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by nerdface 2042 days ago
I read some of the NASA books recently and you’d think things are going without a hitch and yet hundreds of anomalies happen along the way that the casual observer simply didn’t see.
2 comments

My brother is a commercial pilot and I think many people would be terrified of how many issues routinely arise on a normal flight if they were told about them. When everything double/triple redundancy and procedures are so regimented it rarely warrants mention and causes undue worry.

In contrast a flight with no engineering issues through heavy weather and turbulence would have many in the cabin stressed.

A good example is the one we did see today - they closed the dragon hatch and noticed a very small leak during a pressure test. So they opened the hatch back up and inspected it for “FOD” (I think foreign object debris). They found some piece of FOD, removed it, and closed the hatch again. Then the pressure test passed. I did not see the debrief where they said they’d talk more about what they found. But needless to say they are checking and fixing so many tiny and big things I’m sure.
Earlier in the launch prep, they mentioned how much attention was being placed to the integrity of the seals of the zippers on their space suits, since they'd be required in the event of a cabin depressurization.

And shortly after I could see that, yes, they had good reason for these detailed precautions.

> attention was being placed to the integrity of the seals of the zippers on their space suit

IIRC during the DEMO-1 launch, the two astronauts mentioned that their suit zippers were not fully fastened and there were minor suit pressure leaks.

There was another anomaly after launch – Thermal Control System (TCS) loop pressure spike. They decided it was not a serious issue and to continue in spite of it.
Although it does have to be fixed before they can dock to the ISS, so they're working it right now.

Flight rules say they can't approach the ISS unless they have 2/4 propellant heaters working, and right now they only have 1/4.

EDIT: On the livestream they just said they fixed it.