NASA STS-118 Execute Package FD12
FD11 MMT Summary 2
The FD11 MMT met to review mission progress along with the contingency planning associated with Hurricane Dean. The MMT began just as the EVA 4 crew had ingressed the airlock after another successful EVA. The team appreciates the exceptional work that the crew accomplished during the docked operations including getting the hatch closed on time after EVA 4. All MMT members were polled and all were GO for undocking on FD 12 per the one day early landing plan.
Cryo Margins: The cryo margins above the new 13+2 mission duration are 5 days at docked SSPTS power levels and 2 days at undocked non-SSPTS power levels. At this time the limiting consumable for mission duration continues to be LiOH with EOM+3 capability.
Transfer Ops: At the MMT transfer operations were reported as 80% of the middeck and 92% of the Spacehab transfers complete. When you read the message, transfer will obviously be 100% complete.
EVA 4 Summary: EVA 4 was accomplished successfully with a PET of 5:02. All of the planned objectives for the shortened EVA were accomplished. There were no issues reported with the additional glove inspections that were performed during the EVA.
Late Inspection Options: The nominal late inspection procedure after tomorrow’s undock will be accomplished. The flyaround will not be performed due to the compressed timeline caused by the deletion of the day between EVA 4 and undocking. Plans are in place to have the complete late inspection imagery and RCC team support from JSC in their normal facility, which contains customized hardware and software to process the late inspection data. The late inspection team reviewed the timeline and are targeting to clear the orbiter prior to the end of crew day on FD13.
MER Evacuation Plans: A satellite Mission Evaluation Room (MER) will be configured at the Kennedy Space Center. Only critical personnel will support the remainder of the mission at Kennedy Space Center with the exception of a few key positions that are required to remain with the Mission Operations team for entry. The most notable exception is the MER GPS team, who will support the first 3-string GPS entry with the MOD Entry Flight Control Team per the pre-mission training.
JSC Hurricane Dean Contingency Plans: Based on the current storm predictions, the Johnson Space Center is expected to remain open at least through close-of- business on Monday afternoon (FD13). If the center closes Monday afternoon, only critical personnel will be allowed to gain access to the center. Two flight control teams, including the Entry Team and the Orbit 2 team supporting 12 hour shifts, will continue operations through the remainder of the mission. Plans are being formulated to have aircraft ready to transport any critical personnel to a TBD location after the completion of the mission, if Hurricane Dean is still threatening the Johnson Space Center.
In a similar hurricane threat scenario, if any waive-off is required after FD14, the Emergency MCC plan can be invoked to move both the Planning team and the Entry flight control team to Kennedy Space Center. The team has practiced and executed a deorbit prep simulation from the KSC LCC, which is the Emergency MCC facility, in the fall 2003 timeframe. The STS-118 Entry Flight Director and several of the Entry Team members traveled to KSC and were on the entry team for this 2003 exercise. The most significant loss in capability for Emergency MCC is the lack of high speed tracking data to monitor Three -String GPS.
Weather Forecast: The team received the latest weather forecast for EOM, which is shown in Figure 1 below. There is a good chance of landing at either KSC or EDW based on this preliminary forecast. As you know all three sites will be activated for EOM and the specific landing strategy will be based on the Hurricane Dean forecast and the confidence in the predicted storm track. The latest prediction for Hurricane Dean is included as Figure 2. After the FD 11 MMT at 2100 GMT, Hurricane Dean was located at 16.1North latitude and 70.2 West longitude. The present movement is west-northwest (285 degree azimuth) at 16 knots. The estimated minimum pressure is 930 millibars with max sustained winds of 130 knots with gusts to 160 knots. This makes Dean a strong Category 4 Hurricane.
