Hello everybody,
although there is now clarity about the
SRB struts, I still have problems with the shape of the
Vertical strut of the
ET/Orbiter Attachment, because the lower part of the
Newware TPS-Facing looked a bit too clunky,
why I've dealt with this assembly once again and have analyzed further photos.
For this I have repeatedly compared these two photos of the
ET-8 (STS-6) and first tried to reconstruct the contours of the struts and to bring into agreement, which is not so easy, because the images were taken from different positions and thus certain details are partially obscured.
Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (Jester)
Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (woods170)
In particular, the two yellow and blue marked areas have puzzled me,
whereby the yellow marked wedge-shaped foot looks somehow different than the one on the
Newware strut. Whose chunky form is more akin to the struts used in later missions, as seen here in
STS-134 (ET-122).
Source: NASA
Irritating is also the lower contour directly at the yellow arrowhead in the first image, which does not belong to the strut, but to the flattened
SOFI pattern area of the
Longeron, which is illustrated in this image by the yellow contour.
Furthermore, it can be seen from the blue dimension arrows that the lower foot part is not wedge-shaped as the Newware part.
And with this the vertical strut gets this blue drawn contour with a flowing transition to the
SRB Cable Tray, which extends to the
Upper Strut.
This still leaves this question mark at the blue marked recess from the first picture open, which one unfortunately can not see in this last view.
This wedge-shaped part seems in my opinion to be a part of the
TPS facing which has been retrofitted, this recess probably having been finished later. In contrast to the
SOFI Spray applications, these TPS parts were molded separately and mounted individually, just like the
Intertank Closeouts.
And these are now the estimated dimensions for the scratch construction of the
Vertical Strut, which show that especially the chunky foot part of the
Newware facing does not fit the mould of the
ET-8 and therefore has to be modified.
As reference dimension (yellow) was used the diameter of the rear part of the
Thrust Strut, which is
16,6" at the original, which roughly corresponds to
3 mm of the
Airfix part.
