NickDG 23 #1 December 6, 2004 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2004-12-01-big-booster-chutes_x.htm Cleaning booster chutes no small task By Chris Kridler, Florida Today CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA knows how to do laundry. The Parachute Refurbishment Facility at Kennedy Space Center cleans and repairs the solid rocket booster parachutes after a shuttle launch. NASA "It's got the biggest washing machine in the world," solid rocket booster project manager David Martin said of Kennedy Space Center's Parachute Refurbishment Facility. If you put three one-car garages end to end, you might have something the size of this washing machine. It's used to clean the parachutes that ease the fall of the space shuttles' solid rocket boosters. When the chutes come to the facility, after they and the boosters are retrieved from the ocean, they're soaked with salt water. They've been through a lot of stress. When a shuttle launches, it gets about 80% of its launch power from the twin, reusable solid rocket boosters. Those boosters separate from the orbiter about 30 miles up, then continue their upward motion for more than a minute before falling. On each booster, a small pilot chute pulls out the 54-foot-wide drogue chute, which stabilizes the booster. Next, the three 136-foot-wide main chutes are deployed, trailing 204-foot lines. The boosters hit the ocean at more than 50 mph, and the retrieval ships wind the parachutes onto large reels. At KSC's parachute facility, workers hang the conical ribbon chutes in loose folds on a long rack. "You get to play junior engineer and run it around on the monorail, and bring it into the washing system," said parachute facility manager Terry McGugin, of shuttle contractor United Space Alliance. The track extends into the garage-like washing machine, which fills up with about 30,000 gallons of water. The parachute stays in the machine for at least an hour, usually half a day. Then it goes into 140-degree heat in a similar-sized dryer for six to 10 hours. The parachutes are moved onto the long tables in the building and repaired with industrial-strength sewing machines, if necessary. Main chutes are reused as many as 15 times; drogue chutes, 13. When ready, workers fold them into packing canisters. "It folds back and forth to get an orderly program," McGugin said. "If you know anything about parachutes, you know you don't just wad them in there." A chute has never failed to deploy, but there have been other failures, he said. On an early shuttle flight, the onboard system thought the nozzle separation was the water impact and let go of the chutes. The result? "Artificial reef," he said. More than two dozen people work in the facility, which also processes the drag chutes used by orbiters when they land. "It's a complex vehicle that we fly and refly, and we're all real proud," McGugin said. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diablopilot 2 #2 December 6, 2004 Quote"If you know anything about parachutes, you know you don't just wad them in there." *cough* bullshit *cough* They haven't seen me pack. ---------------------------------------------- You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
