Targets June Launch; Hale Says Four Missions In 2007 Possible

NASA is targeting June 8 as the next possible launch opportunity for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-117 mission to the International Space Station. The decision to delay the launch until June is based on the progress in repairing insulating foam on the shuttle's external fuel tank, which was damaged during a sudden hail storm February 26 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, FL.

That damage required engineers to repair approximately 2,660 sites on the tank. NASA officials state that option is preferable to replacing the tank outright, a task that would add even more time to what will be a three-month delay to NASA's first shuttle mission of 2007... assuming the agency is able to launch Atlantis in June.

"If we continue at the pace of repair that we're doing, we should be looking at vehicle rollout to the launch pad, perhaps as early as May 6," said Wayne Hale, manager of the Space Shuttle Program, to the New York Times. "What we're doing is letting the work drive the schedule, not the other way around."

The launch window extends from June 8 to July 18, according to NASA.

It could have been worse. Much of the shuttle is protected by a gantry that is moved away before launching, but the 15-story-tall external fuel tank, with its distinctive coating of orange insulating foam, pokes out well beyond the top of the structure. The delicate foam at the top of the tank suffered thousands of small dings.

Many of those dings have to be carved out and filled, one at a time, with new foam. Two areas of the tank were so peppered that workers were spraying on whole sections of foam, a process that had not been tried before at Kennedy Space Center. NASA states it has put that process through extensive testing to ensure that it is safe.

In 2003, the shuttle Columbia and its crew were lost during the return to Earth because of a hole in the wing caused by a chunk of such foam insulation during ascent.

The delay may mean a later return to Earth for Cmdr. Sunita L. Williams of the Navy, who is currently aboard the International Space Station. Williams's return was scheduled for the shuttle mission after this one, STS-118, which was originally scheduled for June. With the delayed launching of STS-117, the next mission will not take place until August at the earliest.

As for getting Atlantis off the pad by June, William H. Gerstenmaier, who heads manned space operations for NASA said, "We don't see any showstoppers in front of us."

The decision to push the launching into June also casts doubt on NASA's plans for four shuttle missions this year, down from the five missions first announced -- a timeframe already compromised on the top end by NASA's need to retire the shuttle program by 2010. Hale remained optimistic.

"Flying four flights is not outside the realm of possibility," the shuttle program manager said.

FMI: www.nasa.gov