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Space Forum / Shuttle / December 2005Why Atlantis ?
In another thead, there is the rumour that NASA would retire Atlantis and keep the fleet at 2. Lets assume that the government confirms the retirement of one shuttle. Are there technical reasons to select Atlantis as the one to retire ? is the ship itself not as good as Endeavour or Discovery ? If so, what portions of the ship are inferior ? Or is it just a question of Atlantis being next in line for major maintenance cycle so it is the logical choice ? In the later case, shouldn't they fly Atlantis until it needs that major maintenance, thus saving Discovery and Endeavour some flight cycles and postponing any major maintenance they may need ? Or is all this 99.99999% political and politicians just randomly selecting one shuttle for retirement ? And realistically, would this save any money ? Would they cannabalise Atlantis right away to feed parts to Discovery and Endeavour, would they send it to a museum right away, or would they keep it in flight condition so that in the case of another vehicle loss (or lengthy maintenance due to damage etc), they could bring Atlantis back into service and maintain fleet of 2 operating vehicles ? > In another thead, there is the rumour that NASA would retire Atlantis > and keep the fleet at 2. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Or is it just a question of Atlantis being next in line for major > maintenance cycle so it is the logical choice ? Endeavour is coming towards the end of her latest ODMP, so they may want to get at least some mileage out of the upgrades. IIRC, she's also the newest, and lightest Orbiter (Highest Payload), So there are good reasons *not* to retire Endeavour. Discovery is already in the flow for the next mission, so retiring her "immediately" could have a follow-on impact on when they could fly the next mission. > Or is all this 99.99999% political and politicians just randomly > selecting one shuttle for retirement ? Looking at what else is going on at the moment with the NASA Budget, It would not suprise me if, indeed, this was a budget ploy. Is Atlantis still supposed to be ready to fly a rescue flight, just incase there's a problem with Discovery ? Or has that been relaxed - I've not been keeping a close eye on things lately. I seem to remember that NASA had prioritised work on Discovery, and Atlantis to get ready for STS 114, leaving post ODMP Endeavour work, or has that been caught up with now ? If indeed Atlantis was to be available "on standby", and (hypothetically) gets retired "immediately", that would require Endeavour to take the "rescue" mission. What impact would her current state have on the STS-121 launch date ? Reading the reports on http://www.nasawatch.com/ about the PRCB meetings, I see no discussion of using Endeavour instead of Atlantis as a rescue orbiter, or any impact that might have on the timelines. Iain. > > In another thead, there is the rumour that NASA would retire Atlantis > > and keep the fleet at 2. [quoted text clipped - 42 lines] > > Iain. How immediate is "immediate" also? I suspect Atlantis will still serve as the rescue orbiter for STS 121. Endeavour under the current schedule is supposed to be flying STS 116 or 117. I suppose one scenario is keep Atlantis as backup, fly STS 115 with Atlantis as it'll have a good deal of pre-flight processing accomplished, then retire her. Either way, Atlantis is the first candidate likely for retirement. She's gone the longest without an ODMP and with the current remaining flights, it doesn't pay to conduct one on her. The last shuttle missions will likely be flown by Discovery and Endeavour anyway, its just a matter of how soon Atlantis is removed from the flight-line. -A.L. Atlantis would be coming up for refurbishment, so its a natural, and a easy parts souce for caniblazation. You DONT make any new parts unless they are absolutely critical for a program being shut down.Cost cutting at its max. Atlantis will likely be the back up orbiter for rescue then fly one last flight and statr disassembly for parts. lets face facts another accident bad enough to do seious orbiter damage is the end of the program. with 2 years the average RTF,after a accident, and the next flight mid 2006 at the earliest any accident after that wouldnt allow enough time for recovery and RTF. little by little the shuttle program is shtting down, perhaps early next year the death news will be released. > Atlantis would be coming up for refurbishment, so its a natural, and a > easy parts souce for caniblazation. You DONT make any new parts unless [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > little by little the shuttle program is shtting down, perhaps early > next year the death news will be released. Is this ng going to be graced by Bob's Daily Epitaph from here until the last door closes. :(...... George Evans !YES! A death watch special report! And does it really matter? Would it be just alright to say that someone probably has figured out why Atlantis and speculating is just waste of bandwidth ;) BR ++Jukka > In another thead, there is the rumour that NASA would retire Atlantis > and keep the fleet at 2. [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > maintenance due to damage etc), they could bring Atlantis back into > service and maintain fleet of 2 operating vehicles ? hey discussing is all what this is about. few if any here can effect the actual situation > And does it really matter? Would it be just alright to say that someone > probably has figured out why Atlantis and speculating is just waste of > bandwidth ;) Yes indeed.....you are correct, sir ! Couldn't have put it better myself. It's like fantasy {baseball, football, basketball, hockey, etc.} but for geeks instead of would-be jocks. Walter Mitty goes to work for NASA. LOL. |
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