CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A pair of WB-57F chase planes equipped with sophisticated imaging systems might be the ticket for NASA to resume launching space shuttles at night, agency officials said Wednesday.
Two high-altitude research planes would fly on either side of a shuttle climbing to orbit, their cameras trained on the forward third of the shuttle. That section can't be seen by ground-based cameras during night launches because of the bright glow from the solid rocket booster exhaust.
The brilliant plume, however, does provide plenty of light for aerial cameras to see the top of the shuttle during the first two minutes of flight -- at least that's what officials hope to find out, said Robert Page, NASA's manager in charge of improving the tracking camera capabilities at the Kennedy Space Center.
"We've got a lot of details to work out, especially with the Eastern Range and how close we can fly to the shuttle, but we're extremely hopeful that it will work," Page said.The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) in its final report called upon NASA to provide at least three useful views of a shuttle launch and modernize its image analysis capabilities so that mission managers will have a clearer picture, literally, of any debris falling from the external tank that might damage the shuttle.
It was a 1.7-pound chunk of external tank foam insulation that fell during launch and struck Columbia's left wing, opening a hole in the leading edge that allowed hot gases inside during the Feb. 1 re-entry to trigger the disaster that killed seven astronauts.
Although tracking cameras did capture the shedding debris, officials concluded the debris didn't pose a threat to the mission, in part because a quick analysis of the film could not conclusively prove there should be a concern.
The CAIB found fault with that reasoning on a variety of levels and said that additional views and image analysis capability were crucial before a return to flight. Until then, the board said, only daylight launches should be planned.
In the meantime, NASA is modernizing its image analysis laboratory at KSC. So far some $3.2 million has been spent on new computers, software and imaging systems.
Engineers are upgrading from relying on a noisy 35 mm film projector that is difficult to work with -- an older unit that is the only one KSC has -- to being able to scan the film into a computer and digitally manipulate the image on giant projection screens.
The systems are similar to the digital equipment Hollywood editors use and is "state of the art," said Armando Oliu, head of KSC's image analysis team, and will allow the group to study the films in greater detail.
With a mandate of "three useful views" no matter the weather conditions or path the shuttle is flying to orbit, KSC is working with the Air Force to add at least 11 new cameras at sites all over Florida's Space Coast.
The cameras are categorized as short, medium or long-range trackers and each is responsible for following the shuttle during a certain phase of flight. Each category uses different types of lenses and film speeds.
According to Page, NASA plans to increase the number of short-range cameras from four to six, medium-range cameras from five to seven, and long-range trackers from four to 10 -- including adding a camera 38 miles to the north at Ponce Inlet that will be in an especially good position to see solid rocket booster separation during space station missions.
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