NASA Hopes To Resolve Shuttle Valve Problem

Engineers working on the problematic hydrogen flow control valves on space shuttle Discovery have made enough progress that NASA has tentatively set a March 12 launch date for the mission to bring the last set of solar arrays to the International Space Station. NASA said an exact target launch date will be determined as work progresses with the three valves on the shuttle. Launching Discovery in March would allow plans to proceed for the Hubble repair mission, planned for liftoff on May 12 launch with Atlantis, as well as shuttle mission STS-127, also in May. If Discovery is delayed to April, the Hubble flight would slip to around June 2.

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians have started removing Discovery’s three valves, two of which will undergo detailed inspection, looking to identify what caused damage to the valves during Endeavour’s flight in November 2008. Approximately 4,000 images of each valve will be reviewed for evidence of cracks. Valves that have flown fewer times will be installed in Discovery. Engineering teams also will complete analysis and testing to understand the consequences if a valve piece were to break off and strike pressurization lines between the shuttle and external fuel tank. Hardware modifications may be made to the pressurization lines to add extra protection in the unlikely event debris is released.

NASA managers will hold a review on the progress on March 4 and decide if the shuttle will be ready to go for the March 12 date.

Source: NASA

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

There’s a Way to Make Ringworlds and Dyson Spheres Stable

The idea of Dyson Sphere’s has been around for decades. When Freeman Dyson explored the…

9 hours ago

Water Arrived in the Final Stages of Earth's Formation

Roughly 4.6 billion years ago, the Sun was born from the gas and dust of…

15 hours ago

An Amazing JWST Image of a Protostar

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been giving us a fabulous new view on…

18 hours ago

There Could Be a Supermassive Black Hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud Hurling Stars at the Milky Way

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) were first theorized to exist in the late 1980s. In 2005, the…

20 hours ago

Uranus’ Moon Ariel has Deep Gashes, Could Reveal its Interior

We've only gotten one close-up view of Uranus and its moons, and it happened decades…

1 day ago

A Recent Impact on Mars Shook the Planet to Its Mantle

New research suggests an impact recently rattled Mars deeper than thought. HiRISE images a recent…

1 day ago