WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 GEORGE DILLER: Joining us now here in the Firing Room at the Public 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Affairs console is Robbie Ashley. He was the STS-117 payload mission 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:16.000 manager here at the Kennedy Space Center and had much to do with 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:26.000 preparing these trusses for flight. Robbie, welcome. And this, these 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.000 segments have been here for awhile. How far back does preparations for this 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:31.000 flight go? 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:35.000 ROBBIE ASHLEY: That's right, George. These elements actually showed 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:41.000 up in December of 2000 for the S3 element and January 2001, a month later, 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:45.000 for the S4 element. So it's been a little over six years since they've been 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:53.000 here, and we've had a lot of folks working on them over that timeframe. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.000 DILLER: Well, we'll go ahead and roll some tape now, and perhaps you can 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.000 give us some idea of some of the activities that we're seeing that prepared 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.000 these truss segments for launch. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.000 ASHLEY: OK. I'll be glad to. This is NASA's Superguppy heavy-lift cargo 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:15.000 aircraft landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility, and this is back in December 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:21.000 of 2000. It's bringing the S3 element from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where it was, 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:25.000 the primary structure was manufactured out there at the Boeing facility in 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:35.000 Tulsa. And there, as you can see, they've opened the entire nosecone of the 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:41.000 guppy aircraft, opens up to get access to the cargo bay. And now they're 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:49.000 extracting the S3 element inside its shipping fixture from the cargo bay hull 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:57.000 and transporting it over to our Payload Processing Facility. The, it's not 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.000 shown on the video, but the S4 element, as I mentioned, arrived a month 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:05.000 later, and it actually made the trip across country from Tulsa, over the road 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:11.000 on a special truck. And this is actually three years later, in 2004, after we've 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:17.000 had initially completed work on the S3 and S4 elements, and this is the 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:22.000 traditional key ceremony that we have in space station, signifying the 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:26.000 transfer of ownership of the hardware from the Boeing Company to the 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:30.000 government. And this is Chuck Hardison, the senior manager for flight 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.000 element processing here, for the Boeing Company, presenting the key to 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:38.000 Scott Gehring, who was leading up the vehicle office for the space station 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:43.000 program at the time. And here's part of our larger team that worked on the 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:48.000 S3 and S4 elements, getting them ready. And here we are jumping forward 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:55.000 again. This is in September of 2006. We had just completed replacement of 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:02.000 the six batteries on the lower deck of the S4 element and we're bringing the 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:08.000 integrated element back over to its normal processing stand following that 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:13.000 battery changeout, and over there, once over there, we'll complete all of our 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:20.000 final testing that we need to do that, that we had to do as a result of changing 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.000 out those batteries and then prepare the element for launch. And this is 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:31.000 actually a shot out at the launch pad, as you can see, of the rotating service 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:35.000 structure of Pad A, and this is their first retraction of the rotating service 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:45.000 structure since January of 2004 -- 2003, excuse me. So they've had quite a 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:52.000 lot of work going on in the four years and this is in January 2007, retracting 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:07.000 in preparation for payload delivery to the pad. And here we are, back in the 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:13.000 Space Station Processing Facility, preparing the S3/S4 element for transfer 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:18.000 out to the launch pad, lifting it out of its workstand and it's on its way to the 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:23.000 opposite end of the building where we will install it in the payload 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:28.000 transportation canister for the trip to the pad. This is a good shot of the 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:36.000 forward bulkhead of the S3 bulkhead that will attach to S1 on orbit. And 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.000 now, as you can see, we're approaching the payload canister for that 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:53.000 installation. And lowering the cargo element into the payload canister. And 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:57.000 that's a close-up shot of the solar-alpha rotary joint there, blanketed. That's 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:05.000 the joint that rotates the solar arrays outboard for tracking with the sun. And 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.000 here we are, over at the Canister Rotation Facility. We've been rotated 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:13.000 vertical in the payload canister and we're on our way out to the launch pad. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:42.000 This is Feb. 12 of this year. There's a beautiful shot of the canister as it 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.000 passes the Vehicle Assembly Building in the early morning hours of Feb. 12. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And I love this view here, with the launch pad lit up in the early morning 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 hours. And this is the payload canister being hoisted up from the base of the 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:56.000 pad to the Payload Changeout Room at the 135-foot level of the rotating 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:03.000 service structure. And now we're seeing, we're inside the Payload 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:09.000 Changeout Room and opening the payload canister doors in preparation for 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:14.000 extracting the S3/S4 element and putting it into the Payload Changeout 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:25.000 Room. And I don't believe we have it on this video, but the shot that you're 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.000 seeing here looks very much like the S3/S4 in the orbiter's payload bay. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Those doors that you see there look, are very similar to the payload bay 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:40.000 doors for the orbiter. That's a close-up shot of one of the solar array wings, 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:46.000 the two blanket boxes that you see there in the mass canister, and this is the 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:51.000 top half of the S3 element with the solar alpha rotary joint. And now we're 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:56.000 seeing the payload ground handling mechanism being brought forward to 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:02.000 extract the S3/S4 element out of the payload canister, and that has occurred 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.000 now and the payload canister door is closed. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:12.000 DILLER: Robbie, what's the significance of the payloads for this mission in 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.000 terms of where it fits into the assembly sequence? In other words, why are 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.000 we doing this now compared to what's coming? 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:24.000 ASHLEY: Right. Well, the S3/S4 element's very much like the P3/P4 that 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:29.000 we launched back in September of last year. Its primary purpose is, is that it 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:34.000 provides power for the station. Significant of the S3/S4 element is it'll be 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:41.000 providing the power necessary to continue the assembly of station and 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:44.000 specifically starting the addition of the international partner elements – the 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Columbus module and the Japanese Experiment Module. So it's significant 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.000 in that it will be providing the power for those elements. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 DILLER: Well, Robbie, thank you very much, and I'm sure your team is 00:07:55.000 --> 00:08:01.000 excited. Have you any estimate about how many folks have worked over this 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:02.000 over time or are on your team? 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.000 ASHLEY: You know, I don't have a good number. I know it's in the 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.000 thousands if you consider, you know, going back to, all the way back to the 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.000 plants where the hardware was initially manufactured and then the team 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:17.000 here. We've had a large number of folks that have worked on it. Some have 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.000 gone on to other things. As I mentioned earlier, it's been over six years. But, 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:26.000 but a lot of folks are looking out at the launch pad today with excitement that 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:32.000 S3/S4 is now on the verge of being launched and headed to the space station. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Well Robbie, thanks very much and best of luck for tonight.