Crews Will Inspect Hail Damage

Fingers are crossed at NASA, as crews prepare to roll back the space shuttle Atlantis to the Vehicle Assembly Building in order to better assess damage caused by a storm last week. Roll back is currently targeted for Sunday morning.

As Aero-News reported, the STS-117 vehicle stack is returning to the VAB so engineers and technicians can thoroughly inspect the shuttle for hail damage that resulted from a violent storm on Monday evening. Once inspections are complete, a decision will be made on the type of repair necessary and the time needed for that work.

On Thursday, workers at the pad offloaded the fuel and oxidizer from the orbiter maneuvering system tanks. Crews opened the orbiter's payload bay doors, and work was underway Saturday to remove the payload from the cargo bay. Demating of the shuttle from the pad systems continued through Saturday, with rotation of the pads' rotating service structure scheduled for early Sunday morning.

Earlier in the week, the Space Shuttle Program managers met for a two-day STS-117 Flight Readiness Review. During this meeting managers and engineers review risks associated with the mission and determine whether the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.

At the conclusion of the FRR, there was a unanimous decision to proceed with the STS-117 mission, pending resolution of the open work to make necessary repairs to the hail damage on the shuttle.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/index.html