Dec 16 1980
From The Space Library
NASA reported that it was test firing Shuttle main engines with spalled (pitted or flaked) bearings and cracked turbine blades, to show that the liquid-fuel engines could tolerate less-than-perfect conditions and still perform Shuttle missions successfully. Firing began this week at NSTL and at Rockwell's Rocketdyne Division in California. The bearings and blades were parts of the engine's high-pressure oxidizer pump: in more than 153 tests on 23 pumps, totaling more than 34,000 seconds of operation, only five instances of spalling on the bearings occurred, detected in inspections after the tests. In each instance, operation of engine and pump was satisfactory.
Since procedures for chilling before operation were improved, 6 pumps had gone through 25 tests (7,500 seconds of operation) with zero spalling. Although engine runs had produced some cracked turbine blades, such cracks had caused no failures or engine malfunctions in more than 98,000 seconds of testing. NASA had instituted the tests for added assurance of successful performance even with cracked blades or spalled bearings in the Shuttle engines. Testing was under the direction of MSFC. (NASA Release 80-191)
DFRC reported that on December 16 Dr. Robert A. Frosch visited it for the first time as NASA administrator, holding an all-hands meeting in the auditorium for an overview of NASA status and. a farewell speech. Center director Isaac T. Gillam IV gave Frosch a montage of photographs of DFRC research aircraft. After the meeting, Frosch briefed local reporters on Shuttle status. (FRC X-Press, Dec 19/80, 4)
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