Crew Prepared For Almost Anything

"Be prepared." The Boy Scout creed is on the minds of the crewmembers of STS-122, as they prepare to ride into orbit onboard the shuttle Atlantis Thursday afternoon.

"The last couple missions have been interesting," Mission Commander Stephen Frick told USA Today. "We're sure stuff is going to come up."

What "stuff," however, remains to be seen... and even in the highly unlikely event the 11-day mission goes perfectly to plan, there will still be numerous challenges to deal with as the crew delivers and installs the European Space Agency's Columbus module to the International Space Station.

All three prior shuttle missions this year have had to deal with at least one unexpected problem. Most recently, the crew onboard Discovery in October discovered problems with a solar array on the ISS... which may be addressed by the Atlantis crew, if a two-day mission extension is approved.

And contrary to NASA's preference for extensive training for such events beforehand, NASA has had only a few months to put together a plan to repair the jammed array. Furthermore, if the excursion is approved spacewalkers will have to learn on the job as they go, with no prior practice runs on the ground.

"You don't want something thrown on your plate at the last minute," said lead spacewalker  Rex Walheim, adding he and others will rely on their general training to get the job done. "We'll have to follow the plan, go out there slowly, take our time."

"Every commander would love to launch on their mission and have it go exactly as the flight plan dictates," Frick added. "Of course, that rarely happens."

It appears at least one past issue with other shuttle launches -- the weather -- will cooperate for Atlantis. There's only a 10 percent chance of a weather-related postponement when Atlantis is scheduled to blast off at 1631 EST Thursday.

FMI: www.nasa.gov