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Arc Jet and Return to Flight
06.22.05
 
Links to broadcast quality audio files and transcripts, May 4, 2005 interviews with Ernest Fretter and John Balboni, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., about the Ames 'Arc Jet' facilities and their use in returning the Space Shuttle to flight.

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on-line Mono-56kps MP3 420 KB

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Full Transcript (below)


8A. Q: When you do a screening test on the plug, what do you do?

Balboni: "Well, the screening tests were all conducted in the same manner for the plug and the patch and the crack repair in that they were – the repair was placed on a small sample of the material of the leading edge – about four or five inches in length. And then that –then that was inserted into the superheated stream of the Arc Jet. And then, again, gone through the profile of temperatures, ah, ramping it up over a period of ten minutes up to 2,950 Fahrenheit. And then, after the test, the samples were removed and they're inspected and evaluated to see – to decide whether or not they were successful, or whether or not they survived. So, really, the post-test inspection was critical in determining whether there was degradation – whether hot gas got underneath the edges or started to burn in places that were invisible. So, they would actually take them apart and even cut them in half after the test to inspect the uh, repair – the whole assembly of the repair to look for any damage. (1:01 MINUTES)