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.