 \h Let's find out what makes America's Spaceport so unique. 15 00:00:59,890 --> 00:01:04,460 \h Preparing any vehicle for a thundering ride into space is no easy task. 16 00:01:04,460 --> 00:01:09,720 \h It requires a prime location, massive facilities, just the right tools and equipment 17 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,250 \h and of course, a stellar work force. 18 00:01:12,250 --> 00:01:14,810 \h For every one of NASA's human spaceflights, 19 00:01:14,810 --> 00:01:17,420 \h that place is Kennedy Space Center. 20 00:01:17,420 --> 00:01:23,010 \h Complex and challenging space missions begin here, amid this primitive Florida 21 00:01:23,010 --> 00:01:26,510 \h landscape, where eagles soar and alligators roam. 22 00:01:26,510 --> 00:01:31,380 \h Launch Complex 39 is made up of a collection of facilities custom-designed for 23 00:01:31,380 --> 00:01:34,700 \h preparing, launching and landing the space shuttle. 24 00:01:34,700 --> 00:01:38,730 \h The 3-bay Orbiter Processing Facility is where the space shuttle orbiters spend 25 00:01:38,730 --> 00:01:42,890 \h most of their time. Each bay provides access to every square inch of the 26 00:01:42,890 --> 00:01:46,410 \h spacecraft for the technicians who prepare it for flight. 27 00:01:46,410 --> 00:01:50,370 \h With its 8-acre footprint, the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, 28 00:01:50,370 --> 00:01:54,920 \h is one of the largest buildings in the world. It dominates the Kennedy skyline and 29 00:01:54,920 --> 00:02:00,380 \h is visible across Florida's Space Coast. In this mammoth facility, the shuttle 30 00:02:00,380 --> 00:02:05,130 \h orbiter is joined with its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. 31 00:02:05,130 --> 00:02:11,380 \h The shuttle's twin launch pads, 39A and 39B, have a prime beachside location 32 00:02:11,380 --> 00:02:13,940 \h a perfect place to begin a mission. 33 00:02:13,940 --> 00:02:17,360 \h And when the shuttle comes home, its preferred landing site is the 34 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:20,700 \h Shuttle Landing Facility just west of the VAB. 35 00:02:20,700 --> 00:02:24,550 \h Longer and wider than commercial runways, it was specially designed for the 36 00:02:24,550 --> 00:02:28,230 \h high-speed landing of this unpowered, winged spacecraft. 37 00:02:28,230 --> 00:02:34,380 \h On STS-126, Endeavour is carrying a reusable logistics module called Leonardo. 38 00:02:34,380 --> 00:02:39,180 \h It's packed completely full of supplies and equipment that will allow the station to 39 00:02:39,180 --> 00:02:42,750 \h support a six-person crew starting next year. Let's take a look. 40 00:02:42,750 --> 00:02:47,090 \h There are extra crew sleeping bunks and more exercise equipment and a new 41 00:02:47,090 --> 00:02:50,550 \h addition to the station's regenerative life support system. 42 00:02:50,550 --> 00:02:53,620 \h The Water Reclamation System will recycle wastewater. 43 00:02:53,620 --> 00:02:57,630 \h It will work with the Oxygen Generation System to generate drinking water and 44 00:02:57,630 --> 00:02:59,760 \h breathable air for the station's residents. 45 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,650 \h In addition to the slate of work planned inside the station, 46 00:03:02,650 --> 00:03:04,900 \h there also will be a lot of work outside. 47 00:03:04,900 --> 00:03:08,550 \h The mission will include four spacewalks to make repairs and upgrades to the 48 00:03:08,550 --> 00:03:11,300 \h station's two solar alpha rotary joints. 49 00:03:11,300 --> 00:03:15,150 \h These joints are essential, because they allow the station's massive 50 00:03:15,150 --> 00:03:18,140 \h power-generating solar panels to track the sun. 51 00:03:18,140 --> 00:03:23,260 \h It's an ambitious mission with a full timeline but the seven-member flight crew 52 00:03:23,260 --> 00:03:24,410 \h is up to the task. 53 00:03:24,410 --> 00:03:27,490 \h Commander Chris Ferguson is making his second spaceflight. 54 00:03:27,490 --> 00:03:30,920 \h Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Steve Bowen and 55 00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:33,640 \h Shane Kimbrough are the flight's first-time flyers. 56 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:38,210 \h The lead spacewalker, Mission Specialist Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, 57 00:03:38,210 --> 00:03:42,060 \h flew with Ferguson on her first spaceflight, STS-115. 58 00:03:42,060 --> 00:03:46,210 \h Mission Specialist Don Pettit is returning to the station he served as NASA's 59 00:03:46,210 --> 00:03:49,060 \h space station science officer on Expedition 6. 60 00:03:49,060 --> 00:03:52,670 \h And Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus will relieve station 61 00:03:52,670 --> 00:03:56,660 \h Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff, becoming part of Expedition 18. 62 00:03:56,660 --> 00:04:01,060 \h Now, when a shuttle returns from space, a lot of work goes into refurbishing and 63 00:04:01,060 --> 00:04:03,350 \h repairing it before it's ready to fly again. 64 00:04:03,350 --> 00:04:07,350 \h Space shuttle Endeavour's most recent mission was STS-123 65 00:04:07,350 --> 00:04:11,830 \h back in March. I recently visited Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility to find out 66 00:04:11,830 --> 00:04:16,010 \h how a highly skilled team of shuttle technicians spent the past few months 67 00:04:16,010 --> 00:04:19,550 \h preparing Endeavour for STS-126. 68 00:04:19,550 --> 00:04:23,150 \h I'm here inside the Orbiter Processing Facility with Ken Tenbusch, 69 00:04:23,150 --> 00:04:24,410 \h NASA flow director here at the Kennedy Space Center. 70 00:04:24,410 --> 00:04:25,810 \h Ken, nice to see you today. 71 00:04:25,810 --> 00:04:27,580 \h Hi, Damon. Nice to meet you. 72 00:04:27,580 --> 00:04:29,600 \h Ken, can you tell us exactly, what is shuttle flow? 73 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:35,470 \h Shuttle flow is taking that vehicle from the time that it has landed. 74 00:04:35,470 --> 00:04:37,500 \h It's rolled over here to the Orbiter Processing Facility and all the processing here, 75 00:04:37,500 --> 00:04:41,700 \h along with the external tank processing that's happening at the same time over in 76 00:04:41,700 --> 00:04:45,780 \h the Vehicle Assembly Building. Then, the solid rocket booster processing that's 77 00:04:45,780 --> 00:04:48,790 \h going on, as well the stacking, and getting that all ready and checked out 78 00:04:48,790 --> 00:04:53,100 \h and then bringing all of those components together in one overall integrated 79 00:04:53,100 --> 00:04:57,430 \h shuttle vehicle. Then, once you're at that point you do a checkout in the Vehicle 80 00:04:57,430 --> 00:05:03,020 \h Assembly Building. Roll that out to the pad. Do all the checkout there. Load the 81 00:05:03,020 --> 00:05:07,420 \h vehicle. Get it ready for flight. And then you basically a processing flow, from 82 00:05:07,420 --> 00:05:10,150 \h start to finish from that landing all they way on through to launch. 83 00:05:10,150 --> 00:05:14,400 \h Now this is space shuttle Discovery behind us. Space shuttle Endeavour is 84 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,340 \h already out at the pad. What happens to an orbiter in this 85 00:05:17,340 --> 00:05:19,610 \h Orbiter Processing Facility? 86 00:05:19,610 --> 00:05:22,970 \h In the Orbiter Processing Facility, what they do is, from the time that the mission 87 00:05:22,970 --> 00:05:26,540 \h is complete, they land here over at the Shuttle Landing Facility. They roll it over 88 00:05:26,540 --> 00:05:29,350 \h here in the Orbiter Processing Facility, and then they do all of that de- 89 00:05:29,350 --> 00:05:33,040 \h configuration work that they need to do. Checkout of all the systems make sure 90 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:37,260 \h that they are operating normally. Taking a lot of doors off. Looking at a lot of 91 00:05:37,260 --> 00:05:41,080 \h different areas. Tiles need to be removed there's a lot of tile that's damaged. 92 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,450 \h And then what you're doing is, you take all those components apart, do all the 93 00:05:44,450 --> 00:05:49,430 \h checkout, and then you start putting the pieces back together again. At that point, 94 00:05:49,430 --> 00:05:53,020 \h you're going in and you're loading up certain things back into the payload bay. 95 00:05:53,020 --> 00:05:57,570 \h You're putting things back into the forward compartment. Aft compartment, you 96 00:05:57,570 --> 00:06:01,260 \h may have had to change out an auxiliary power unit, or something along those 97 00:06:01,260 --> 00:06:04,010 \h lines. But then, what you're doing is, once you're complete will all of that work, 98 00:06:04,010 --> 00:06:07,440 \h and you've got all the engines in the engines have to be installed. Doing all the 99 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:13,680 \h closeouts, back of each of those particular areas, do a structural leak check 100 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:18,300 \h when you're all finished. A weight CG (center of gravity) make sure that's all 101 00:06:18,300 --> 00:06:21,960 \h set up properly. Then you're ready to bring the orbiter transporter in. Mate that to 102 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,990 \h the orbiter transporter ready to rollover then to the Vehicle Assembly Building. 103 00:06:25,990 --> 00:06:28,450 \h Alright, so we've rolled over to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where we have 104 00:06:28,450 --> 00:06:31,260 \h some other components of the space shuttle that need to be connected, correct? 105 00:06:31,260 --> 00:06:35,090 \h Correct. Exactly. The orbiter comes over. At that point, you know, they've been 106 00:06:35,090 --> 00:06:38,750 \h processing in the Vehicle Assembly Building with the external tank and solid 107 00:06:38,750 --> 00:06:43,390 \h rocket boosters. So at that point the orbiter is lifted and then mated to the 108 00:06:43,390 --> 00:06:48,610 \h external tank. Then at that point they've got the vehicle all assembled one overall 109 00:06:48,610 --> 00:06:54,160 \h shuttle vehicle. Then you're, all of that is on top of the mobile launcher platform. 110 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,170 \h So you've got that assembly all together. You can run a complete, overall 111 00:06:58,170 --> 00:07:02,590 \h functional check, from start to finish, of that integrated assembly. Then you're 112 00:07:02,590 --> 00:07:07,080 \h ready to bring the crawler-transporter in. Hydraulically crank up the crawler- 113 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:10,640 \h transporter, and then roll out that entire assembly back out to the pad for that 114 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:14,650 \h final bit of processing and readiness before you actually go to launch. 115 00:07:14,650 --> 00:07:17,660 \h So those crawlers move the shuttles around. Didn't we have to do a rollaround? 116 00:07:17,660 --> 00:07:19,900 \h What is a rollaround? 117 00:07:19,900 --> 00:07:23,840 \h What we had to do, is we had to actually rollout to Pad B and process out at Pad 118 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:29,290 \h B, while they were ready to process the orbiter for STS-125 over at Pad A. We 119 00:07:29,290 --> 00:07:35,140 \h were their rescue mission, is the way we say it. We had to be ready to launch 120 00:07:35,140 --> 00:07:39,150 \h within seven days of their launch because they were not going to station. They 121 00:07:39,150 --> 00:07:42,310 \h didn't have the benefit of getting those resources from station. So we had to be 122 00:07:42,310 --> 00:07:46,850 \h ready to launch quickly. After they were to launch, we were going to rollaround to 123 00:07:46,850 --> 00:07:50,810 \h Pad A and then finish off the rest of our particular processing flow and then get 124 00:07:50,810 --> 00:07:52,330 \h that ready for launch in November. 125 00:07:52,330 --> 00:07:55,790 \h Where are you on launch day? And what is it like to see your orbiter launch? 126 00:07:55,790 --> 00:08:00,710 \h I am in the Launch Control Center in Firing Room 4, in this particular case for this 127 00:08:00,710 --> 00:08:06,150 \h launch that's upcoming. As far as the feeling it's just a feeling of jubilation. You 128 00:08:06,150 --> 00:08:10,210 \h know, I think about all of the work that went on, as far as putting that vehicle 129 00:08:10,210 --> 00:08:13,240 \h together and then I get to see it in the culmination of a beautiful launch. So just a 130 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:15,570 \h very exciting moment all the way around. 131 00:08:15,570 --> 00:08:18,950 \h Well Ken, thank you for your time today and good luck with the launch. 132 00:08:18,950 --> 00:08:20,280 \h Thank you, Damon. Appreciate it sir. 133 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:24,300 \h That's our show. You can follow the launch countdown live. 134 00:08:24,300 --> 00:08:30,620 \h Just tune in to NASA TV or visit www.nasa.gov/shuttle 135 00:08:30,620 --> 00:08:32,380 \h for the official launch blog. 136 00:08:32,380 --> 00:08:36,740 \h Or check all the action during our live launch webcast on