The environmental seals for the main landing gear doors of the Shuttle Orbiters were raised by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board as a potential safety concern. Inspections of seals installed on the Shuttle Discovery revealed that they were permanently deformed and no longer met certified seal compression requirements. Replacement of the seals led to the inability to fully close the main landing gear doors. Johnson Space Center requested that Glenn Research Center conduct tests on the main landing gear door environmental seals to assist in installing the seals in a manner to allow the main landing gear doors to fully close. Further testing was conducted to fill out the seal performance database. Results from the testing indicated that the method of bonding the seals was important in reducing seal loads on the main landing gear doors. Also, the replacement seals installed in Shuttle Discovery were found to have leakage performance sufficient to meet the certification requirements.


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    Title :

    Investigations of Shuttle Main Landing Gear Door Environmental Seals


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    41st Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit ; 2005 ; Tucson, AZ, United States


    Publication date :

    2005-09-01


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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