Honeywell's glass cockpit makes its second flight on 8 September aboard the Space Shuttle. Atlantis, the only orbiter in the NASA fleet to be equipped with the Multifunctional Electronic Display Subsystem (MEDS), is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station on mission STS 106. Atlantis flew its first MEDS mission in May during another ISS flight, STS 101, after which the Honeywell MEDS was praised highly by the crew, led by US Air Force Col. James Halsell. The MEDS will be installed next on the orbiter Columbia, which is undergoing upgrades at Boeing's Rockwell plant in California and eventually will be placed into the cockpits of the Discovery and Endeavour orbiters. The MEDS technology, with its genesis in Honeywell's display system for the Boeing 777, provides the orbiters with "the most advanced commercial and military flat-panel display technology available today", the company _said. Atlantis is suited with nine MEDS displays in the forward flight deck and two in the aft flight deck. Information is also interchangeable between screens, allowing crews to select the display format that best suits mission needs. MEDS eliminates obsolescence concerns and is less expensive than present electro-mechanical devices. In addition to reducing maintenance costs, MEDS will reduce vehicle weight and performance, and improve Shuttle safety by simplifying cockpit panels. The system can be expected to be upgraded as part of NASA's overall Shuttle upgrade programme.
Source: Flight Daily News
