KSC News Articles from Columbia's overhaul to just prior to the landing of STS-107
KSCNews.pdf

Columbia loss felt in A.V.
Space program has strong roots in A.V. region

By Greg Botonis and Charles F. Bostwick
Staff Writers

Saturday, February 01, 2003 - PALMDALE -- Space shuttle Columbia's destruction had a more personal impact here than in nearly any other American community.

This was where all five shuttles -- including the ill-fated Challenger -- were assembled in the 1970s and 1980s. Nearby Edwards Air Force Base hosted dozens of shuttle landings.

Hundreds of Antelope Valley residents worked on the shuttles, both during the assembly and for overhauls throughout the 1990s. Columbia's commander, Air Force Col. Rick Husband, served at Edwards for four years.

"I was devastated -- it really tore me up," retired Rockwell employee Jim Beall, 67, said Saturday while watching news coverage with friends at the Lancaster Elks Lodge. "I felt so close to it.  You do it so much and you're with it so long that you become close to it."

Columbia's commander, Air Force Col. Rick Husband, served at Edwards Air Force Base from 1988 to 1992. He attended Edwards' test pilot school, then was a test pilot for F-15 fighter jets, working as a program manager for a new jet engine and demonstrating F-15s in air shows.

Husband left Edwards for England in 1992 as an exchange test pilot, then was tapped by NASA to become an astronaut in 1994.

Edwards Air Force Base employee Mike Poulos had been a college student in 1981 when he stood among 300,000 cheering, flag-waving spectators to watch Columbia end the first shuttle mission at Edwards Air Force Base. In the next 20 years, he watched Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis either land or depart.

"This is just like the Challenger all over again," said Poulos, who learned of the disaster from visitors to the Blackbird Airpark, a Palmdale airplane exhibit, where he volunteers on weekends. "I remember that like it was yesterday. There are the real tragedies of the 20th century that come to mind immediately -- the Titanic, World War I and II, Kennedy's assassination and the Challenger. Now in the 21st century we have Sept. 11 and the Columbia and we're just beginning."

After the 1986 Challenger explosion -- when a faulty seal in a booster rocket blew up the craft on launch, killing its seven-person crew -- NASA decided to build a replacement. Shuttle Endeavour put a thousand people to work in Palmdale.

There's no saying now what the government will do this time, since the basic shuttle technology is more than 20 years old. NASA has ideas for new spacecraft, but right now they are mostly just plans.

The shuttle fleet's newest job had been to take crew, construction materials and gear to and from the International Space Station. If NASA grounds the shuttles, only Russia's much smaller Mir capsule -- similar to America's Apollo craft -- will be able to reach the space station crew.

At Edwards on Saturday, few employees were at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, because Columbia had been expected to land in Florida. The center gears up as an alternative if Florida has bad weather, but this time the earliest Edwards landing was not expected till Tuesday.

A number of technicians from universities and other organizations that had science experiments aboard Columbia arrived last week, in case they were needed to unload the experiments, and a NASA jet that follows the shuttle in to its landing had arrived. But the full shuttle support crew had not arrived.

"The full recovery crew would not have been in until the day before," Dryden spokesman Alan Brown said.

-- End of article --

Space Shuttle's Overhaul Raises Concerns
By Matthew Fordahl
Associated Press
posted: 11:30 am ET
17 February 2003

The space shuttle Columbia's last major overhaul -- the largest in the history of the program -- involved some components and systems now under suspicion in the investigation into the orbiter's final, disastrous descent.

No evidence has emerged linking the work performed on Columbia during the 17-month refurbishment to the shuttle's breakup Feb 1. Columbia flew one successful mission after the overhaul was completed in 2001.

However, inspection and work records from that overhaul at the Boeing Co. plant where the shuttle was built in Palmdale, Calif., may hold clues.

Among the modifications to NASA's oldest shuttle were increased protection from space debris and enhanced heat protection for the leading edges of the wings.

According to NASA, the spacecraft's aluminum frame also was closely inspected for signs of fatigue or corrosion. It's not clear, and NASA officials could not immediately say, what was found and how much repair work took place.

The shuttle's first layer of protection, the fragile reinforced carbon tiles, also were closely inspected and repaired or replaced where necessary.

Disaster investigators have said they believe a hole or gash allowed superheated gases to penetrate Columbia as it entered Earth's atmosphere. They don't believe overheating detected in the left wing before the breakup could have been caused simply by the loss of tiles. Other possible causes include space debris or the impact of a piece of hard insulation that broke off the external tank shortly after launch.

During the 1999-2001 overhaul of Columbia, much of the emphasis was on wiring. In its last mission before the overhaul, July 1999, a worn wire caused a power fluctuation that led two engine controllers to shut down five seconds after launch. Backup controllers took over automatically and the flight was not affected.

About 95 percent of the shuttle's 235 miles of wire was inspected, including wires that connect to the sensors that eventually reported higher-than-normal temperatures just before the shuttle broke apart.

Technicians also removed 1,000 pounds of old wiring and equipment used to monitor Columbia's earliest flights 20 years ago.

During the overhaul, an independent board reviewing safety measures noted metal shavings in the shuttle, on walking platforms and wire bundles.

"These occurrences are considered potential sources of foreign object debris and could damage surrounding wire insulation or provide an electrical shorting path,'' the report said.

Henry McDonald, the report's lead author and former director of NASA Ames Research Center, declined to comment.

A Palmdale Boeing employee, who asked not to be identified, said there also were many "stumble-ons," or instances when technicians happened upon something needing repair. But he was unaware of any case in which a problem was not resolved.

In March 2002, Columbia's first launch after the work was done, NASA considered aborting the mission because of a problem with coolant lines. It was later determined the problem stemmed from debris left during the overhaul.

As has often been the case with the shuttle program, the Palmdale project was both behind schedule and over budget. It lasted 17 months instead of the expected nine and cost $145 million instead of $70 million.

Even after Columbia was shipped back to Kennedy Space Center in February 2001, it underwent several more months of work until the March 2002 launch.

Al Feinberg, a NASA spokesman, said wiring work was the reason for the delay and it was not unusual for work to be finished at Kennedy.

Dan Beck, a Boeing spokesman, wouldn't discuss details about why the job took so long.

"Because of our firm commitment on safety for our flight crews and the vehicles, we weren't going to be tied to any specific timetable to complete that work if there were still some outstanding areas that needed the attention of the maintenance and modification crew,'' he said.

Officials of United Space Alliance, NASA's prime shuttle contractor of which Boeing is a part-owner, did not respond to written questions.

NASA says shuttles receive major overhauls once every three years. Until 2001, that work took place at Palmdale, about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles. NASA and the United Space Alliance announced after Columbia left Palmdale that all future overhauls would take place at Kennedy.

-- End of article --

Volume 43       Issue 3       Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California           March 30, 2001

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Space Shuttle Columbia gets TLC

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida As Boeing and United Space Alliance workers in Palmdale completed the 18-month modification and maintenance work, systems such as the new digital cockpit, instrumentation and avionics were tested.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida Boeing technician William "Bill" H. Tobar inspects several of Columbia's thermal protection system black silica tiles.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida A new digital cockpit, or "glass cockpit," was installed. Flat, multi-color screens replace old cathode-ray tube screens, dials and gauges.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida Allen M. Hoffman, director of Boeing's Assembly, Integration and Test operations, shows where some of the orbiter's 236 miles of wire reside.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida Space Shuttle Columbia's nose and forward section were visible when the orbiter was secured in a Plant 42 hangar in Palmdale.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida This is Columbia's payload bay as seen from the internal airlock. Some of the modifications and maintenance included refurbishing the cooling systems on the payload bay doors. To prevent an early end to a mission in the event a piece of space debris penetrated one of the two radiators, workers modified the system to include more radiators and the capability for a damaged radiator to be isolated from the rest to permit the mission to continue.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida The aft end of Columbia is wrapped to keep dust out.

Jay Levine
X-Press Editor

Columbia (Orbiter OV-102) completed its 18-month stay at the Human Space Flight and Exploration Facility in March. A skilled workforce at the Air Force Plant 42 facility in Palmdale enhanced the vehicle's performance and safety with 80 major maintenance tasks.

QuickTime movie of Columbia Departure

Another 244 maintenance items were completed, as well as a structural inspection that included 379 separate requirements. Palmdale workers also checked off 206 deferred tasks – items that do not affect crew safety or full mission capability and await orbiter down time.

One of the biggest tasks of this overhaul was an extensive investigation of 236 miles of wire throughout the Space Shuttle. To put that in perspective, imagine a wire extending from Palmdale to Big Sur.

Mandatory trips to the factory are required about every three years, where workers scrutinize every nook and cranny of the orbiter and install the most up-to-date equipment that will assist astronauts in completing their tasks in space safely.

Aside from the rivet-by-rivet look at Columbia, NASA wanted the nation's first Space Shuttle to receive an even more intensive wire inspection. In addition to the usual extensive analysis of the wires, technicians had a closer look inside wire harnesses and applied protection to areas where wires could potentially come into contact with a screw, rivet, or other protruding metal edge.

Selected wire harnesses and bundles of wires that were enclosed in convoluted tubing were removed, disassembled, evaluated, reassembled and reinstalled to validate NASA inspection criteria used for Discovery and Endeavour. Extensive tests also sought to confirm the wiring's resistance to damage, vibration, electrical shorting and age-related degradation.

Columbia has always been the heftiest of the orbiters because it was heavily instrumented for the early flights of the Space Shuttle Program. The extra instrumentation enabled the gathering of a wealth of information on the orbiter's performance. Much of that wiring was left intact when the research equipment was removed in order to avoid the extra time and cost required to remove those wires, said Allen M. Hoffman, director of Boeing's Assembly, Integration and Test operations for the Human Space Flight and Exploration Facility.

Because of the extensiveness of this modification and maintenance job, much of that experimental equipment and wiring unique to Columbia was removed. This part of the overall weight loss program helped the orbiter shed about 950 pounds.

During this refurbishment, Columbia also joined Atlantis in having a fully digital cockpit, which was installed to replace cathode-ray tube screen, dials and gauges that were state-of-the-art when the orbiter first flew on April 12-14, 1981.

The Multifunctional Electronic Display Subsystem (MEDS) consists of 11 flat, color displays that make up what is referred to as a "glass cockpit" that features the latest technology. For example, the screens provide easy access to vital information through two-and three-dimensional color graphic and video capabilities of its onboard information management system. Nine of the display units are across the forward instrument panel, another at the right hand mission station console, and the eleventh is at the aft flight deck on orbit station, Hoffman said.

The newly installed digital screens allow astronauts – including a payload specialist working at the console behind the pilot and co-pilot – to immediately select from menu options on the screen the information they needed to complete their tasks.

MEDS was primarily built in Palmdale, with the screens fabricated by Honeywell Space Systems, Phoenix, Ariz. The system provides the most advanced cockpit controls currently available and are a space-qualified version of the display technologies used in Boeing's 777.

Also included in the major overhaul is the inspection of the orbiter's thermal protection system. As more and more information is available on the temperatures endured by the Space Shuttles and where the heat is focused, different materials are developed to lighten the orbiter while providing the maximum protection and safety for Space Shuttle crews. For example, research showed that areas of the orbiter sporting heavy quartz fabric to withstand temperatures of 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit required less than half that level of protection. Therefore, the heavy quartz fabric was replaced with a Nomex felt blanket that protects the orbiter up to 750 degrees.

Each of the orbiters has 24,000 unique tiles that cover its underbelly and areas that become hot, but not as hot as the nose and leading edges that are made of a reinforced carbon-carbon material that can stand temperatures of up to 3,600 degrees. The black silica tiles on the bottom of the Space Shuttle are sensitive to moisture, but are sufficient to protect that area of the orbiter with an upper protection range of 1,600 degrees.

Each silica tile is specially designed and manufactured on order using information that is stored in a computer. A strain isolator pad is a felt-like material that covers the hull of the Space Shuttle and is a layer between the hull and the light-weight black silica tiles. The tiles would pop off the orbiter if they were affixed directly onto it because of the flexing that occurs as a result of the heat created by acceleration and re-entry pressures.

Because the Space Shuttles "flex" in flight, the space that a tile occupies can change and require modifications during the maintenance and modification cycle. In fact, looking up close at a tile, numbers representing its precise position on the orbiter and its unique part number are clearly visible. Tiles range in thickness from a quarter-inch to four and a half inches depending on the heat that a given area of the Shuttle experiences.

A closer look at a Space Shuttle tile also reveals a little hole in the middle. A waterproofing solution is reinjected into each tile following every mission. It impregnates the silica material and acts as an inhibitor for that silica from absorbing any type of moisture. It dissipates, or burns out, during the re-entry process, so the tiles are reserviced or processed during each post-flight inspection and processing period, Hoffman said.

Prior to Columbia's departure on March 1, Palmdale crews also performed some preflight vehicle checkouts, which reduced the time required to process the orbiter for its next mission at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Columbia first rolled out of the Boeing facility (then Rockwell International Space Systems) on March 8, 1979 and is a veteran of 26 space flights.

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Responsible NASA Official: John Childress For questions, contact: Dryden Web Group Page Curator:WD-Team Modified: March 26, 2001

Volume 41       Issue 16       Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California           October 15, 1999

Columbia begins a 10-month overhaul

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida Columbia and its host NASA 747 land at Air Force Plant 42.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida Columbia is lifted off the back of the NASA 747 with the mate/demate device.

NASA Photo by Tom Tschida The orbiter is entering a 10-month overhaul at Boeing Reusable Space Systems Assembly, Integration and Test Facility in Palmdale.

By Jay Levine
X-Press Editor

The nation’s first and oldest Space Shuttle came to Palmdale’s Air Force Plant 42 Sept. 25, where it will undergo an extensive 10-month overhaul that includes inspections, maintenance and upgrades.

Boeing officials describe the work on Columbia at the Boeing Reusable Space Assembly, Integration and Test Facility as a treatment at a high-tech spa for spaceships: part makeover, part weight loss clinic and part medical checkup. Columbia first rolled out of the Boeing facility (then Rockwell Space Systems) on March 8, 1979, and is a veteran of 26 space flights. Each Shuttle undergoes orbiter major modifications about every three years.

More than 350 Boeing technicians and engineers – most veterans of previous Shuttle construction and modification work – will disassemble, inspect, repair, improve, reassemble and test much of America’s first operational orbiter. Work includes installation of a new high-tech cockpit, an improved navigation system, and a number of safety, operational, reliability and turnaround enhancements ranging from better protection against space debris, to numerous measures to reduce Columbia’s weight and increase the vehicle’s payload capacity.

The installation of a "glass cockpit" called the Multifunction Electronic Dis-play Subsystem (MEDS) is the most extensive part of the overhaul. It marks the second such installation following a similar upgrade on Atlantis last year. Technicians will replace Columbia’s four existing cathode-ray-tube screens, mechanical gauges and instruments with 11 full-color, flat-panel displays, said Boeing Orbiter Assembly and Test Operations Director Allen Hoffman. This will allow Shuttle crews to operate with the most advanced commercial and military flat-panel display technology.

MEDS was mostly built in Palmdale, with the screens fabricated by Honeywell Space Systems, Phoenix, Ariz., Hoffman said. The glass cockpit is a space-qualified adaptation of the display technology used on the Boeing 777. The glass cockpit will provide Shuttle crews with easy access to vital information through the two- and three-dimensional color graphic and video capabilities of its onboard information management system.

Information will be interchangeable between screens, allowing crews to select the display format that best suits the needs of their particular mission.

Aside from cutting maintenance costs, MEDS will reduce vehicle weight and power consumption, improve Shuttle reliability and performance and enhance orbiter safety by simplifying cockpit panels and providing a redundant display capability. MEDS also can be upgraded.

A single Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation receiver will be installed in Columbia, which will help prepare the orbiter for future installation of a triple-redundant GPS system that may eventually replace the current system. GPS will provide more accurate data on vehicle attitude and location and reduce Shuttle program costs by eliminating ground stations.

Also included in the extensive modifications is the removal of equipment on the orbiter used early in the Shuttle program that gave researchers information about its performance. Removing that equipment is expected to lighten the heaviest Shuttle by more than 950 pounds.

Several modifications to Columbia are designed to accommodate the possibility of supporting International Space Station missions in the future. Included are electrical and structural provisions for modifying the orbiter’s docking system, increased cooling and power capacities, a wireless video system that will support payload requirements for near-term ISS missions by documenting the assembly process, and upgrades to the ship’s UHF space communications system.

Columbia will retain its internal airlock, which keeps the biggest payload bay in the fleet available for larger missions, like the deployment of the Chandra Space Telescope, Hoffman said.

Operational enhancements include increasing Columbia’s load-carrying capability; upgrading the thermal protection system tiles and blankets; and improving the orbital maneuvering system/reaction control system thruster performance.

Safety and reliability enhancements include provisions to protect the orbiter’s cooling system and the leading edges of the wings from space debris, a partial structural fortification of the crew module floor to increase the crew’s probability of surviving a hard landing and enhancements to the vehicle’s hydraulic system.

In addition to the modifications and maintenance during the 112 million mile tune-up, there will be five months of structural inspection. During the inspection, technicians will scour Columbia using the latest technologies to search for possible fatigue, corrosion, or broken rivets or welds.

Palmdale Boeing crews also will perform preflight vehicle checkouts. These checkouts significantly reduce the time required to process Columbia for her next flight at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Boeing is under contract for the work with the United Space Alliance Shuttle Operations for NASA.

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Responsible NASA Official: John Childress For questions, contact: Dryden Web Group Page Curator:WD-Team Modified: October 19, 1999

Page Notes:

Reference documents for this page are available in the Download page under Space Shuttle Upgrades.