Possible Re-Scheduling for Atlantis
Above Earth, things are going as planned with the pressurized mating adapter 2 successfully being relocated on the International Space Station, while Dan Tani activating the Centerline Berthing Camera System at theNode-1 forward hatch in order to keep in PMA pre-mate aligning for rebirthing. Meanwhile, in the FGB, FE-1 Malenchenko has disconnected and stowed power cables for the Solar Array Wings for the deploy and retract drive. Life is busy, but oh so good…..
…. and then, there is Earth. A whole different story. The Atlantis Space Shuttle seems to be anything but prepared for its December 6, 2007 launching with an unexplained problem with the astronaut’s spacesuits. On Saturday, November 10, 2007, when the Atlantis shuttle safely reached NASA’s Kennedy Space Center the full launch dress rehearsal was to be scheduled from November 18 to 20, 2007. A giant crawler-transporter transported the Atlantis space shuttle for 3.4 miles to the launch pad, arriving at Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building approximately at 4:43 a.m. after a slow 1 mph. By 11:51 a.m. it had achieved hard down and was situated on the launch pad. If it launches on December 6th as planned, it will be the121st space shuttle flight with 29 flights for the Atlantis and 24 flights for the station.
The launching date was possibly going to be rescheduled as NASA engineers hunted for a suspected source for the smoke coming from the recent ground tests for the spacesuits being tested for next week. So far nothing had been found before Wednesday, and until a reason was discovered for the smoke, the launching could not go as planned due to the spacewalks not being able to develop, influencing both laboratories going up in the next two launchings.
But NASA cleared the spacesuits as okay, which was necessary for the two spacewalks next week, once yesterday’s investigation gave the approval to the space station crew for recharging the drinking water in their suits. This act was a “go-ahead” signal from the Houston meeting. But the spacewalks for November 20th and the 24th are still on temporary hold, as last week a Russian astronaut trainee smelled smoke while wearing a spacesuit in the pressure chamber. What is thought is that fumes from the CO2 scrub canister are the cause of the smell, as an engineer team found no signs of combustion in the suit. The smell of smoke is considered dangerous for the astronaut as it is fatal if the suit caught on fire.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 2:38 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.
