International Space Station underwent a series of integrated tests at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in June 1999. These tests were part of Multi-Element Integration Test (MEIT) Test Configuration 2 (TC 2). I borrowed a digital camera from Todd McIntyre of the JSC Resident Office at KSC and took a few pictures.
A view of part of the MEIT control room area in the heat of battle.
From left to right:
Carlos Marin of NASA KSC (standing, in red shirt),
Peter Loh of Boeing Houston (in back),
Steve Duran of NASA JSC MOD,
Ronnie Lawson of NASA KSC (in striped shirt),
Kent Gaylor of LinCom (in front, facing away),
Tom McNamara of Boeing Huntington Beach (in back),
Roy Whitson of Boeing KSC,
Sue Sitko of NASA KSC,
Roy is smiling.
He must be seeing something other than the notorious
purple D's that basically indicate that the C&DH system is too bogged
down to provide good display data.
The same control room, seconds later, from the other side.
From left to right:
Roy Whitson of Boeing KSC (partially visible),
Tom McNamara of Boeing Huntington Beach (standing, facing away),
Carlos Marin of NASA KSC (in red shirt),
Steve Duran of NASA JSC MOD,
Peter Loh of Boeing Houston (in white shirt),
Roger Gomez of USA MOD (standing in back),
Lindsay Nute of Boeing Houston (seated, wearing headset),
unidentified person (seated in front, facing away),
unidentified EPS person (seated in back, facing away).
The torso of a U.S. Extravehicular Mobility Unit on its cart.
The headset for this suit is draped over the right-hand cart handle.
The Display and Control Module from the U.S. EMU.
The picture was taken from the front of the EMU and rotated 180
degrees to make it easier to read.
Once again, I meet my Destiny.
This is the forward end, I think.
The blue rack at left is the UHF Test Set (see below).
The pink thing at lower left of center is part of the external UHF
antenna.
At lower right of center is a table used to hold the audio recording
equipment.
At the upper right is an FE1309 test set containing an Audio Terminal
Unit that we had trouble with during MEIT.
You can just barely see its red LED display.
The flat plate thing is the UHF antenna used in the EMU.
There is an RF attenuator at upper left.
The author demonstrating how he can wear two headsets at once because
of his unusually large head.
Note that he only has two ears.
He has to listen to both the OIS intercom and the output of the DAT recorder,
so he uses one ear for each.
During the test, his call sign on the OIS intercom was "Star Porter."
This came about because the test procedure identified some parties
with an asterisk or star, as in *USL.
Someone--Lyman Blanchard, I think--came up with "*PORTER,"
which became "Star Porter."
"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."
My typical recording setup.
At front, a Mackie 1202 mixer.
In back, two Tascam DA-P1 digital audio tape recorders.
The left one recorded the output of the external ATU,
and the right one was used to play back the stirring "Top Dog"
voice tape provided to KSC by ESTL.
This picture and the four that follow are all of the external UHF
antenna.
It is shaped like a T, with the two antenna elements at each end
of the top of the T.
In these pictures, the antenna elements are covered with shipping
materials which were removed for our tests.
The antennas themselves are contained within cylindrical white covers
with hemispherical ends.
The covers are about 5 inches in diameter.
From a distance, the antennas and the connecting bar
between them would probably look like a big cotton swab.
The metalized mylar was not removed for our tests, but we peeled
some of it back for pictures.
A somewhat out-of-focus picture of the UHF Test Set.
The next pictures are of some of the panels on this test set.
I took them at Jeff Rouze's request.
Author: Porter Clark <jpc@suespammers.org>
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Last update: December 31, 2001
