[MilCom] NASA WB-57

[Keith Stein]

NASA IMAGING TEAM DEVELOPS 'EYE IN SKY' FOR SHUTTLE CHASE PLANES

When the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-114) returns to flight next month, it 
will have a special escort, but the pair of NASA WB-57 chase jets won't 
just be along for the ride.

Thanks to an engineering team that includes NASA's Marshall Space Flight 
Center, Huntsville, Ala. and key industry partners, these high-flying chase 
planes will provide NASA with extra "eyes in the sky" to watch Discovery's 
flight and help safeguard its crew.

The jets will carry innovative, on-board video imaging systems, dubbed the 
WB-57 Ascent Video Experiment (WAVE). The system will capture detailed 
images of how the Space Shuttle behaves, as it climbs toward orbit. During 
the launch, the jets will keep pace with Discovery, flying at a distance of 
15 to 20 miles. The WAVE systems will track the Shuttle for approximately 
150 seconds, from liftoff to separation of the Solid Rocket Boosters, the 
power systems that provide the main thrust to lift Discovery off the pad.

After determining a piece of insulating foam from the External Tank damaged 
the Space Shuttle Columbia just after liftoff, the Columbia Accident 
Investigation Board recommended NASA improve imagery during Orbiter ascent. 
The chase-plane imagery is part of NASA's response to the recommendation.
"Shuttle video captured by the chase vehicles will help us see the launch 
in greater clarity than ever before," said project manager Bob Page. He 
leads NASA's Inter-Center Photography Working Group at the agency's Johnson 
Space Center (JSC) in Houston. "Along with cameras on the ground, and in 
and on the Shuttle itself, this imaging system will provide an 
unprecedented look at Shuttle liftoff and atmospheric flight," he said.

NASA video technicians built and tested the high-definition imaging system 
earlier this year. They called in optics specialists from Marshall's Space 
Optics Manufacturing Technology Center to design the camera lens and split 
the video feed, enabling it to simultaneously record the Shuttle in visible 
light and infrared.
Mechanical engineers from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Ala., 
built the housing. Programmers from San Diego-based SAIC, a NASA 
contractor, helped integrate the cameras and recording system.

"This was the very definition of a team effort," said Marshall optics 
engineer John West of the Space Optics Manufacturing Technology Center. "In 
June 2004, we were looking at nothing more than a concept on a drawing 
board. In nine months, we built two complete imaging systems."

Just one issue remained: how to get the complex, bulky WAVE systems 
airborne. Each system had to be mounted in the nosecone of the chase 
planes, using a large gimbal, a stabilizing anchor to keep the cameras 
focused on the Shuttle, even if turbulence caused the plane to dip or 
drift. The WAVE team turned to Southern Research Institute (SRI) in 
Birmingham, Ala., for the solution: a gimbal system similar to ones the 
firm built to support U.S. Army missile tests.

According to John Collier, senior program manager for SRI, the company 
designed and built a new gimbal to suit NASA's needs by using a 
lightweight, carbon-graphite epoxy. In March, the firm integrated the WAVE 
systems with the gimbals. The systems will be shipped this month to 
Ellington Airfield near Houston, where they will be mounted on the jets.

"Across the agency, we're all working to make the Space Shuttle safer," 
said Marshall project lead Rodney Grubbs. "This was our opportunity to 
contribute, and we're excited about what our imagery might mean for the 
safety of our astronauts."

Managed by JSC, the WB-57s are former U.S. Air Force planes designed to 
study weather conditions at high altitudes. When the Air Force phased out 
its WB-57s in the 1970s, it transferred two of the jets to NASA. NASA's are 
the last two WB-57s still flying.

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