Atlantis to Launch December 6
ATLANTIS TO LAUNCH DECEMBER 6
This Thursday, December 6, 2007, is D-Day for the planned launch of NASA’s shuttle Atlantis and its seven-astronaut crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Veteran shuttle flyer, Stephen Frick, will command the launch on Thursday at 4:31 P.M. EST while the crew will deliver the European-built Columbus laboratory to the ISS. During a briefing at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the NASA shuttle program manager, Wayne Hale, stated “Atlantis is on the pad ready to go, with no major issues or concerns regarding that vehicle.” And this is good . . . .
With Atlantis’ STS-122 mission, this will be NASA’s fourth shuttle flight of 2007. It is the most in a single year since the agency again started orbiter flights after the 2003 Columbia tragedy, and construction work has been on-going for a month by the station’s Expedition 16 astronauts. Three spacewalks were performed by the three-person crew along with tricky robotic arm work to ready the station and its new Harmony connecting module for the European Space Agency’s Columbus lab.
Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space shuttle program manager said “In my mind, its been an unprecedented year for us. I will say, we always knew this particular moment was going to be a challenging moment for us.”
The Harmony Module, delivered by NASA’s shuttle discovery last month, is designed to serve as an anchor for Europe’s Columbus module and Japan’s massive three-segment Kibo laboratory, which will launch in stages next year to further expand the $100 billion space station. At least three spacewalks will be performed by Frick and his STS-122 crewmates during their 11-day mission to install Columbus, replace ISS hardware and swap out one member of the station’s Expedition 16 crew.
NASA may extend the mission by two extra days if Atlantis’ power supplies hold out. The plan is to add a fourth spacewalk to take another look at a balky rotational joint designed to turn the station’s starboard solar wings like a paddle wheel to track the sun. Spacewalkers, during previous limited inspections, found the joint to be contaminated with metallis(?metallic?) grit, and engineers require additional data before they can decide on a repair plan. Suffredini said, “With some power downs, we can get a couple of extra days. During a fourth space-walk we’d do some thorough inspections of the solar array joint.” The inspection could be shifted to later in the Expedition 16 mission if Atlantis’ power supplies can’t support the extra spacewalk or its astronaut crew grows too fatigued, he added.
To prepare for what could be a lengthy repair requiring spacewalks, NASA plans to launch some spare parts for the joint abroad Atlantis and another shuttle set to launch in February. Indications of a possible air leak in seals between the station’s Harmony and U .S. Destiny lab which are the result of instrumentation error is also suspected by engineers. Series of tests, some of which are on-going, may turn up signs of an actual leak. Suffredini said, “The data suggests this leak does not exist.”
This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
