Geek Habitat

The Space Shuttle Discovery is ascending to space one again, sometime in July 2006, for mission STS-121 (Part II of NASA’s Return to Flight.)

The first “Return to Flight” mission, STS-114, garnered significant media coverage (and GeekHabitat coverage) due to being the first Shuttle to fly in two years’ time. The mission attracted further interest when astronauts aboard the International Space Station, Space Shuttle Discovery and via extravehicular maneuvers (spacewalk), undertook an unprecedented in-flight repair of the Shuttle’s Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles beneath the orbiter. STS-114 launched on June 26, 2005. One day later, NASA voluntarily grounded the Shuttle fleet when STS-114 launch videos cleared showed debris once again shed from the External Tank and fell toward the Space Shuttle’s relatively fragile thermal protection tiles.

Insulting foam, shed from the External Tank during lift-off, was the root cause of the catastrophic loss of STS-107’s crew and orbiter (Space Shuttle Columbia) during re-entry on February 1, 2003. The fact that NASA’s first “Return to Flight” mission, two years later, exhibited this same debris shedding phenomenon despite a redesign of the External Tank’s foam, was rightfully worrisome to NASA and justified the voluntary grounding of the shuttle fleet.

So, here we are a year later, awaiting the launch of the second “Return to Flight” mission — a flight, like the first, that NASA dubs a “training flight”. A “training flight” in an orbiter that will be decomissioned in 2010? Yes, with so many widespread changes to systems and procedures, it should be viewed and treated as a training flight; however, it does seem a little wry when their winged chariot is 3.5 years shy of retirement!

Meet the STS-121 Crew:

• Commander Steve Lindsey
• Pilot Mark Kelly
• Mission Specialist Mike Fossum
• Mission Specialist Lisa Nowak
• Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson
• Mission Specialist Piers Sellers
• Mission Specialist Thomas Reiter (joins the International Space Station’s Expedition 13 crew; no astronauts from the ISS will return to Earth in his place.)

In the interest of full disclosure, there have been an unsettling number of accidents/mishaps during the preparation of Space Shuttle Discovery for the STS-121 mission, including but not limited to:

• “…small fires broke out on the roof of the [Vehicle Assembly Building], the giant cube-shaped structure where the shuttles get mated to their fuel tanks and booster rockets.” (January - March, 2006)
• Damage sustained to the Shuttle’s robotic arm (March 4, 2006)
• “…technicians working on the shuttle’s fuel tank mistakenly dug holes in the tank’s foam insulation, which could lead foam to pop off during liftoff.” [A large work lamp also fell on the tank, denting its foam. The tank has since been inspected and verified as ready for flight.]
• 23 cases so far this year in which someone was injured, or more than $25,000 in damage accrued. One worker was killed when he fell from the roof of a storage building. It was enough that NASA ordered a brief safety “stand-down” in March and three investigations of the more serious mishaps.

So, fingers crossed that the gremlins and tribbles have been worked out of the system and STS-121 is a smooth and successful flight for all concerned!

Hawking’s comments were couched in terms of the next 100 years or more, by the way; he’s not saying the sky is falling tomorrow and you’re sh** out of luck if you haven’t booked your cruise on Virgin Galactic.