Orbiter Boom Sensor System

The Orbiter Boom Sensor System ( OBSS, dt Orbiter Boom Sensor System) is a 15.33 -meter-long boom with a variety of instruments, to the Remote Manipulator System ( Canadarm ) of the space shuttle was attached. Each of the orbiter had his own OBSS. The cantilever was developed and built by the Canadian aerospace company MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates ( MDA).

It was introduced by NASA Shuttle Mission STS -114. This was the first mission of the Space Shuttle after the Columbia accident in which damage to the heat shield (Thermal Protection System, TPS) led to burn-out of the space shuttle and the death of the crew. To prevent a repeat of this disaster, including the OBSS was introduced, which allows the crew inspecting the TPS in space.

Damage would be at such an inspection has been detected, the crew was able to fix this in the course of a spacewalk. If repair of the problem in orbit would not have been possible, so the plan was to control the shuttle to the ISS and to await the arrival of the rescue mission STS -3xx.

The instruments of the OBSS included visual camera systems, the Laser Dynamic Range Imager ( LDRI ) and the Laser Camera System (LCS ). The sensors offered a resolution of a few millimeters and scanned at a speed of approximately 63 mm per second.

The OBSS was routinely used to check the wing edges, nose and crew cabin of the shuttle after each start. If flight engineers suspected a potential harm to another location on the orbiter through the camera shots of the launch, so do these also was inspected using the OBSS.

For missions to the ISS, the rear part of the heat shield was also tested using the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver.

The shuttle mission STS- 134, the OBSS Endeavour was installed on the Integrated Truss Structure of the ISS. It was called Enhanced International Space Station Boom Assembly.