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ZL2VAL > SPACE 12.10.03 00:33l 101 Lines 4281 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 7616-ZL2VAL
Subj: Next Shuttle launch Sept 2004
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Sent: 031004/1838Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:27858 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g $:7616-ZL
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : SPACE@WW
Shuttle Return to Flight Now Targeted for September
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer,
Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 09:00 pm ET
03 October 2003
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- It will be at least another year before space
shuttles start flying again, NASA officials said Friday.
Managers had been targeting the March to April timeframe but are now
looking at dates between Sept. 12 and Oct. 10, 2004, and cautioned it's
very possible the launch could slip into 2005 due to the number of
modifications and repairs that still must be made to the shuttle fleet.
"I can almost guarantee that this is going to be a long, uphill climb
back to return to flight," Bill Readdy, NASA's spaceflight chief, told
reporters on Friday. "But I also would tell you that we're getting an
awful lot smarter about this and we're going to come back stronger and
safer as a result."
Efforts to develop hardware for repairing the shuttle heat protection
system in space remains one of the toughest technical challenges still
ahead, and possible additional inspections on Atlantis' nosecap also are
contributing to the change in launch dates.
Engineers are concerned about corrosion inside the nosecap, which is
made of the same reinforced carbon carbon material as the shuttle's wing
leading edges. The hardware was partially inspected in 1997 and fully
checked out in 1991, said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons.
Taking the nosecap off and sending it back to its vendor in Texas could
add weeks to the processing schedule. Inspecting the hardware at the
Kennedy Space Center might save time, but it's not clear how well the
work can be done in Florida.
But the complicating factor for selecting launch dates in the
post-Columbia era is the requirement to launch in daylight, have the
external tank separate from the shuttle in daylight and not violate
thermal constraints when a shuttle is docked to the International Space
Station.
The ISS thermal requirement has always been in place, but the daylight
rules have been added so that cameras can better record the launch and
tank separation. The images will be studied to check for damage to the
shuttle's heat shield.
Accomodating all of those variables is severely limiting the number of
days a space shuttle can launch each year. Identified launch periods now
include Sept. 16 to Oct. 11, 2004; Nov. 19-21, 2004; and Jan. 17-19, 2005.
"I think we have some opportunities, some small opportunities in
November, and possibly January and some other places," Parsons said.
"We're still refining those requirements."
In any case, program officials said they would complete all the
necessary work prescribed by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board
and then look up and see when the next launch date is available.
"We're going to be very much driven by the milestones and by the content
we have to accomplish here in terms of the testing of the robotic arm,
survey techniques, tile repair, modifications to the external tank --
all the testing that's required," Readdy said.
In addition to extending the shuttle return to flight timeline,
officials said they will be adding a new shuttle mission to the manifest.
The next flight, STS-114, originally was to be a space station supply
and crew rotation mission. Instead, STS-114 now is considered more of a
test flight that will demonstrate the new procedures and hardware
introduced in the wake of the Columbia tragedy.
To make up for some of the station resupply tasks that are being
offloaded from STS-114, NASA is adding STS-121 to the manifest and will
make that flight of Discovery the second to fly, possibly during the
November 2004 launch period.
==============================
73 de Alan
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world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that,
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