Saturday, September 26, 2009

STS-129's External Tank and Solid Rocket Booster Assembled!!





Last week the External Tank that will be used for Atlantis’s next flight (STS-129), was assembled with the Solid Rocket Boosters stacked on the Mobile Launch Platform. STS-129 is targeted to launch Nov. 12th. Atlantis is still undergoing final closeout work before it can be transferred from its Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building, which is targeted for the beginning of October.

What have I been up to? For the past two weeks, I was in training with our Vehicle Project Manager for Endeavour. It was really cool because I was able to be involved with the integration of the other systems with the Orbiter. It involved coming into work at 5am and understanding what was (or wasn’t) completed on 3rd shift, how it effected the schedule with other groups, testing that was planned, or issues that arose during certain work that was performed. Integration and communication is very key for us to stay on track for a launch. It was a great experience being involved in this and I learned so much more of what goes on outside of the Thermal Protection Systems group. In December, I will be get to do this again, but it will be when Endeavour is transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building and ready to be integrated in the vertical position with the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters.

Aside from that, I’ve been busily keeping up with the combustion course I’m taking and studying for my first exam coming up on Tuesday! I've also been training for some races in October that I'll be participating in.

1 comment:

sidd said...

Great to know your working hard there