Payload Bay Floodlights

The vendor has determined by experimentation that the lights should be given five minutes to come to full bright, and then left on for an additional twenty minutes to allow the chemicals inside to come to thermal equilibrium. Once the lights are turned off, they should be given sufficient time to cool. The amount of time needed depends on the degree to which a payload blocks the radiation of heat away from the floodlight. For an unblocked light, ten minutes should be sufficient, and for a blocked light, sixteen minutes are necessary.

There are six payload bay floodlights and one bulkhead floodlight which support orbiter/payload operations both internal and external to the payload bay area. Each light consumes 150 watts of power and produces 18 foot candles of light at a distance of 8 feet. The payload bay floodlights are mounted through the liner in the floor of the payload bay, and the bulkhead light is mounted between the rear windows of the orbiter, looking aft into the bay. Each light illuminates an area 135° wide, and these areas overlap somewhat. Although lights on the remote manipulator arm and handheld or helmet mounted lights can fill in the gap, failure of a light will be a hindrance to payload bay operations.

These photos from OV-105 (in OPF-1, 3/13/00, via window W9) show the port mid flood light in close-up and normal view. The lighting is artificially enhanced by a small portable fluorescent light on a table in the payload bay, as seen in the long view.

Port mid light turning on
Starboard mid light turning on
Fwd bulkhead, stbd mid, and port aft lights turning off

HTML & Web page design by DT36/Michael Grabois, 281-244-2333
created March - May 2000 / last updated April 2002