Jun 14 1979
From The Space Library
MSFC reported that the seven-member science crew for the first Spacelab mission was conducting a three-day crew-station review, using a Spacelab mockup just completed in MSFC's Materials and Processes Laboratory. The review would evaluate experiment designs together with written procedures, the ensure proper crew-equipment interface, especially the location of switches, controls, and displays. (MSFC Release 79-57)
MSFC said a long-duration test firing of the Shuttle main propulsion system scheduled June 12 was successful, even though a glitch in the automatic-cutoff instrumentation had terminated the test about 50 seconds into the 520 second program.
Frank Stewart, test manager for MSFC's Shuttle; projects office, said that the test was successful "in the sense that the system performed as predicted and yielded a great deal of valuable data" needed before the first Shuttle flight. Stewart said the firing sequence was excellent. For the first time in test firing of three flight engines, the rated power level was attained, and the test produced pogo pulsing (a deliberate oscillation from very low to very high frequencies generated by a piston in the liquid-oxygen manifold, to show if vibrations in flight would constitute resonance dangerous to structures).
This first long-duration firing of the clustered flight-type engines and propulsion system had already been delayed by malfunction of a development engine during single-engine tests. Inspection after the failure revealed a crack in the coolant pipe, requiring removal of the engine nozzle. Engineers modified a spare nozzle for installation in the test article. Stewart said the event should not delay the total test schedule, which included extra time for unforeseen difficulties. System verification should be complete "in ample time for the first Shuttle flight," he said. (MSFC Release 79-58)
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