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Author
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Topic: STS-120: Discovery rolls out to pad
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irish guy
Member Posts: 287
From: Kerry Ireland
Registered: Dec 2001
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posted 09-30-2007 01:18 PM
   
Discovery made its way to the launch pad, after a short delay do to weather: quote:
As the sun began to rise in Florida, space shuttle Discovery left the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center to begin its journey to Launch Pad 39A. The shuttle began its slow roll to the pad atop the crawler transporter at 6:47 a.m. EDT.
Robert, Ben, James, and co., hope you were up and out with your cameras capturing great shots for the rest of us. Looking forward to seeing you again in Oct. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-30-2007 01:33 PM
I didn't make the trip to Florida this time, but here are some NASA photos:      With regards to the last one, a rainbow can be seen in the spray from the water truck traveling ahead of Discovery on its move from the VAB to the launch pad. The water dampens the rocks on the crawlerway, reducing the amount of dust churned up by the passage of the shuttle. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-30-2007 02:25 PM
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-30-2007 03:01 PM
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star51L
Member Posts: 340
From: Vilano Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 10-01-2007 03:38 PM
Great pictures...and thank God 'Discovery" is spelled correctly on the banner!  |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 10-01-2007 04:05 PM
quote:
Originally posted by star51L:
Great pictures...and thank God 'Discovery" is spelled correctly on the banner!
Yeah, it would have been a bit embarassing if they spelled it as "Discuvery."  |
Ben
Member Posts: 1896
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: May 2000
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posted 10-01-2007 07:34 PM
I have posted my gallery of rollout.I look forward to seeing you at the launch again, Eamonn. |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 10-10-2007 12:37 PM
Why is the ET two colors? I've never seen that before, is it just me? |
Ben
Member Posts: 1896
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: May 2000
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posted 10-10-2007 12:50 PM
Just a lighting effect around the interstage. It has appeared that way in the past too. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 10-10-2007 06:09 PM
You've got different applications of foam on these tanks. The darkest brown stuff is the acreage foam while the yellowish patches are more recently hand sprayed foam in specific areas to cover over certain features on the tanks. Some acreage foam also tends to be sanded down in spots to minimize the loss of foam in those areas. I don't know with 100% certainty, but I believe the intertank region of the ET is acreage foam where the rind has been sanded down as opposed to manually sprayed foam. When ET foam is sanded, it exposes brighter foam to the light, hence the lighter colorings. As such, you can usually get an idea of when the foam was applied, and/or sanded relative to the other areas on the tank.In this case, the intertank foam was applied long before the hand sprayed foam patches on the intertank flanges at top and bottom were (i.e. the yellow patches) and as such it is darker in coloring due to more UV light exposure. On the tanks that flew up to STS-107, you still would see a slightly lighter intertank region on the tanks and even the flange areas were a coloring more consistant with the intertank then the acreage foam on the rest of the tanks (more orange then yellow coloring) since the foam was applied at about the same time. After 107, the attachment flanges between the intertank and the LOX and LHX tanks were modified to minimize foam loss and new manual spray foam needed to be applied to the tanks after the modifications were made, hence the lighter yellower colorings there. |
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