The road is clear...
Nov. 21st, 2008 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpFrom the technical perspective, there is a document that goes by the unlikely name of the "Interface Control Document" (ICD) that is the reference standard by which everything is done during the campaign. Our "Bible," as it were. ICDs are ubiquitous in any technical endeavor involving multiple parties.
Theoretically, every last detail of who is to provide what to whom, how, where, in what quantity, etc. is specified in the ICD. And true to the old saw, while theoretically, theory is supposed to hew to practice, in practice, it is often quite the opposite.
And while there was a time, once, when disagreements over the meaning of individual provisions of the ICD might have been based on fundamental differences in the approach each side had to the interpretation of various requirements (and how well I remember the tortuous discussions along these lines in the early days of the ISS program!), today they devolve mostly from internal confusion or willful deviations from agreed-to interfaces.
There have been a number of ICD-related discussions during the campaign - and there's nothing unusual about that, except to note that we have achieved the point where tomorrow, the propellant team will commence loading oxidizer aboard the spacecraft, a procedure that will be completed on Sunday, after which a sophisticated two-step involving fork-lifts will rearrange equipment to allow loading of fuel on Monday.
I am scheduled to support tomorrow morning's operation, commencing at 7 am. Time to rest.
Cheers...
Theoretically, every last detail of who is to provide what to whom, how, where, in what quantity, etc. is specified in the ICD. And true to the old saw, while theoretically, theory is supposed to hew to practice, in practice, it is often quite the opposite.
And while there was a time, once, when disagreements over the meaning of individual provisions of the ICD might have been based on fundamental differences in the approach each side had to the interpretation of various requirements (and how well I remember the tortuous discussions along these lines in the early days of the ISS program!), today they devolve mostly from internal confusion or willful deviations from agreed-to interfaces.
There have been a number of ICD-related discussions during the campaign - and there's nothing unusual about that, except to note that we have achieved the point where tomorrow, the propellant team will commence loading oxidizer aboard the spacecraft, a procedure that will be completed on Sunday, after which a sophisticated two-step involving fork-lifts will rearrange equipment to allow loading of fuel on Monday.
I am scheduled to support tomorrow morning's operation, commencing at 7 am. Time to rest.
Cheers...
