Launch on Need by Daniel Guiteras (small books to read txt) 📗

to one-point-five,” Avery said as she decreased the STA’s dive angle from 18 degrees to just 1.5. The STA slowed to an airspeed of 5 feet per second. She would not actually land the STA as part of the simulation, but she would bring it very close.

Before NASA would consider allowing an astronaut to land an actual orbiter, that astronaut had to demonstrate landing proficiency in an STA. Landing proficiency by NASA standards equated to at least 1,000 landings in one of these vehicles. One hundred hours in the STA was equal to 600 simulated orbiter landings. Dana Avery would be well-qualified to fly Atlantis.

Chapter 42

The New York Times

Monday, Jan. 27, 2003

NASA One Step Closer To Rescue Readiness

by John Stangley

Cape Canaveral, Florida

THOUSANDS OF PRIDE-FRENZIED AMERICANS, along with media representatives from over 100 countries, joined NASA officials yesterday in passing the rescue-mission baton from the exhausted ground crews of Kennedy Space Center’s Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) to the eager workers of the adjacent Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), who today began guiding Atlantis through the next phase in preparation for launch.

Accompanied by guards armed with machine guns, Atlantis crept out tail-first from High Bay 2 of the OPF shortly after 9:30 A.M. on Sunday. Atlantis rode atop the highly specialized, seventy-six-wheel Orbiter Transfer Platform.

Atlantis’s three main engine bells were shrouded in bright-red protective coverings emblazoned with the message “Go For Stacking,” which alludes to what’s next for Atlantis. Once in the VAB, Atlantis will be hoisted into a vertical position by powerful cranes and carefully mated, or “stacked,” with the External Fuel Tank and twin Solid Rocket Boosters, which have already been moved into launch position atop the Mobile Launch Platform in the VAB.

Atlantis brings with her an overall seven-hour setback in the processing flow, the result of an accident three days ago in which a worker accidentally dropped a bucket onto one of Atlantis’s payload bay doors. The accident caused additional tightening of an already severely abbreviated preparation schedule and further threatened NASA’s rescue attempt.

“The fact that we are only seven hours behind schedule is a testament to the dedication and effort our ground crews have put forth,” NASA spokesman Gerald Conner, said yesterday during a press briefing. In the three days since the accident, ground crews have managed to erase three hours of the delay it caused. “We’re confident that we can be back on schedule in two to three days with further efforts by the VAB crew,” Conner added. The shuttle stack, which includes Atlantis, the External Fuel Tank and the two Solid Rocket Boosters, is scheduled to roll out from the VAB and begin the approximately six-mile journey to the launch pad on Thursday.

Chapter 43

Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Outside Vehicle Assembly Building

Jan. 28, 2003 (Challenger Accident Anniversary)

THE SHOT OPENED with John Stangley facing backwards in the copilot’s seat of a Bell JetRanger helicopter. Although he appeared somewhat out of sorts as he fiddled with the pale-green David Clark-brand headset, and displayed a certain nervous preoccupation with where he was, ultimately Stangley would come across as authentic—exactly the way his producer hoped when she proposed the idea of shooting the Vehicle Assembly Building from a helicopter. The film crew had wanted to use the camera that was mounted to the helicopter’s landing skid—the camera used for coverage of car chases—because that camera could provide an unobstructed view and was equipped with image stabilizers to optimize video quality. But the producer wanted a different look and feel. Instead, she had insisted that the camera’s point of view be from inside the helicopter, shooting through the windshield and side windows. She felt this technique was more consistent with Stangley’s off-the-cuff style and would make the footage seem spontaneous. It also would allow the viewers to feel like they were on the helicopter, since Stangley would occasionally turn around in his chair to address the camera while emphasizing a point he was making.

Stangley wore his usual tan slacks and polo shirt. He spoke loudly so he could be heard over the chopper’s engine and rotor noise.

“Good evening and thanks for joining me for part two of our special series entitled ‘NASA’s Jewels.’ If you joined us last night, then you were with us when we toured NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, the world’s largest indoor pool. It’s a fantastic place for sure, but if you missed it, check your local listings because these tours of NASA’s special facilities, NASA’s Jewels as I like to call them, will be aired again this week.

“Tonight, we air our second segment of NASA’s Jewels from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Now, as you know, I’ve been hanging around NASA for many years, a little over two decades actually, so I’ve had the privilege of going behind the scenes to places the public usually doesn’t get to see. My favorite spot at NASA continues to be the Vehicle Assembly Building or VAB for short.

“Tonight, we’re going to take you inside the VAB, where, as you probably know, Atlantis is currently being readied for her trip out to the launch pad. But before we go inside, I thought it would be interesting to show you the exterior of the VAB from our helicopter to help give you a sense of the building’s massive size. So sit back and relax and in a moment we’ll begin our tour.”

After a commercial break, Stangley continued.

“Okay, welcome back to NASA’s Jewels,” he said as the rotors sped up and the helicopter lifted from the tarmac. “Tonight’s topic is NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building.

“Now, the first thing I want to point out as we round the northern aspect of the building is the doors where orbiters enter the VAB. It’s through those doors that Atlantis entered