"Looks like we’re getting good data," Space Shuttle Program Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses reported as the tanking test on space shuttle Discovery continued at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The data is coming from dozens of strain gauges and temperature sensors placed on the aluminum skin of Discovery’s external fuel tank to monitor the tank’s changes as it was loaded this morning with more than 535,000 gallons of super-cold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The information is to be used to determine why a pair of stringers cracked on the ribbed intertank portion of the external tank. Moses said engineers are already working through the early data returns by hand and they are matching up with what was expected.
The data collection will continue throughout the day and into Saturday. Today’s countdown also continues, with controllers keeping to a normal launch day schedule where possible. The countdown is to hold at T-31 seconds. The tank will be pressurized to flight levels at that point and controllers will leave it at the level for five minutes to monitor its conditions. Then the countdown will end at 2:24 p.m. today. The tank is planned to be drained beginning at 2:45 today and the process finished around 5 p.m. The sensors will continue taking readings through Saturday when the tank returns to ambient temperature.
Moses explained that the data will first be compared to computer models and then, over the course of a couple weeks, be used to back up flight rationale about the stringers. Other aspects of the data will not be completed for months as they are used for long-term projections, but that information is not needed for Discovery’s upcoming mission.
"It’s definitely getting us back to launch posture," Moses said.