NASA engineers fixing pressure valve on Endeavour for Aug 7 launch

William Atkins
Thursday, 02 August 2007 21:34

Science - Space

After several days of searching for a leak in the orbiter’s crew cabin, NASA engineers at the Kennedy Space Center have found that one of two pressure relief valves are faulty.

NASA and contractor engineers will check both valves, replace the bad one with a spare valve, and then test the integrity of the cabin’s pressure. The task is expected to be finished by Thursday, August 2, 2007, well ahead of the scheduled STS-118 launch on the seventh of August.

The valves are used to assure that the crew cabin, where the astronauts live and work, maintains a proper atmospheric pressure. When an overload condition arises, the properly working valves release pressure from inside the astronaut quarters.

A small problem was also found with Endeavour’s auxiliary power units (APUs). The thermostats are reporting off-norm (out of the normal range) values. However, the thermostats will not be replaced and a work-around will be implemented to accommodate the erroneous readings.

Additional information on the upcoming mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and its STS-116 mission is found at the iTWire article: “STS-118 crew practice at Kennedy for August launch of Endeavour” (http://www.itwire.com/content/view/13572/1066/).

[updated 8-3-07--author]