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Space Forum / Shuttle / March 2007Status of shuttle and its overall schedule ?
Does anyone have a scoop on the amount of damage to Atlantis and its tank due to that hail storm ? A spaceflight.nasa.gov statement made on the 3rd day of the 16th month mentions that inspections are continuing and makes no mention of what techniques will be used for tank repairs. (fix vs replace for instance). There is mention that the Atlantis flight will wait until after the next Soyuz trip in April. While NASA may say "no earlier than april", is there a feel for a "not later than" date ? Or is June still a possibility for the next flight ? Should Atlantis be delayed well in to May, can they bring Endevour to the second pad to start its processing while they put final touches and launch Atlantis ? How many days after Atlantis lands can they launch Endeavour ? Would both flights have separate houston MCC crews, or would they need to give the crews some "rest time" between landing of STS117 and launch of 118 ? Or is NASA not even going to try to make up time and just reschedule STS118 with as much delay that STS117 had ? > Does anyone have a scoop on the amount of damage to Atlantis and its tank due to > that hail storm ? [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Or is NASA not even going to try to make up time and just reschedule STS118 with > as much delay that STS117 had ? according to florida today tank repairs have started. if repairs ecome impossible a new tank is scheduled for delivery that will delay launch till june. given the extent of damage to the tank I think it should go back be stripped and redone completely, or become a permanent display tank somewhere. If they launch with that tank and get a shuttle stuck at station it will appear the height of reckless and just may sour congress to any nasa funding. In any case it would likely end shuttle ISS so maybe thats not a bad thing. ISS without shuttle will have sustanibility troubles for large parts like Gyros. In any case ISS will not be complete by 2010, if ever. Theres just not enough time to launch the number of flights needed, and the next accident will show schedule pressure of 2010 the largest cause......... >Does anyone have a scoop on the amount of damage to Atlantis and its tank due to >that hail storm ? Not as bad as originally thought. Great in quantity but not severity. Atlantis and the SRBs have already been repaired except for a couple of hard-to-reach places. The Tank is the pacing item. >on the 3rd day of the 16th month Say again? :-) >mentions >that inspections are continuing and makes no mention of what techniques will be >used for tank repairs. (fix vs replace for instance). The decision was made this week to repair in place. No destacking necessary. >There is mention that the Atlantis flight will wait until after the next Soyuz >trip in April. Launch is still No Earlier Than April 22 (some say April 23.) >While NASA may say "no earlier than april", is there a feel for a "not later >than" date ? Or is June still a possibility for the next flight ? NASA has decided to repair ET-124 (the current STS-117 tank) so that means late April-early May is likely launch target. June would come into play if they have to switch Tanks and use the Tank meant for 118. That could still happen if the repairs fail, but that's not the plan at present. >Should Atlantis be delayed well in to May, can they bring Endevour to the second >pad to start its processing while they put final touches and launch Atlantis ? Irrelevant. They haven't started stacking the STS-118 vehicle SRBs yet, as there is only one VAB High Bay available (HB-3 is down for door overhaul.) Once 117 returns to the pad, they'll start 118 stacking. The delay won't be all that great, because 118's Tank wasn't schedule to arrive at the Cape until early April anyway. >How many days after Atlantis lands can they launch Endeavour ? The record is 7 days between STS-71 and STS-70 in 1995. >Would both >flights have separate houston MCC crews, or would they need to give the crews >some "rest time" between landing of STS117 and launch of 118 ? A week perhaps. Doesn't appear necessary though. Looks like about two months between 117 and 118 now. >Or is NASA not even going to try to make up time and just reschedule STS118 with >as much delay that STS117 had ? The "best guess" right now is for STS-117 Atlantis launching the second week of May and STS-118 Endeavour being delayed about three weeks to mid-July. The two-month delay in Atlantis should push back STS-120 from early September (it was being moved up to late August before the hail attack) to early November, perhaps late October. STS-122 probably gets pushed back a month from late November to mid/late December, with Year End Rollover no longer a restriction. We're still probably looking at four flights in 2007. Manifests and Launch On Need scheduling certainly gets a lot easier when you have all three Orbiters up and running. If you look at NASA's 2008 Shuttle schedule, there's a whole lot of padding in there for the Hubble mission, so they should be able to make up lost time without much trouble... 15 Mar 07 STS-117 Atlantis (S3-S4) 28 Jun 07 STS-118 Endeavour (S5) 7 Sep 07 STS-120 Atlantis (Harmony) 27 Nov 07 STS-122 Discovery (Columbus) 14 Jan 08 STS-123 Endeavour (Kibo ELM) 29 Feb 08 STS-124 Atlantis (Kibo PM) 10 Jul 08 STS-119 Endeavour (S6) 11 Sep 08 STS-125 Atlantis (Hubble SM-4) 9 Oct 08 STS-126 Discovery (ULF-2) Brian |
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