Liftoff Scheduled For June 8

NASA officials announced Friday repairs on the hail-damaged external tank  on Space Shuttle Atlantis have been completed, clearing the shuttle for roll out to launch pad 39A this Wednesday.

However, launch Director Mike Leinbach said if work to tear down external tank scaffolding and other preparations go well, the trip to the pad could move up one day to Tuesday, reported CBS News.

He added, "The team has come through with flying colors and gotten a completely flight worthy tank put together. ... We are essentially done with all the repairs on the tank now."

The shuttle Atlantis' hail-damaged external fuel tank has been repaired, NASA officials said today, clearing the shuttle for rollout to launch pad 39A next week. Blastoff on a long-delayed space station assembly mission is targeted for June 8.

"I'm really pleased to say we have effectively completed the repairs on the external tank," shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale told reporters Friday. "I think the team that worked on the external tank across the country, we're really proud of what they have done. ... It's just an outstanding effort on the parts of hundreds and hundreds of people."

"The teams have done a phenomenal job of repairing this tank," said Bill Gerstenmaier, space operations associate administrator. "We've done a lot of extra reviews to make sure we didn't miss anything -- a lot of testing…to make sure things were done right and they've done a great job."

John Chapman, manager of the external tank project pointed out the tank will have a speckled appearance... but it will not affect performance or safety. The foam used for the large-area sprays and the PDL-type repairs is a much lighter color than the insulation sprayed on at the factory.

"Your mind will have a hard time convincing your eyes there are no surface discontinuities where you see changes in color," he said. "It's very much like a car that has had body and fender work but hasn't had the primer sprayed on it yet. No matter how much you look at it and feel it after you've had that work done on a car, your eye has trouble recognizing the fact that it's going to be nice and smooth. And that's the situation we have with this tank. But I promise you, it's absolutely ready to go."

Launch is targeted for 7:37:56 pm EDT on June 8. NASA plans to hold a two-day flight readiness review May 30 and 31 to assess the status of launch preparations and to set an official launch date. Assuming a rollout to the pad on May 16, engineers will only have three contingency days between then and June 8 to deal with unexpected problems.

FMI: www.nasa.gov