Thursday, May 17, 2012

One of Atlantis' liquid hydrogen fuel lines after it was removed from the orbiter on May 8, 2012.
NASA / Ben Smegelsky

Atlantis: Retirement Update... While her decommissioning process continues at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the orbiter Atlantis is also taking part in an effort to speed up the development of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) by having Main Propulsion System (MPS) components be removed from the shuttle. The MPS components will be placed in temporary storage for future use on the SLS...with items like the liquid hydrogen fuel lines being taken out of Atlantis' engine compartment (as shown in the pics posted with this entry). Atlantis' sister ship Endeavour is also being 'scavenged' for engine parts to be used on the SLS—though Endeavour will soon complete transition and retirement operations and will be just months away from being flown to Los Angeles and becoming a space artifact at the California Science Center.

Atlantis is scheduled to be towed down the road to her final home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex between this November and February 2013.

A technician works inside Atlantis' engine compartment to remove a liquid hydrogen fuel line, on May 8, 2012.
NASA / Ben Smegelsky

Three technicians (with more assisting inside the engine compartment) work to remove a liquid hydrogen fuel line from Atlantis, on May 8, 2012.
NASA / Ben Smegelsky

As of May 8, 2012, the engine well for Atlantis' main engine No. 1 is empty after Main Propulsion System elements were removed.
NASA / Ben Smegelsky
Posted by Richard Par at 12:13 AM
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)