NASA's Mike Butler Maintains Bird's Eye View of Shuttle External Tank

NASA's Mike Butler Maintains Bird's Eye View of Shuttle External Tank

04.05.05


June Malone/Martin Jensen
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256.544.0034)
Media Advisory: 05-038


Mike Butler is too busy to unpack. At the rear of his office at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., stacked cardboard boxes of
paperwork and supplies almost block the view from his window of rolling
green pastures and low, tree-lined hills.

Butler doesn't have time to deal with the boxes -- reminders of his team's
recent move to new quarters closer to the rest of the Shuttle Propulsion
Office at Marshall. And the only view he's interested in these days is the
one looking down from atop the Space Shuttle Discovery's massive External
Tank, the 154-foot-tall, orange fuel tank built for NASA by Lockheed Martin
Space Systems of New Orleans. In May, the External Tank will help lift the
STS-114: Space Shuttle Return to Flight mission to space.

Like most of the nation, Butler will be watching Discovery's historic
flight. But he may be watching more closely than some. He manages the team
responsible for the External Tank-Mounted Shuttle Observation Camera, which
is mounted in a recessed area of the External Tank's liquid oxygen feedline,
the 70-foot conduit that delivers propellant to the Shuttle Main Engine. The
camera team is spending the final weeks before flight ensuring the camera, a
primary tool for recording Discovery's launch, is in proper working order,
and securely mounted to withstand the powerful energy of liftoff, as the
Shuttle accelerates -- in a little more than eight minutes -- toward its
17,500 mph orbital cruising speed. From its vantage point, the feedline
camera will record the ascent, maintain a bird's eye view of the Orbiter
and, most importantly, document the behavior of foam insulation covering
several key areas of the External Tank.

The polyurethane foam is a critical safety element. Once the External Tank
is loaded with the 535,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen fuel and
liquid oxygen propellant needed to loft the Shuttle into the sky, the
insulating foam helps maintain the interior temperature and prevents buildup
of potentially dangerous ice on the exposed aluminum exterior. After the
loss of Shuttle Columbia in February 2003, it was determined the foam itself
posed a potential debris risk during liftoff. Preventing foam loss -- and
documenting future instances to provide an early warning system and permit
repairs -- were critical recommendations of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board.

Together with cameras on the Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters, still and
video cameras used by the crew in flight and enhanced cameras on the ground
and on "chase planes" that fly in the Shuttle's vicinity, the feedline
camera will help NASA develop a comprehensive, second-by-second picture of
each launch. The camera, a Sony XC-999 ultra-compact integrated camera
module with a heavy, shatterproof quartz lens, can record 30 high-resolution
frames per second. Butler is satisfied it will function smoothly -- it
previously recorded breathtaking images of Shuttle Atlantis' ascent during
the STS-112 flight in October 2002, the first mission in which a camera was
installed on the tank.

But there's no time to breathe easy just yet. Butler switches team-lead
hats, checking in with various tank engineers on fresh issues. He manages
what are known as "launch commit criteria" for the External Tank -- the
final set of safety checks used by spacecraft managers on the day of launch
to verify whether Shuttle hardware is indeed ready to fly. Butler oversees
more than a dozen launch criteria for the tank, and works closely with
criteria managers for other Shuttle components, helping to ensure NASA
launch personnel are prepared to finalize Discovery's go/no-go status on the
pad.

Butler routinely huddles for updates via conference calls with Shuttle teams
across NASA: tank manufacturers at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New
Orleans; launch facility managers at Kennedy; members of the Astronaut Corps
at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "There are a lot of reviews, a
lot of voices speaking up," he says. "Everyone is working to make this
flight the safest it can be. We're confident we've achieved that."

Butler was born in Pensacola, Fla., and raised in Huntsville. He earned a
bachelor's degree in engineering in 1984 from the University of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa, before joining Marshall's Systems Analysis and Integration
Office the same fall. He was promoted in 1988 to the Systems Engineering
Project in the Shuttle Propulsion Office, and has climbed through the office
's ranks ever since. A tall, rangy outdoorsman, Butler still looks like the
young man who ran track for the Crimson Tide. And his athletic nature has
proved handy at NASA over the years.

"We're constantly on the move, solving problems, staying ahead of issues,"
he says. "The last two years have really shown what NASA is willing to give
for the American people. This is good work. And a great team."

For more information on the Web about STS-114 and America's return to
spaceflight, visit:


http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/


For more information on the Web about NASA's mission, visit:


http://www.nasa.gov

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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info