Cool experience

**captainofiron** · 05-08-2009, 11:50 PM

Well today I was in the high bay depot where I work (NASA White Sands Test Facility)

well the guy who I share my office with use to work in there as their engineer until he got moved over to my section in pressure systems, well right now they are certifying the valves on the RCS thrusters on the Shuttle, so my coworker says, hey you want to go check out what they are doing over there, so I said hell yes.

well I got to hold a RCS thruster that was just rebuilt and being prepared for the next shuttle mission, I felt like a little kid, it was sweet.

**Neil350** · 05-09-2009, 12:27 PM

That's really awesome, to bad the space program doesn't have the same respect as it did during the 50s and 60s.

**captainofiron** · 05-09-2009, 05:27 PM

yea its true, but I am just happy that obama signed a draft of the budget for FY09, we had been running on FY07 budget which is bad news, plus he increased it by 5%

hopefully the constellation program will return some prestige and public interest to NASA

**devonsZ28** · 05-09-2009, 05:33 PM

i have no idea what an RCS thruster is, but now i wanna hold one

**bluebird94** · 05-09-2009, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by devonsZ28

i have no idea what an RCS thruster is, but now i wanna hold one

x2

**captainofiron** · 05-09-2009, 09:54 PM

Reaction Control System thruster

basically how the shuttle and all space craft steer themselves in space

its pretty simple actually, since NASA uses hypergolic chemicals as propellants you dont need all 3 components of the fire triangle, just fuel and oxygen, and BOOM
its just two valves/injectors that shoot out into a diverging nozzle

**MeanGreen94Z** · 05-09-2009, 11:30 PM

NASA has always interested me.. space travel is a really neat journey, i would love to go some day! i bet you will see some of the best sights working there, and BTW man congrats on the job there hope your liking the new town and home

**captainofiron** · 05-10-2009, 08:58 AM

Thanks man, Yea I love it, plus im happy to be back close to family and west Texas
yea we have some cool stuff over here, we are a test facility so its not so neat and polished as say goddard space center or johnson space center. But we do have cool test equipment and test articles here.