Mid-September New Target Date

Suddenly concerned in public that perhaps some corrosion on Atlantis might have gone unnoticed, reports are coming from NASA that the next Shuttle mission could be launched no earlier than mid-September, 2004.

NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said that such problems were discovered and fixed on Discovery and Endeavour.

The last 'heavy' maintenance Atlantis received (other than during the unrelated flat-panel cockpit upgrade three+ years ago) was in 1997~98, when Hartsfield said the agency admitted it may not have checked deeply enough for troubles possibly lurking under the nose cap of Atlantis. "The reason we are discussing this is to understand whether removing the nose cap and inspecting it is something we need to do to make sure Atlantis’s thermal protection system is safe for flight," Hartsfield said.

Why Discovery or Endeavour couldn't be ready sooner -- perhaps the next missions are so specific that particular equipment couldn't be transfered -- was not discussed.

Of course, if the launch date slips much past the end of September, the shorter days (NASA recently amended its flight rules to allow only daylight shuttle launches) and colder nights (ice, O-ring shrinkage) could delay a launch until the Spring of 2005. Meanwhile, the ISS crew keeps it together, performing construction and experiments on a greatly-amended schedule, relying on the Russian Soyuz program to keep the Station going, and manned.

FMI: www.nasa.gov