"On previous flights, we've had several indications exactly the same. We don't exactly understand what is going on. We think we're getting some thermal settling, or thermal deformation of the support structure to the wing leading edge. People don't feel like it was an impact because no other sensors around that area pick it up. There's no ringing of the structure at all, just kind of a little click."
After Atlantis undocks from the space station next week, the astronauts will conduct a now-standard "late" inspection of the shuttle's heat shield "and if there were anything in those areas we would pick it up," Shannon said.
5:50 PM, 6/12/07, Update: False fire alarm prompts quick action
Fire alarms tripped inside the Russian section of the international space station today, triggering emergency procedures and concern on the ground until the astronauts reported it was an apparent false alarm.
At 5:20 p.m., alarm tones could be heard on air-to-ground radio, prompting U.S. flight controllers to ask for a status report.
"We see the warning message, just looking for a status from you all," astronaut Megan McArthur radioed from Houston.
"Yeah, stand by, we have on the PCS (station computer system) right now says 'fire FGB,'" said Expedition 15 flight engineer Sunita Williams. "But stand by."
The FGB is also known as the Russian Zarya module, which sits between the U.S. Unity module and the Russian Zvezda command module. Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineer Oleg Kotov and Williams immediately began working through emergency procedures.
Moments later, astronaut Clay Anderson, Williams' replacement, called Houston to say the crew had "looked around, we smelled around" and there was no sign of any smoke or fire.
"ISS, we copy," McArthur said. "No evidence of visible smoke or fire and you think all is normal but you're still checking. We're standing by."
"We're working some recovery steps," Anderson said. "But it appears to be a software glitch. There is no fire."
A few moments later, Russian flight controllers agreed it was a false alarm.
"That is correct," one of the cosmonauts replied. "Just in case, after some time I'm going to double check. But it looks like it's (a) software problem."
2:03 PM, 6/12/07, Update: S4 solar array wings deployed
Two new solar array wings attached to the international space station Monday were slowly unfurled today, pulled from their storage boxes by self-assembling masts. Carried out in stages, the 15-foot-wide wings extended like giant window blinds, stretching 240 feet from tip to tip.
As the first array wing - S4-1A - deployed to its full length shortly before 12:30 p.m., the black-and-gold blankets rippled and gently oscillated back and forth as folded slats separated and were pulled taut.
"And Houston, ISS, we see 100 percent deploy on 1A," astronaut Jim Reilly radioed from the Destiny laboratory module.
Forty five minutes later, the other wing of the new array - S4-3A - was deployed, first to 49 percent and then, after a half-hour pause, to 100 percent. Again, there were no problems.
"Houston, ISS, we see a good deploy," Reilly confirmed when the second wing unfurled.
The new arrays, the first to be mounted on the right side of the station's main power truss will provide an additional 14 kilowatts of electricity to the lab complex, joining the identical P4 arrays mounted on the left side of the station.
A third set of arrays, known as P6, is mounted on top of the station at right angles to the power truss. P6 provided electricity to the U.S. section of the station during the initial stages of assembly and is in the process of being retracted so it can be moved to the left end of the power truss later this year.
One of the P6 wings - P6-4B - was retracted during a shuttle visit last December. Work to retract the P6-2B wing, which extends to the right side of the lab complex, will begin Wednesday. Based on problems retracting P6-4B, flight controllers have reserved time for possible spacewalk assists during EVAs Wednesday and Friday.
Today's deploy was carried out in stages to let the sun warm the blankets and thus prevent a phenomenon known as stiction.
During the deployment of the P6 arrays in 2000, engineers were surprised when several of the blanket panels emerged from the storage box stuck together. When they jerked free, a tensioning cable jumped its guides and required repairs on a subsequent spacewalk. For the second array's deployment, the crew let the sun warm up the array and deployed it in a so-called high-tension mode. That technique worked, and the array unfurled without incident.
The same technique was used last September for the P4 array wings and again today for S4.
Each side of the main power truss features a solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, designed to rotate the outboard arrays through 360 degrees to keep them roughly face-on to the sun as the station circles the planet.
The new right-side SARJ in the S3 truss segment can't rotate until the astronauts retract the remaining P6-2B array at least 19 mast bays to provide the necessary clearance. In order to move P6 to the left end of the main power truss, the mast must be retracted all the way.
9:52 AM, 6/12/07, Update: Crew awake; solar array deploy on tap
The Atlantis astronauts were awakened at 9:08 a.m. by a recording of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" beamed up from mission control. The crew plans to monitor the deployment of a new set of solar arrays they attached to the international space station Monday before enjoying a few hours of off-duty time later today.
The primary goal of near-term space station assembly is building out the station's main solar power truss to provide the electricity needed to support European and Japanese research modules. When completed, the truss will stretch more than 300 feet from tip to tip. Two huge solar arrays on each end of the truss will track the sun as the station circles the globe, rotating and changing pitch as required to maximize electrical generation.
The P3/P4 solar array truss segment was attached to the left side of the power truss last September. The other set of left-side arrays - P6 - was installed on top of the station in 2000 to provide power during the early stages of assembly. One of P6's two wings - P6-4B - was retracted during a shuttle mission last December. The other wing - P6-2B - will be retracted this week so the entire segment can be moved later this year to the left end of the main truss.
The Atlantis astronauts installed the first right-side set of arrays - S3/S4 - on Monday and will oversee the deployment of its two wings today.
Getting a head start, flight controllers sent commands overnight to open the solar array blanket boxes and to extend each solar array wing one mast bay. They will be fully extended later today, one at a time in a stepwise fashion, first to 49 percent and then to 100 percent with a half-hour gap in the middle of the sequence to permit the sun to warm up the blankets. The idea is to avoid a problem seen during the first array extensions in 2000 when blanket slats stuck together and caused problems.
"What happens is these panels tend to stick together and then as the mast is being deployed, the panels would release and they would do that fairly dynamically and you can see how there's a wave that propagates up and down the array and those panels towards the base moved quickly into the blanket box and that did cause some problems with the tensioning mechanism," station Flight Director Kelly Beck said of the first P6-2B extension in 2000. "The crew had to go outside during a spacewalk and correct it.
"So the new technique is designed to avoid that dynamic motion. Basically what we do is we deploy the array about halfway out, we let it sit with sun shining on the panels so those panels can warm up and as they warm up, they tend to release. And so we'll sit there for 30 minutes and let the panels release. We'll deploy the 1A array first to the halfway point, wait 30 minutes with sun on it and then complete the deploy of that array. It will be repositioned and we'll do a small attitude maneuver to get sun directly on the 3A array. It will be deployed halfway, same sequence, wait for 30 minutes to warm the panels and then complete the deploy."
The S4-1A mast will be extended to 49 percent starting at 11:43 a.m. and to 100 percent beginning at 12:23 p.m. The S4-3A mast will be extended half way starting at 1:13 p.m. Final extension to 100 percent is planned for 1:53 p.m.
Here is a timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes rev. D of the NASA TV sked):
EDT............DD...HH...MM...EVENT 06/12/07 09:08 AM...03...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup 10:00 AM...03...14...22...NASA Video File on NTV 10:38 AM...03...15...00...Station robot arm maneuver 11:43 AM...03...16...05...1A mast deploy to 49 percent 12:23 PM...03...16...45...1A mast deploy to 100 percent 01:00 PM...03...17...22...NASA Update with Mike Griffin on NTV 01:13 PM...03...17...35...3A mast deploy to 49 percent 01:23 PM...03...17...45...Spacesuit swap 01:53 PM...03...18...15...3A mast deploy to 100 percent 02:33 PM...03...18...55...Joint crew meal 03:33 PM...03...19...55...Crew off duty time 05:33 PM...03...21...55...Shuttle arm moves to P6-2B viewing point 05:58 PM...03...22...20...EVA-2: Tools configured 06:00 PM...03...22...22...Mission status briefing on NTV 06:03 PM...03...22...25...Station arm work site 2 translation 07:03 PM...03...23...25...Equipment lock preps 09:13 PM...04...01...35...CBS News crew interview on NTV 09:33 PM...04...01...55...EVA-2: Procedures review 10:18 PM...04...02...40...Mobile transporter moves from WS-2 to WS-3 11:23 PM...04...03...45...EVA-2: Mask prebreathe and tool config 06/13/07 12:18 AM...04...04...40...EVA-2: Crew lock to 10.2 psi 12:38 AM...04...05...00...ISS crew sleep begins 01:08 AM...04...05...30...STS crew sleep begins"Every person on the crew will have a role because there are a number of things that weÕll be watching for," Reilly said in a NASA interview. "As the solar arrays unfurl, after we initiate the drive command and as these are unfurling, they basically just, as if you had folded up a piece of paper back and forth, we just basically unfurl the whole solar array in that way. But as itÕs unfurling thereÕs a, occasionally the panels that will tend to stick a little bit because theyÕve been boxed up now for quite some time; but as they unfurl theyÕll start to unstick and jostle themselves a little bit, which is normal.
"But what weÕll be watching for are those that might stick a little bit harder than what we expect, and so we have what are called the tension reels, so weÕll have two of our people on the crew that are going to be watching the tension reels the whole time during the deploy. ThereÕll be two of the other folks that will be then counting the individual bays, because we deploy out about halfway, to about 49 percent of the deploy, and then we stop and let sun basically heat up the components so that we donÕt hit a high-tension condition.
"The problem there is if we hit a high-tension condition then these tension reels could lose their tension on the wires that actually hold everything in position. If thatÕs the case, then we would have to go out and do an EVA so weÕre going to be watching that very carefully. The ground will then leave this at 50 percent for one day-cycle, and then we come back once we hit another day pass, then we will then deploy the solar arrays out the rest of the way to the 100 percent.
"Things we'll be watching for are the tension reels, as I mentioned, but weÕll also be watching a tension bar thatÕs at the base of the solar panel itself, and weÕll be watching to make sure that is basically not moving until we get to the very last panels, and when we start pulling them out to final tension, then that bar at the base will actually separate about 22 inches. Those are the things that weÕll be watching for. But, for the most part, itÕs really just making sure everything just deploys nominally and just in a nice, orderly sequence, nothing sticking, and nothingÕs really trying to jerk too much tension on the mechanisms and the base of the solar array blanket box."
During the P3/P4 attachment last September, the port-side solar alpha rotary joint was configured for operation before the extension of the two SAWs. That was because the P4 arrays had to be rotated before their cooling radiator could be deployed. That is not necessary for the S3/S4 segments, so the crew is reversing that sequence, deploying the new SAWs and radiator first before completing SARJ activation during their second spacewalk on flight day six.
10:22 PM, 6/11/07, Update: Spacewalk ends; all objectives met; solar array extension on tap Tuesday
Astronauts Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas successfully hooked up a $367 million set of solar arrays today, routing power to the new truss segment, releasing numerous launch locks, installing braces and rotating the array canisters into their normal position for deployment Tuesday.
They also released latches allowing a folding radiator panel to extend as required.
The spacewalk, the 84th devoted to station assembly and maintenance, started at 4:02 p.m. and ended at 10:17 p.m. for a duration of six hours and 15 minutes, boosting the cumulative space station EVA time to 515 hours and 20 minutes. Three more spacewalks are planned: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
"Hey, thanks for the help on the ground, you guys," Reilly radioed from the Quest airlock module.
Reilly and Olivas got off to a late start, delayed about an hour when flight controllers had to reset the station's stabilizing gyroscopes. But once outside the Quest airlock, the spacewalkers sailed through a long list of solar array outfitting tasks with only a handful of minor problems. All their objectives were met.
The new S4 solar arrays feature two folding blankets of solar cells that are pulled out by telescoping central masts. When fully extended, the arrays stretch 240 feet from tip to tip.
Overnight, flight controllers plan to open the S4 blanket boxes and extend each mast one bay to allow sunlight to warm the arrays. Tomorrow, the astronauts will oversee the full extension of the panels. During a spacewalk Wednesday, astronauts Steve Swanson and Patrick Forrester will complete activation of a rotary joint in the S3 truss segment that will turn the outboard arrays to keep them face-on to the sun.
9:12 PM, 6/11/07, Update: Shuttle mission extended two days; fourth spacewalk added; blanket repair ordered
NASA's Mission Management Team decided today to extend the shuttle Atlantis' mission by two days and to add a fourth spacewalk Sunday. That will give the astronauts enough time to complete their space station assembly tasks and fix a pulled-up insulation blanket on one of the ship's aft rocket pods. Flight controllers plan to make a decision Tuesday on whether to add the blanket repair to the third or fourth spacewalk.
"Based on our analysis today, we have upped our desire to fix this," said John Shannon, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team. "We were looking at flight history, saying this doesn't look like a big deal. Then you go look at your analysis tools and say hey, I could really damage the top surface of my structure and I sure don't want to do that. So let's go have a good effort to repair it before we come home."
Landing at the Kennedy Space Center now is targeted for around 1:54 p.m. on June 21.
The protruding insulation was spotted by the shuttle astronauts during a routine post-launch payload bay survey using the shuttle's robot arm. A camera on the arm spotted a triangular 4-inch by 6-inch corner of a two-inch-thick insulation blanket that was sticking up and bent back. Engineers later concluded air rushing over the rocket pod during the shuttle 's climb out of the lower atmosphere worked its way into a corner or seam and peeled the blanket back.
The concern is that hot air during re-entry could damage the underlying graphite epoxy structure of the left-side Orbital Maneuvering System rocket pod. During the 15 minutes or so of peak heating, the temperatures on the OMS pods reach 700 to 1,000 degree Fahrenheit. While engineers do not view this as a life-or-death sort of problem - shuttles have safely returned to Earth with much more serious OMS pod damage - there are enough unknowns to prompt caution.
"We have limitations in our ability to analyze this," Shannon said. "You're going to have a temperature that exceeds that top face coat capability. How long it would take to completely erode is very questionable, no one could give me that answer. So the right answer here, the better part of valor, was to go and put it down and secure it."
At the extreme altitude of peak heating, there is little aerodynamic pressure, Shannon said, and simply folding the corner back down and tucking it in might be sufficient. Engineers are still assessing techniques for securing the blanket if necessary.
Engineers used post-Columbia software to model what might happen if the blanket ripped away during the later stages of the descent, when the airflow is stronger, and concluded it would not hit the shuttle.
As it turns out the material used in the blanket will make the fix relatively straight forward.
"If you take this blanket and you pull it up like the wind is hitting it, it'll stay up like that," Shannon said. "It's got some memory. But when you push it back down, it stays down. That's something we're kind of counting on. We think the astronauts will be able to go out there and just push this right back down. They're working right now different ways to attach it to the blanket that's laying beside it or maybe to attach it to the tile face that's in front of it."
The repair work is expected to take 90 minutes to two hours to complete. An astronaut, his feet anchored to an extension on the end of the shuttle's robot arm, will be maneuvered back to the left-side OMS pod and push the flap down.
It may be possible to attempt the repair during the crew's third spacewalk Friday, but that would require a major push to complete the procedures in time.
By adding a fourth spacewalk, mission managers can preserve their options for dealing with the blanket and any problems that might develop later this week when flight controllers attempt to retract the P6-2B solar array.
The P6 arrays provided the initial power to U.S. modules during the early phases of construction. Now, P6 needs to be retracted, moved out to its permanent location on the left end of the station's main solar power truss and re-extended.
Shuttle astronauts ran into major problems retracting the P6-4B solar blanket last December and the Atlantis astronauts may have similar problems with the P6-2B wing that is still extended. Flight controllers will begin retraction procedures Wednesday and astronauts Steve Swanson and Patrick Forrester will be standing by to assist if necessary.
Additional P6-2B retraction time is built into a third spacewalk Friday. With the decision to fix the pulled-up blanket, NASA managers opted to add a fourth spacewalk to ensure enough EVA time is available to handle the repair and any problems that might crop up during the P6 retraction.
"It was a very easy decision," Shannon said.
He added that engineers have completed their initial assessment of Atlantis' nose cap, wing leading edge panels and heat shield tiles and found no other issues that require any attention.
4:12 PM, 6/11/07, Update: Spacewalk begins
Astronauts Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas (prono: oh-LEE-vus) switched their spacesuits to internal battery power at 4:02 p.m. to officially begin a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The goal of the excursion is to electrically connect a newly attached solar array truss segment to the station's power systemn and to remove a variety of launch locks and restraints so the huge blankets can be unfurled Tuesday.
This is the 84th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the seventh so far this year and the first of at least three EVAs by the Atlantis astronauts. It is the first spacewalk for Olivas and the third for Reilly.
"It's beautiful out here," Olivas marveled as he floated out of the Quest airlock module.
Reilly and Olivas began today's spacewalk an hour and six minutes late because of work needed to reset the space station's control moment gyroscopes earlier in the truss attachment sequence.
Here is an updated timeline of today's activities based on the actual start time of the EVA (in EDT and elapsed time; subject to change):
EDT........HH...MM...EVENT 04:02 PM...00...00...Post Depress 04:12 PM...00...10...Airlock egress 04:27 PM...00...25...Reilly: Connect S1-S3 nadir electrical cables 04:47 PM...00...45...Olivas: Release solar array blanket box restraints 05:02 PM...01...00...Reilly: S3 computer shroud removal 05:32 PM...01...30...Reilly: Connect S1-S3 zenith electrical cables 06:02 PM...02...00...Reilly: Keel pin rotate 06:32 PM...02...30...Reilly: Release solar panel gimbal assembly 06:47 PM...02...45...Olivas: Release radiator locks 07:12 PM...03...10...Reilly: Unstow forward solar array blanket box 07:17 PM...03...15...Olivas: Unstow aft solar array blanket box 07:32 PM...03...30...Reilly: Install rotary joint drive motor (1 of 2) 07:37 PM...03...35...Olivas: Remove unneeded insulation blankets 08:07 PM...04...05...Olivas: Rigidize internal truss braces 08:32 PM...04...30...Reilly: Remove rotary joint launch locks 08:47 PM...04...45...Olivas: Remove rotary joint launch locks 09:47 PM...05...45...Cleanup and ingress 10:27 PM...06...25...Airlock repressurizationSee the 9:17 a.m. status report below for a detailed spacewalk overview.
3:39 PM, 6/11/07, Update: S3/S4 bolted to station power truss; spacewalk on tap
Running about an hour behind schedule, the Atlantis astronauts successfully bolted a new 36,000-pound solar array truss and rotary joint to the international space station today, setting the stage for a spacewalk by Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas to activate and outfit the new equipment.
Shuttle pilot Lee Archambault, operating the space station's Canadian-built robot arm, eased the huge truss segment into place for an initial capture around 2:27 p.m. A large claw on the outboard end of the existing S1 truss then rotated and locked onto a capture bar in the S3 segment.
As the claw pulled the S3/S4 segments in tight, alignment guides ensured four motorized bolts lined up properly. By 3:11 p.m., three of the bolts had been successfully driven home - a requirement for pressing ahead with today's spacewalk - and Archambault, operating the robot arm, released the now-firmly-attached truss. The fourth bolt was in place by 3:38 p.m.
The work ran about an hour behind schedule after the space station's control moment gyroscopes became "saturated," losing their ability to maintain the station's orientation. This is a routine issue with gyroscope systems and after using the shuttle's thrusters to maintain control, the station gyros were reset and able to resume control.
Reilly and Olivas are suited up in the station's Quest airlock module. Today's spacewalk originally was scheduled to begin at 2:58 p.m., but it was delayed, along with truss attachment, by the gyro problem. As of 3:34 p.m., the crew was preparing to depressurizing the airlock, which would result in a spacewalk start time of around 4:10 p.m.
9:17 AM, 6/11/07, Update: Astronauts gear up for spacewalk, solar array install
The Atlantis astronauts are gearing up to attach a 36,000-pound solar array truss segment to the international space station today. Once the stowed arrays are in place, astronauts Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas plan to stage a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to make critical electrical connections and remove a variety of launch locks and restraints to prepare the new solar blankets for extension Tuesday.
Reilly and Olivas spent the night sealed up in the space station's Quest airlock module as part of a new "camp out" procedure. The airlock's pressure was lowered from 14.2 pounds per square inch to 10.2 psi to help the spacewalkers purge nitrogen from their blood and prevent the bends when working in their 5-psi spacesuits.
"Flight day four is really the big day where station is going to take on a new look," said Kelly Beck, lead space station flight director. "When the crew wakes up on flight day four, they're going to begin their robotics and EVA preparation activities. The airlock will be repressurized, that'll allow JR and Danny to get out, do their morning routine, grab some breakfast, go back inside and then they'll be assisted ... to get them suited up. In the meantime, while they're getting ready for their spacewalk, Bru (shuttle pilot Lee Archambault) and Suni (station astronaut Sunita Williams) will be performing their robotic operations to install the truss."
The $367 million S3/S4 truss segment was pulled out of Atlantis' cargo bay shortly after docking Sunday and "parked" overnight on the end of the space station's arm. This morning, working inside the Destiny laboratory module, Archambault and Williams will use the Canadian arm to move S3/S4 up to the right end of the station's main power truss, a segment known as S1 (an originally planned S2 segment is no longer in the station architecture).
"On the morning of flight day 4 weÕre going to start our space station robotic arm operations by performing an automated maneuver, takes about 40 or so minutes, to put it in a pre-install position which is approximately a meter and a half from the S1 truss," Archambault said. "In between that meter and a half and actually installing it, weÕre going to pause for a few moments at around 45 centimeters, to allow our Space Vision System to go ahead and give me a an updated depiction of my exact position with respect to the S1 truss, and be able to install this thing within a one or two centimeter tolerance."
The Space Vision System uses television cameras and powerful software to measure the precise locations of large black dots attached to the truss elements. The SVS software computes the relative positions of the dots to give the arm operator very precise distance and orientation information. Temperature effects can cause distortions of up to five inches and misalignments of 1 to 2 degrees. The SVS helps compensate for any such effects.
Once S1 and S3 are in close proximity, a large claw on the S1 truss will rotate around a capture bar on the S3 segment to pull the two together. Four motorized bolts on S1 then will drive into attachment fittings on S3, firmly locking the two truss elements together.
At that point, Reilly and Olivas, now suited up in the Quest airlock, will float out into space and begin the first of two critical spacewalks to hook up and activate S3/S4.
For identification, Reilly's call sign is EV-1 and his suit features red stripes around the legs. Olivas is EV-2 and his suit has no markings. Here is an updated timeline of today's activities (in EDT and mission elapsed time):
Abbreviations:
EV1: Jim Reilly
EV2: Danny Olivas
SSRMS: Space station remote manipulator system
S1: Current right side solar array truss segment
S3: New right side truss segment with rotary joint
S4: New solar arrays (panels 1A and 3A)
MDM: Multiplexer-Demultiplexer computer
SABB: Solar array blanket box
SABGA: Solar array beta gimbal assembly (changes pitch of solar array panel)
SARJ: Solar alpha rotary joint (rotates outboard solar arrays)
DLA: Drive lock assembly (SARJ drive motor)
AJIS struts: Alpha joint interface structure (internal braces)
DAY/EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT Mon 09:08 AM...02...13...30...STS crew wakeup Mon 09:38 AM...02...14...00...EV1/EV2 wakeup Mon 10:00 AM...02...14...22...NASA Video File on NTV Mon 10:13 AM...02...14...35...MCC: S3 activation begins Mon 10:18 AM...02...14...40...EVA-1: 14.7 psi airlock repress Mon 10:33 AM...02...14...55...EVA-1: Hygiene break Mon 11:08 AM...02...15...30...EVA-1: Crew airlock depress to 10.2 psi Mon 11:08 AM...02...15...30...Station robot arm (SSRMS) S3/S4 install Mon 11:48 AM...02...16...10...EVA-1: Campout EVA preps Mon 12:53 PM...02...17...15...S3/S4 maneuver to ready to latch position Mon 01:18 PM...02...17...40...EVA-1: Spacesuit purge Mon 01:33 PM...02...17...55...EVA-1: Spacesuit prebreathe Mon 01:43 PM...02...18...05...S3 truss bolted to S1 truss Mon 02:23 PM...02...18...45...SSRMS ungrapples S3/S4 Mon 02:23 PM...02...18...45...EVA-1: Crew airlock depressurization Mon 02:38 PM...02...19...00...SSRMS moves to park position for EVA-1 Mon 02:58 PM...02...19...20...EVA-1: Airlock egress Mon 03:18 PM...02...19...40...SSRMS support Mon 03:18 PM...02...19...40...EVA-1: EV1: Connect S1-S3 nadir utilities Mon 03:38 PM...02...20...00...EVA-1: EV2: Release aft-fwd solar array blanket box restraints Mon 03:48 PM...02...20...10...EVA-1: EV1: S3 MDM shroud removal Mon 04:13 PM...02...20...35...ISS: Sokol suit pressure checks Mon 04:23 PM...02...20...45...EVA-1: EV1: Connect S1-S3 zenith utilities Mon 04:53 PM...02...21...15...EVA-1: EV1: Keel pin rotate Mon 05:23 PM...02...21...45...EVA-1: EV1: Release 1A-3A SABGA restraint Mon 05:38 PM...02...22...00...EVA-1: EV2: Release radiator restraints Mon 06:03 PM...02...22...25...EVA-1: EV1: Unstow forward SABB Mon 06:08 PM...02...22...30...EVA-1: EV2: Unstow aft SABB Mon 06:23 PM...02...22...45...EVA-1: EV1: Install SARJ DLA 2 Mon 06:28 PM...02...22...50...EVA-1: EV2: Remove MLI insulation Mon 06:58 PM...02...23...20...EVA-1: EV2: Rigidize AJIS struts (4) Mon 07:23 PM...02...23...45...EVA-1: EV1: Remove SARJ launch locks Mon 07:23 PM...02...23...45...Photo-voltaic radiator deploy Mon 07:38 PM...03...00...00...EVA-1: EV2: Remove SARJ launch locks Mon 08:38 PM...03...01...00...EVA-1: Cleanup and ingress Mon 09:23 PM...03...01...45...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization Mon 09:38 PM...03...02...00...Spacesuit servicing Mon 11:00 PM...03...03...22...Mission status briefing on NTV 06/12/07 Tue 01:08 AM...03...05...30...ISS crew sleep begins Tue 01:08 AM...03...05...30...STS crew sleep begins Tue 02:00 AM...03...06...22...Daily video highlights reel on NTV Tue 04:23 AM...03...08...45...MCC: S4-1A solar array mast deploy (1 bay) Tue 07:33 AM...03...11...55...MCC: S4-3A solar array mast deploy (1 bay) Tue 06:30 AM...03...10...52...Flight director update on NTVThe S3 truss segment features the right-side solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, which is equipped with two redundant motors that drive a large gear to slowly spin the outboard solar arrays so they can stay roughly face on to the sun as the station flies through each 90 minute orbit. Power from the arrays, along with data and computer commands, passes through the center of the SARJ without regard to orientation.
Before the SARJ can be activated, both motors, called drive lock assemblies, must be manually engaged and then precisely positioned by flight controllers to ensure the drive teeth mesh properly with the main gear. Braces must be positioned, launch locks and thermal shrouds removed, along with a keel pin used to help mount the S3/S4 truss segments in the shuttle's cargo bay. Work to rig the SARJ for operation will be spread over two spacewalks.
The S4 segment features two solar array wings folded into shallow "blanket boxes" for launch. The mast canisters and blanket boxes must be deployed and restraints removed before the arrays can be deployed Tuesday, stretching some 240 feet from tip to tip. The blankets are extended by a self-erecting central masts made up of 31 "bays," each one measuring about 40 inches deep. Boeing is the prime contractor for the S3/S4 truss segment while Lockheed Martin built the included SAWS.
"First thing that they'll be doing is mate the umbilical connections to provide power and commands to the components on the truss and also receive data from those components," Beck said. "The next thing they'll be doing is preparing the solar arrays for deploy. They'll first release the restraints so that the mast canisters, the circular canisters that house the masts, the central structural member, they'll deploy those into position and then they'll release the restraints on the boxes containing the solar array blankets and they'll swing those out into position in preparation for deploy the following day.
"The crew will also release the restraints on the radiator so it can be deployed later on in the EVA," she said. "They will start the preparation tasks for the solar alpha rotary joint. They'll be repositioning four struts that provide additional structural integrity to maintain, to take the on orbit loads. They'll also be positioning one of the drive lock assemblies, this is the mechanism that rotates the joint and also locks the joint when it becomes operational. And they'll start to remove the launch locks. So they'll get a good head start getting the SARJ prepped for its operational state."
Reilly will exit the Quest airlock module first, making his way across a spur to the S0 truss atop the Destiny module and from there out to the S1 segment where he will hook up two 85-foot-long safety tethers. At that point, Olivas will venture outside.
"Now the way it works out in our EVA is that Jim Reilly kind of has all the real estate on the front side of the truss segment, and I have all the real estate on the back side," Olivas said. "One of the first things that happens after the installation has occurred, we have to basically start putting keep-alive power to all the subsystems on S3/S4."
Reilly will make the electrical connections between S1 and S3, hooking up six cables near the upper part of the S1/S3 interface and seven in a lower utility tray.
"While Jim Reilly takes care of that, my primary responsibility will be to start to get the solar array blanket boxes in from their stowed configuration, get them ready for the deployed configuration. We have a variety of restraints on those boxes that we'll have to pop off and get them ready. I'll do that for both the front side and the back side, the 1A and the 3A side.
"After that's complete my next major task is to go down and reconfigure the photovoltaic radiator, which is just a giant radiator that radiates the heat being generated by the electrical power system on the S4 segment out to space. My job is to go down there on the bottom side of the truss, the nadir side of the truss. A variety of cinches and winches keep it in the compressed configuration. My job is to get those fully deployed, get them opened up, and get it configured so that it can be commanded into the deployed configuration."
Toward the end of the spacewalk, the astronauts inside the station will send commands to deploy the folding radiator needed to keep the S4 array's electronics cool during normal operation. The radiator measures 44 feet long and 12 feet wide.
Overnight, flight controllers will send commands to deploy the new arrays one mast bay to help warm the blankets up. On Tuesday the astronauts will fully extend both panels.
8:33 PM, 6/10/07, Update: Shannon says spacewalkers may be asked to tap down protruding insulation blanket
Concern about possible re-entry heat damage to the underlying structure of the shuttle Atlantis' left-side maneuvering rocket pod under a pulled-up insulation blanket may prompt a simple spacewalk repair job, the chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team said today.
The front edge of the blanket in question apparently pulled away from adjacent heat-shield tiles by the swift flow of air passing over it during the early stages of launch Friday.
John Shannon told reporters that engineers studying the protruding triangular 4-inch by 6-inch blanket are concerned about the possible effects of re-entry heating on the graphite epoxy honeycomb structure of the shuttle's left Orbital Maneuvering System pod.
Shuttles have safely returned to Earth on several occasions with broken or lost tiles and lost blankets on the OMS pods. But in some cases, the underlying structure was damaged and required repairs.
"We have actually damaged that on several of those flights where you had some heat effects," Shannon said. "When we talked to the engineering guys and the structural team, they were a little bit uncomfortable today. And the reason they were uncomfortable was because if you get down to that honeycomb, that structural area, you're losing some margin, you're not exactly in the flight parameters you expect to go fly."
He said it was difficult to accurately predict what sort of damage might occur because engineers cannot tell how much underlying insulation might have pulled away with the blanket.
"Because we do not want to damage flight hardware, we sent off a (team of engineers) to work with the EVA, the spacewalk team, to go assess some options. The simplest is we would just tuck that blanket back down and fill that cavity back up. And they're talking about different ways to maybe secure it.
"We did not judge what the right answer was, we're going to let that spacewalk team go off and assess that and they'll come back to me tomorrow and lay out options, pros and cons, and then we'll decide A) if we want to do anything with this blanket and then if we do want to do something, what is the right course of action."
During the region of peak heating, the upper surfaces of the OMS pods experience 700 to 1,000 degree Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes. During that period, the shuttle is at such high altitudes that very little aerodynamic pressure is present.
"You have the heating of the vehicle in this area that goes up and is significant for 15- to 20-minute period of time but you really don't have any aerodynamic loads on it at that time, it's very, very low dynamic pressure on that blanket area," Shannon said. "So after you get through the high heating area, then you start to pick up aerodynamic loads.
"What does that mean to you? Well, what it means is whatever condition you start re-entry in with that cavity, or that blanket, it's going to pretty much stay in that configuration throughout the high-heating time frame. Then it might change, it might pull up more, whatever, in a time when you don't really care very much."
Shannon said he was not leaning one way or the other toward ordering a repair, saying "tomorrow I'll have a better idea of what the different options are."
But a few minutes later he said, "I think after seeing the effect on the graphite epoxy honeycomb on some (past flights) I'm leaning may be a little bit toward doing it, but we have to hear what the options are."
Because engineers don't know exactly what sort of heat damage to expect, "I would just like to kind of avoid that whole scenario altogether and tuck that blanket back down. And I'm expecting the team to come in and give me some ideas of how to do that and then we'll see where it fits in the timeline. If we can accommodate it, I think that's probably what we'll do."
The Atlantis astronauts plan spacewalks Monday, Wednesday and Friday to activate and configure a new solar array and to carry out a variety of other tasks. If a repair job is added, it likely would occur during the third spacewalk, after the high-priority work to complete the activation of the new solar arrays.
3:50 PM, 6/10/07, Update: Atlantis docks with space station (UPDATED at 5:30 p.m. with hatch opening; UPDATED at 8 p.m. with comments from flight director, MMT chairman)
Commander Rick Sturckow guided the shuttle Atlantis to a picture-perfect docking with the international space station today after a dramatic end-over-end flip across the heart of South America to let the station crew photograph the shuttle's fragile heat shield. After a brief welcome-aboard ceremony and a safety briefing by station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin,
Using a joystick on the shuttle's aft flight deck, Sturckow deftly closed out a trouble-free two-day rendezvous with a gentle docking at 3:36 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed high above the east coast of Australia northeast of Sydney.
"ISS and Houston, from Atlantis. Capture confirmed," a shuttle astronaut radioed as the docking systems engaged. A few minutes later, hooks and latches were activated to firmly pull the two spacecraft together. After leak checks to make sure the interface is airtight, hatches were opened and the station crew will welcome their shuttle colleagues aboard a few minutes past 5 p.m.
"Atlantis. Arriving," station flier Sunita Williams said, following naval tradition and ringing the ship's bell in the Destiny laboratory module. The shuttle crew then floated into the station to hugs, smiles and handshakes.
Running three months late because of hail damage to the shuttle's external fuel tank, Atlantis brought two welcome additions to the international lab complex: A $367 million set of solar panels and a fresh crew member - Clay Anderson - to replace Williams.
Launched to the outpost last December aboard shuttle Discovery, Williams will set a new space endurance record for female astronauts and cosmonauts when she lands aboard Atlantis June 19 after 192 days off planet.
"Great job today, Atlantis, on the rendezvous," astronaut Terry Virts radioed from mission control. "Very nice approach. And welcome to your new home, Clay."
"Thanks a lot, Houston," Sturckow replied.
Lead flight director Cathy Koerner was elated.
"What a great day to be in the space business," she told reporters later. "We had just a picture-perfect rendezvous and docking today and I could not have asked for smoother operations between the flight control team and the crew on orbit. We made this look easy. To put that in perspective for you, on how not easy it really is, we took a quarter-million-pound vehicle today and we connected it with about a half-million-pound (space station) and we did all that at 17,500 mph."
Today's rendezvous and docking included a now-routine but nonetheless spectacular rotational pitch maneuver, or RPM, a key element in NASA's post-Columbia focus on assessing the health of the orbiter's heat shield before a crew commits to re-entry.
Spectacular video beamed down from the space station showed Atlantis performing a graceful pirouette 600 feet directly below the laboratory, a slow-motion back flip against the backdrop of the Brazilian rain forest racing past 220 miles below.
There were no obvious signs of anything unusual, but engineers are just beginning their assessment of zoomed-in digital photographs shot by station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov.
"Right now, the team is looking at the approach photography that you saw the station crew take," said John Shannon, chairman of NASA's mission management team. "I was just up in the imagery lab and nothing really jumped out at us."
Engineers plan to work through the night to analyze the photos and determine whether any additional inspections might be needed.
After completing the pitch maneuver, Sturckow piloted Atlantis in a slow loop up to a point about 300 feet directly in front of the station with the shuttle's nose pointing toward deep space and its open payload bay toward a docking port on the front of the Destiny laboratory module.
From there, he flew the shuttle straight in for docking.
On most flights, rendezvous and docking would be the highlight of a busy day in space. But for Atlantis' crew, docking kicked off an equally busy afternoon of work to pull the 36,000-pound S3/S4 solar array truss segment from the shuttle's cargo bay so it can be handed off to the station's robot arm and safely "parked" overnight.
The massive segment will be attached to the right side of the station's main power truss on Monday just before the start of a spacewalk by Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas to make critical electrical connections and prepare the new arrays for deployment Tuesday. Once extended, the panels will stretch 240 feet from tip to tip.
An identical set of arrays was attached to the left side of the main power truss last September. The new arrays, and the relocation of a third set of solar panels later this year, are required to generate the power needed to support the long-awaited delivery of European and Japanese research modules late this year and early next.
Atlantis' crew plans spacewalks Monday, Wednesday and Friday to complete the outfitting and activation of the new S3/S4 solar array segment and to perform a variety of other assembly tasks. They also will assist, if necessary, work to retract the P6-2B solar panel so the arrays can be moved to the left end of the power truss later this year.
One wild card in the crew's flight plan is what, if anything, NASA managers might decide to do about a pulled-up insulation blanket on the upper section of Atlantis' left-side Orbital Maneuvering System rocket pod. Engineers have not yet completed their assessment of the blanket or what techniques spacewalking astronauts might employ to address the problem.
1:14 PM, 6/10/07, Update: Shuttle begins final approach phase
Trailing the international space station by about 9 miles, shuttle commander Rick Sturckow fired Atlantis' left-side maneuvering rocket today at 1:01 p.m. to begin the final phase of a two-day orbital chase that began with blastoff Friday. If all goes well, Sturckow, flying Atlantis from the aft flight deck, will guide the shuttle to a docking at pressurized mating adaptor No. 2 on the forward end of the Destiny laboratory module around 3:39 p.m.
But first, space station skipper Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov plan to photograph the shuttle's heat shield with powerful digital cameras to help engineers in Houston assess the health of the tiles and blankets that protect the orbiter during re-entry.
Positioned 600 feet directly below the space station, Sturckow plans to pitch the shuttle's nose up through a 360-degree flip known as a rotational (or rendezvous) pitch maneuver that will expose the belly of the orbiter to the station's cameras.
The RPM, scheduled to begin around 2:38 p.m., has turned out to be one of the most effective techniques yet developed to characterize the condition of critical tiles on the underside of the shuttle that are exposed to ice and foam debris during launch.
Once the pitch maneuver is complete, Sturckow will fly Atlantis up to a point about 310 feet directly in front of the station with the shuttle's tail pointed toward Earth and its open payload bay facing PMA-2. From that point, it will take about 40 minutes or so to move in for docking.
The linkup is the first of three major items in today's flight plan. The astronauts also plan to use Atlantis' robot arm to pull a 36,000-pound set of solar arrays out of the shuttle's cargo bay so it can be handed off to the station's arm for installation Monday.
While that work is going on, Atlantis astronaut Clay Anderson will join Yurchikhin and Kotov as a member of the Expedition 15 crew while Sunita Williams, who was launched to the station last December aboard shuttle Atlantis, will take his place on the shuttle crew.
4:00 AM, 6/10/07, Update: Shuttle Atlantis closes in on space station
The shuttle Atlantis is closing in on the international space station today for a long-awaited linkup to deliver a new crew member and a $367 million set of solar arrays. The new arrays are needed to boost the lab's power and help pave the way for arrival of European and Japanese research modules late this year and early next.
Shuttle commander Rick Sturckow will fly a standard rendezvous profile, approaching the lab complex from behind and below. The terminal phase of the rendezvous procedure begins with a critical rocket firing at 1 p.m. At that point, the shuttle will be trailing the space station by about 9.2 miles.
On final approach, at a distance of about 600 feet directly below the station on an imaginary line known as the R-bar, Sturckow will guide Atlantis through a slow end-over-end flip known as a rotational (or rendezvous) pitch maneuver. The RPM maneuver will take about nine minutes to complete - three quarters of a degree per second - allowing the station crew to photograph the shuttle's belly with video and digital cameras equipped with 400-mm and 800-mm telephoto lenses.
The idea is to document the condition of the shuttle's fragile heat shield tiles so engineers at the Johnson Space Center can determine if any impact damage might have occurred during launch Friday. The RPM is one of the most effective post-Columbia techniques for spotting critical damage that might pose a threat during re-entry.
An ongoing analysis of launch-day video and a detailed inspection of the shuttle nose cap and wing leading edge panels Saturday is not yet complete. But so far, there are no indications of any debris impacts from the shuttle's external tank that might cause problems during re-entry.
The most significant anomaly to this point is a 4-inch by 6-inch triangular section of insulation blanket that somehow got pulled up during launch. The blanket is located on the upper surface of Atlantis' left side Orbital Maneuvering System rocket pod.
"There's not a great deal of concern over it right now, but there's a lot of work to be done and we'll do that in the coming days," John Shannon, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said Saturday.
Temperatures on the upper surfaces of the OMS pods reach 1,000 degrees in places. On the nose cap and wing leading edge panels, it exceeds 3,000 degrees.
The astronauts inspected the nose cap and reinforced carbon carbon leading edge panels Saturday. During final approach to the space station today, Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov will photograph the shuttle's belly as Sturckow guides the ship through the RPM.
"We'll basically fly up the R-bar and then we will look to stop our approach around 600 feet, and we'll do a full 360-degree pivot while the station crew takes photographs of the underside of the space shuttle Atlantis," Sturckow said in a NASA interview.
Kotov will snap 800-mm photos while Yurchikhin will handle the 400-mm lens. The pictures and video will be downlinked later in the day.
With the R-bar pitch maneuver complete, Sturckow will fly Atlantis through a slow quarter-loop to a point about 400 feet directly in front of the station with the shuttle's tail pointed toward Earth and its open payload bay pointed toward pressurized mating adapter No. 2 on the front of the Destiny laboratory module. From there, flying the shuttle from the aft flight deck, Sturckow will manually guide Atlantis to a precision docking.
Here is a timeline of today's activities, including highlights from NASA's television schedule (revision C); in EDT and mission elapsed time. NOTE: NASA rounds down when producing its television schedule. Docking, for example, is predicted to occur at a mission elapsed time of one day 20 hours zero minutes and 40 seconds, or 3:38:40 p.m. In the chart below, that is rounded up to 3:39 p.m. while NASA's TV schedule rounds it down to 3:38 p.m.
EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 06/10/07 09:08 AM...01...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup 10:23 AM...01...14...45...Group B computer powerup 10:38 AM...01...15...00...Rendezvous timeline begins 11:28 AM...01...15...50...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing 12:38 PM...01...16...60...Middeck prepped for docking 12:48 PM...01...17...10...Spacesuit removal 01:01 PM...01...17...23...TI BURN 01:05 PM...01...17...27...ISS in attitude 01:25 PM...01...17...47...ISS in proximity operations mode 01:37 PM...01...17...59...Sunset 01:59 PM...01...18...21...Range: 10,000 feet 02:03 PM...01...18...25...Sunrise 02:08 PM...01...18...30...Range: 5,000 feet 02:09 PM...01...18...31...U.S. 2A, 4A arrays feathered 02:13 PM...01...18...35...Range: 3,000 feet 02:17 PM...01...18...39...MC-4 rendezvous burn 02:21 PM...01...18...43...Range: 1,500 feet 02:22 PM...01...18...44...RPM start window open 02:26 PM...01...18...48...Range: 1,000 feet 02:29 PM...01...18...51...KU antenna to low power 02:30 PM...01...18...52...+R bar arrival directly below ISS 02:35 PM...01...18...57...Noon 02:36 PM...01...18...58...Range: 600 feet 02:38 PM...01...19...00...Start pitch maneuver 02:39 PM...01...19...01...P6-Sb array feathered 02:41 PM...01...19...03...RPM full photo window close 02:46 PM...01...19...08...End pitch maneuver 02:48 PM...01...19...10...Initiate pitch up maneuver 02:49 PM...01...19...11...RPM start window close 03:00 PM...01...19...22...+V bar arrival; range: 310 feet 03:00 PM...01...19...22...Russian arrays feathered 03:00 PM...01...19...22...Range: 300 feet 03:05 PM...01...19...27...Range: 250 feet 03:08 PM...01...19...30...Sunset 03:09 PM...01...19...31...Range: 200 feet 03:11 PM...01...19...33...Range: 170 feet 03:13 PM...01...19...35...Range: 150 feet 03:17 PM...01...19...39...Range: 100 feet 03:20 PM...01...19...42...Range: 75 feet 03:24 PM...01...19...46...Range: 50 feet 03:28 PM...01...19...50...Range: 30 feet; start station keeping 03:33 PM...01...19...55...End station keeping; push to dock 03:34 PM...01...19...56...Sunrise 03:37 PM...01...19...59...Range: 10 feet 03:39 PM...01...20...01...DOCKING 04:03 PM...01...20...25...Hard mate 04:03 PM...01...20...25...Leak checks; PGSC reconfig 04:33 PM...01...20...55...Docking system prepped for entry 04:43 PM...01...21...05...Group B computer powerdown 04:58 PM...01...21...20...Post-docking PGSC reconfig 05:03 PM...01...21...25...Hatches open 05:08 PM...02...21...30...Videotape replay of docking on NTV 05:18 PM...01...21...40...SRMS grapples S3/S4 05:33 PM...01...21...55...Welcome ceremony 05:38 PM...01...22...00...Safety briefing 06:03 PM...01...22...25...S3/S4 unberthing 06:03 PM...01...22...25...Anderson seat liner transfer 06:30 PM...01...22...52...Mission status briefing on NTV 07:13 PM...01...23...35...REBA checkout 07:23 PM...01...23...50...S3/S4 handoff 07:28 PM...01...23...50...Equipment lock preps 08:43 PM...02...01...05...SRMS ungrapples S3/S4 09:03 PM...02...01...25...SRMS moves positioned for S3/S4 attach viewing 09:18 PM...02...01...40...EVA-1: Procedures review 11:23 PM...02...03...45...EVA-1: EV1/EV2 mask prebreathe 06/11/07 12:18 AM...02...04...40...EVA-1: Crew lock depress to 10.2 psi 12:38 AM...02...05...00...ISS crew sleep begins 01:08 AM...02...05...30...STS crew sleep beginsAfter leak checks and hatch opening, Yurchikhin, Kotov and Williams will welcome the shuttle astronauts aboard and provide a quick safety briefing. Later in the day, Clay Anderson's custom Soyuz seat liner will be transferred to the station and he will officially become a member of the Expedition 15 crew, sleeping aboard the station while Williams joins the shuttle crew.
On past flights, rendezvous and docking would have capped a busy day in space. But for Atlantis' crew, docking will kick off an equally busy afternoon of work to pull the 36,000-pound S3/S4 solar array truss segment from the shuttle's cargo bay so it can be handed off to the station's robot arm and safely "parked" overnight.
The S3 (starboard 3) segment features a powerful rotary joint that will slowly rotate the station's right-side solar arrays to keep them face-on to the sun. The S4 segment includes two telescoping solar blankets that will stretch 240 feet from tip to tip when fully extended Tuesday.
"The robotic arm operations will actually start immediately after docking, but even prior to us opening the hatches between the space shuttle and the space station," shuttle pilot Lee Archambault said in a NASA interview. "Right after docking Pat Forrester and myself will go ahead and grapple the payload with the space shuttle robotic arm. This is about a 30-minute procedure. Pat will be flying the arm and I'll be assisting him, but it's kind of a tricky procedure in that Pat's going to have to reach across the belly of the shuttle payload bay and over the top of the payload and grab it from the starboard grapple fixture on the payload.
Forrester will have just an inch or so of clearance between S3/S4 and the OBSS heat shield inspection boom mounted along the right wall of Atlantis' payload bay. As he is lifting the payload straight up from its perch in the payload bay, he will have to jog it slightly to the left to avoid the OBSS. It is a delicate procedure because of the payload's inertia and the need to avoid any overshoots that could cause it to hit anything.
A similar maneuver was required last September when the P3/P4 truss segments were installed.
"I am what we call R1 for the space shuttle arm," Forrester said in a NASA interview. "I will reach into the payload bay of the space shuttle and will grapple the S3/S4 truss. The grapple fixture is on the S3 portion, and right after that the hatches will be opened, weÕll say our hellos to everyone on board station and then weÕll get right back to work. And, with Lee Archambault as my R2, we will pull the S3/S4 Truss out of the bay, put it through a series of maneuvers and bring it to a point where we can turn it over to the computers, what we call automated maneuvers, and then the computers will fly that arm and the truss section attached out to a position where we can hand it off to the space station robotic arm.
"The S3/S4 weighs about 35,000 pounds, very similar to P3/P4. ItÕs just a little bit heavier, and I think to date this will be the heaviest payload that weÕve delivered to station. The folks, the trainers in the robotic area have simplified things for us and have designed a series of what we would call one-axis maneuvers as we bring it out of the bay and then shift it a little bit to the port side of the orbiter to move it away from the new boom that we carry for inspections. Then weÕll bring it out a little bit higher, push it back a little, do a couple other small maneuvers, and then itÕll be in a position for the computers to fly. So actually itÕs a very simple task."
At that point, Archambault said, "I will hurry over to the space station and then assist Suni Williams, who's one of our space station crew members, and she will have the space station robotic arm ready to go. She will move in and double grapple, if you will, the payload with the space station robotic arm. And then once we get the payload grappled with the space station robotic arm, it will now be double grappled, and then I'll hurry back over to the space shuttle and then assist Pat in ungrappling the space shuttle robotic arm from the payload, and that's where we'll complete our arm operations for that day. We'll leave the payload grappled to the space station robotic arm in that handoff position overnight."
Astronauts Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas will spend the night sealed up in the space station's Quest airlock module as part of a new "camp out" procedure before a planned spacewalk Monday to electrically connect and outfit the new truss segment. The airlock's pressure will be lowered from 14.2 pounds per square inch to 10.2 psi to help the spacewalkers purge nitrogen from their blood and prevent the bends when working in their 5-psi spacesuits.
A detailed overview of Monday's spacewalk will be posted later in the day.
8:34 PM, 6/9/07, Update: Shannon pleased with tank performance; engineers continue blanket assessment
The Atlantis astronauts late today used the shuttle's robot arm and a powerful camera on the end of a heat-shield inspection boom to take a close-up look at a pulled up insulation blanket on one of the ship's aft rocket pods.
The astronauts noticed the protruding blanket on the left-side Orbital Maneuvering System rocket pod during a routine post-launch inspection late Friday. John Shannon, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said late today "there's not a great deal of concern over it right now, but there's a lot of work to be done and we'll do that in the coming days."
A preliminary assessment of ground video and imagery from Atlantis indicates the ship's repaired external fuel tank performed well during the climb to space, with only minor instances of foam shedding and nothing apparent above NASA's critical threshold for causing damage to the shuttle's heat shield.
"As you remember, there was a lot of concern pre-flight when we had the hail storm in February and it put well over 2,000 divots in the upper part of the tank," Shannon told reporters. "The crew was able to image that very well after the orbiter separated from the tank. The external tank team is looking at that very closely, but from what we can tell so far, we did not lose any of the repairs, everything looked exactly like it should look, it looks like everything stayed in place."
The only obvious bit of foam loss occurred near a 17-inch-wide liquid oxygen feed line near the top of the tank's hydrogen section.
"We saw a little 6-inch by 3-inch divot by that big feed line that takes oxygen to the main engines," Shannon said. "That is very similar to foam losses we've seen in previous flights. We expect that it will give us some data on the mechanics of why the foam comes off in that area and we can work on improvements in future tanks. This is not any kind of a threat to the vehicle at all, it's just good engineering data."
Analysis of data from C-band and KU-band radars near the launch pad is on-going as is an assessment of data from impact sensors mounted behind the reinforced carbon carbon panels making up the leading edges of Atlantis' wings. Camera mounted in the shuttle's twin booster rockets will be recovered and assessed after the spent casings are towed back to Port Canaveral on Sunday.
Shannon said those camera may have captured the moment the foam separated from near the feedline and they may show whether a paper rocket nozzle cover or any other sort of debris hit the protruding insulation blanket on the left OMS pod. The blanket was installed in January and engineers think it more likely that a corner simply pulled away in the airflow.
Video from the space shuttle's robot arm early today showed a 4-inch-by 6-inch triangular section of the blanket separated from where it butted up against a section of white heat-shield tiles. Close-up pictures later today provided a clearer image, showing the 2-inch-thick blanket intact but folded back in one corner.
"There's an area on the OMS pod that (is protected by) tile, it has more aerodynamic forces on it, a little bit more heating, then that transitions in a lower-heating area to the blankets and at that transition point, it looks like one corner of one of those thick blankets pulled up a little bit," Shannon said. "It looks like some of the stitching ripped and a corner of that peeled up."
Engineers are assessing the blanket to determine what, if anything, might need to be done. On the first shuttle flight in 1981, several tiles on each of Columbia's OMS pods were cracked or missing, but no problems were seen after landing. LIkewise, a blanket lost during another early shuttle flight caused no problems.
But in the post-Columbia world, NASA takes no chances and Shannon said the protruding blanket seen on Atlantis' port OMS pod will get a thorough engineering analysis to make sure it doesn't pose a threat to the ship or its crew.
"We have flight history of damage to these OMS pods," Shannon said. "Early in the program, STS-1, we lost some tile material, STS-6, we lost at least one blanket in that area. And for all of those, we do not believe we had any damage at all to the OMS pods.
Even so, he said. "we're going to go and characterize it and go through our analysis. Every flight, I feel like I'm a broken record. I come in and say 'there's this thing, it doesn't look like a big deal, we're going go do our assessment and see how it turns out.' We'll do the exact same thing on this flight."
The Atlantis astronauts already plan to carry out three spacewalks, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, to connect and activate a new space station solar array, retract another solar panel so it can be moved later and perform a variety of other assembly tasks.
Shannon said if necessary, the astronauts could work on the protruding blanket, possibly tucking the material back in and pinning it down or even using a viscous, heat-resistant tile-repair material to fill in the exposed underlying area."
But nothing like that will be planned until engineers complete their assessment of the damage and the likely effects of re-entry aerodynamics and heating on surrounding blankets and the underlying structure of the rocket pod.
The Atlantis astronauts, meanwhile, are continuing to close in on the international space station, on track for docking Sunday afternoon. During final approach, the station astronauts will photograph the shuttle's belly to look for any signs of impact damage, a routine part of post-Columbia rendezvous procedures.
For readers interested in looking ahead, a detailed rendezvous timeline is posted on the STS-117 Quick-Look page. A docking preview will be posted early Sunday.
10:55 AM, 6/9/07, Update: Crew gears up for heat shield inspection, spacesuit checkout
The Atlantis astronauts were awakened a few minutes past 10 a.m. for their first full day in space by a recording of "Big Boy Toys" beamed up from mission control in Houston.
"Good morning, Houston, thanks to my wife, Michelle, and my kids for playing that song," commander Rick Sturckow radioed.
The astronauts plan to spend the day testing spacesuits that will be used during three spacewalks at the international space station next week; checking out the tools they will use during rendezvous with the station Sunday; and carrying out a detailed inspection of the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels.
The heat shield inspection, using Atlantis' robot arm and a 50-foot extension known as the orbiter boom sensor system, or OBSS, is a now-standard part of every shuttle flight to look for any signs of impact damage that might have occurred during launch.
While engineers are still reviewing launch imagery, no major debris could be seen in video from a camera mounted on the side of the shuttle's external tank that was aimed at the ship's belly. The only damage seen so far is a pulled-up corner of an insulation blanket on Atlantis' left-side orbital maneuvering system rocket pod.
"It doesn't look too bad, but we knew everybody would want to look at it down there," Sturckow radioed before the crew went to bed.
The re-entry environment on the upper part of the shuttle is relatively benign and the protruding blanket did not appear to be a serious issue. But engineers have not completed their assessment and it's too soon to say what impact, if any, it might have. Mission managers likely will address the issue at a daily news briefing scheduled for 7 p.m. to review the day's activities and the results of initial inspections.
For today's OBSS inspections, a laser sensor on the end of the boom will be used to look for any wing leading edge damage that could pose a threat to the shuttle. The reinforced carbon carbon - RCC- nose cap and leading edge panels experience the most extreme heat during re-entry - more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit - and even minor damage can have serious consequences.
The astronauts will start with the starboard, or right-side, wing leading edge, making multiple passes up and down the wing to cover all the angles. After scanning the nose cap, they will move on to the port wing and repeat the procedure.
For Atlantis' flight, the inspection procedures have been modified based on lessons learned during the previous three post-Columbia missions. The scans will take less time, cover a larger area and incorporate the use of a camera on the end of the OBSS to take close-up photographs at the same time the laser scanner is collecting data. With high-resolution photos in hand, flight controllers hope to avoid the need for potential "focused inspections" later, if analysis of the laser data indicates any areas of concern.
The astronauts will need 75 to 90 minutes to complete the starboard leading edge scan, 50 minutes for the nosecap and another 90 minutes for the left wing. The new scanning procedure covers most of the crew cabin as well, eliminating the need for separate photo scans of the cabin. All in all, the flight day two thermal protection system inspections will only take about four hours instead of six.
Here is an updated timeline of today's activities (include revision B of the NASA TV schedule; in EDT and mission elapsed time):
12:02 AM, 6/9/07, Update: Robot arm checked out; protruding blanket seen on OMS pod
The Atlantis astronauts activated and checked out the shuttle's robot arm late Friday and used one of its TV cameras to zoom in on a protruding insulation blanket sticking up from the ship's left-side aft rocket pod.
In the video, one corner of the white blanket appeared to have pulled away from an adjacent row of white tiles on the upper surface of the port orbital maneuvering system rocket pod. It wasn't immediately obvious what might have caused the blanket to pull away. It did not appear serious, but flight controllers asked the crew to pan across the blanket with the robot arm's camera to help them build a three-dimensional image of the area for more detailed analysis.
The astronauts then pressed ahead with a normal payload bay survey before powering the arm down for the night.
7:50 PM, 6/8/07, Update: Space shuttle Atlantis rockets into orbit (9:30 p.m. update to add quotes and details from post-launch news conference)
Running three months late, the space shuttle Atlantis, carrying seven astronauts and a $367 million set of solar panels, roared to life and raced into orbit today, hot on the trail of the international space station. The shuttle's patched-up external fuel tank, its foam insulation heavily damaged by hail in February, appeared to withstand the rigors of launch without shedding any dangerous foam debris.
With commander Rick Sturckow and pilot Lee Archambault at the controls, Atlantis' three hydrogen-fueled main engines roared to life and spun up to full throttle before ignition of the ship's twin solid-fuel boosters at 7:38:04 p.m.
The fuel-laden 4.5-million-pound spaceship instantly climbed away from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, wheeled about to line up on a northesterly trajectory and rocketed away up the East Coast to kick off NASA's 118th shuttle flight.
Launch originally was scheduled for March 15, but the flight was put on hold after a freak Feb. 26 hail storm that blasted the top of the tank's foam insulation. More than 3,000 dings and gouges had to be repaired with poured or sprayed-on foam insulation, giving the tank a pockmarked, two-tone complexion.
The first 135 seconds or so of flight are considered the most critical from a debris impact perspective because during that period, the shuttle is still in the lower atmosphere. Any lightweight foam debris that separates from the tank would decelerate rapidly in the thicker atmosphere, allowing the shuttle to run into it at a high relative velocity. Higher up in thinner air, debris does not slow as rapidly and impact velocities are lower.
While detailed analysis of launch camera and video footage is not yet complete, television views beamed down from a camera mounted on the side of the tank showed a clean ascent with only one small piece of debris spotted just after solid rocket booster separation two minutes and five seconds after launch.
"We are glad to report that the external tank has performed in a magnificent manner," said shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale. "I couldn't be prouder of the team and I think this bodes well for the future as we look forwared to the completion of the international space station."
As for the debris, Hale said a preliminary analysis of launch video "indicates it didn't strike the orbiter."
"It was at the very end, or just past, the aerodynamically sensitive time," he said. "Hopefully as we continue to make improvements in the tank we will eliminate even that, which should not be a hazard occurring that late in the flight."
The remainder of Atlantis' eight-and-a-half-minute climb to orbit was uneventful. Aboard the space station half a world away, commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineer Oleg Kotov and Sunita Williams watched the launch on a video feed provided by flight controllers in Houston. If all goes well, Sturckow will guide the shuttle to a docking with the space station around 3:38 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
"What a great way to start the year and what a great way to start this mission," said Bill Gerstenmaier, chief of space operations at NASA headquarters.
The primary goal of Atlantis' mission is to attach a huge new set of solar panels to the right side of the station's main power truss, along with a powerful rotary joint to keep the huge arrays face-on to the sun. The combined truss segments tip the scales at nearly 36,000 pounds, making this one of the heaviest space station payloads to date. The two new solar panels, when fully extended, will stretch 240 feet from tip to tip and slowly rotate like giant paddle wheels.
The astronauts also hope to complete the retraction of another set of identical arrays, used to provide power to the lab complex during the initial stages of assembly, so it can be moved to its permanent position on the left end of the power truss later this year.
The crew of shuttle Discovery ran into major problems retracting one side of the P6 array in December and ultimately staged an unplanned spacewalk, manually shaking free stuck grommets on frayed guide wires to fold the pleated blind-like array into its storage canister. While Atlantis' crew hopes to benefit from lessons learned and retract the remaining blanket automatically, they will be standing by to provide hands-on spacewalk assistance if necessary.
Attaching the new $367.3 million S3/S4 solar array truss segments, completing the retraction of P6 and ultimately re-extending its two wings on the port side of the main power truss later this year will clear the way for attachment of European and Japanese research modules, both major milestones on the road to completing the station in 2010.
"I hesitate to say any part of the sequence is more critical than any other," NASA Administrator Mike Griffin told CBS News. "It's a chain and you can break any link, and the chain doesn't function. But you have to recognize that the sequence leading up to getting our first international partner module, the (European Space Agency's) Columbus lab, up is a very, very significant thing. It's going to assume an importance maybe even larger than it really has just because of the imagery of that."
In August, the shuttle Endeavour will carry supplies to the station and attach a spacer segment to the S4 solar array installed during Atlantis' mission to permit the eventual attachment of a fourth and final set of arrays, known as S6.
In October, Discovery will deliver a new multi-hatch node called Harmony, temporarily mounting it on the port side of the Unity module that connects the U.S. and Russian segments of the station. The astronauts then will move the retracted P6 solar array to its permanent location the left end of the main power truss in one of the most challenging assembly tasks yet attempted. If all goes well, the arrays will be re-extended, boosting the station's electrical power.
After Discovery departs, the station crew will use the lab's robot arm to remove the shuttle docking port now on the forward end of the Destiny laboratory module and attach it to Harmony. The station astronauts then will move Harmony and its shuttle docking port to the front end of Destiny and stage a series of spacewalks to route power and cooling to the new module.
That will set the stage for the long-awaited December launch of the Columbus research module, which will be attached to Harmony's starboard port. The Japanese Experiment Module will be bolted to Harmony's port hatch early next year.
"Everything now is pretty serial ... it is quite a production," said Anderson, a station crew member hitching a ride to the outpost aboard Atlantis. "We're going to put those pieces in place one step at a time and then if we do have any problems, we'll deal with those one step at a time such that we can get the Columbus module, the JEM modules on board the station, docked to Harmony, because that is a huge step to the international capability of the station. This is going to be a big four or five flights in a row."
Under the original schedule, Anderson was to launch in June aboard the Endeavour, replacing astronaut Sunita Williams aboard the station as a member of the Expedition 15 long-duration station crew.
But during an unusually violent storm that thundered over the launch pad on Feb. 26, Atlantis' external tank was blasted by hail. Most of the damage was restricted to the upper liquid oxygen section of Atlantis' tank and when all was said and done, it took three months to repair. As a result, Atlantis' flight slipped to June and Endeavour's to August.
Williams was launched to the space station aboard Discovery last December. NASA managers initially said she could safely remain aloft until August but after additional consideration, they decided to bring her home in June, as originally planned, but on mission STS-117 instead of STS-118. Staying up through August was not a health threat for Williams, officials said, but her cumulative exposure to space radiation could preclude a future station flight. And so, the decision was made to bring her back to Earth on schedule aboard Atlantis.
At the same time, NASA managers decided to move Anderson, Williams' replacement, from Endeavour to Atlantis.
IWith today's on-time launch, Atlantis is scheduled to undock from the station June 17, leaving Anderson behind with Expedition 15 commanderYurchikhin and Kotov. Williams will return to Earth with Atlantis' crew, gliding to a touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center around 2:45 p.m. on June 19.
4:40 PM, 6/8/07, Update: Astronauts strap in for launch
Commander Rick Sturckow and his six crewmates began strapping in aboard the shuttle Atlantis around 4:20 p.m. Launch is targeted for 7:38:04 p.m., roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries pad 39A into the plane of the international space station's orbit. There are no technical problems of any significance and forecasters say an afternoon sea breeze is setting up as expected to blow cloudy weather inland. This status report will be updated after Atlantis takes off or as conditions warrant.
1:58 PM, 6/8/07, Update: Shuttle Atlantis fueled for flight; ECO sensors in good shape; crew preparing for launch
The shuttle Atlantis' external tank has been loaded with a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel. Engine cutoff sensors at the bottom of the hydrogen tank are operating normally and the launch team isn't working any significant technical issues.
Forecasters continue to expect good weather, saying they expect an afternoon sea breeze to set up as the day wears on, pushing clouds and showers away to the west. The five-minute "in-plane" launch window opens at 7:38:04 p.m.
"To go on the data, which I like to do, then you've got to be optimistic about launch," said NASA Administrator MIchael Griffin. "The weather guys are saying 20 percent no-go, so 80 percent go, which is about as good as you're going to do around here this time of year and that time of day. So that's terrific. They're not working anything on the vehicle. Things can always come up ... but right now, I'm optimistic."
In a brief photo opportunity, commander Rick Sturckow, pilot Lee Archambault, flight engineer Steve Swanson, Patrick Forrester, Danny Olivas, Jim Reilly and space station astronaut Clay Anderson were relaxed and smiling as they sat around a lunch table in crew quarters.
They plan to don their bulky pressure suits shortly and to head for launch pad 39A around 3:47 p.m. to strap in for launch.
10:10 AM, 6/8/07, Update: Shuttle fueling begins; weather remains 80 percent 'go'
Engineers at the Kennedy Space Center began pumping a half-million gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket fuel into the shuttle Atlantis' repaired external tank today at 9:55 a.m., setting the stage for launch at 7:38 p.m. on a space assembly mission. This will be NASA's first shuttle flight of 2007, thanks to a three-month delay to fix hail damage.
The three-hour fueling process, carried out by remote control from the firing room 3.2 miles from launch pad 39A, should be complete around 1 p.m. NASA television coverage is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. followed by a traditional dining room photo opportunity with the crew.
Wearing bright orange pressure suits, commander Rick Sturckow, pilot Lee Archambault, flight engineer Steve Swanson, Patrick Forrester, Danny Olivas, Jim Reilly and space station astronaut Clay Anderson are scheduled to depart crew quarters at 3:47 p.m. and head for the pad.
Sturckow will strap into the front left seat on Atlantis' flight deck with Archambault to his right. Swanson will sit behind and between the two pilots with Forrester to his immediate right. On the shuttle's lower deck, Olivas will strap in just in front of the ship's side hatch. Reilly and Anderson will take seats just behind and to the right of Olivas.
Launch is targeted for roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. As of this writing, the "in-plane" launch time is 7:38:04 p.m. That might be adjusted by a few seconds during a final hold at the T-minus nine-minute mark based on a final analysis of the station's orbit. Today's launch window will close at 7:43:04 p.m.
There are no technical problems at pad 39A and officials say the forecast remains unchanged, with a strong sea breeze expected to push afternoon thundershowers well inshore. Shuttle weather officers in Florida are predicting an 80 percent chance of acceptable conditions today and they upgraded the forecast for Saturday to 80 percent "go" as well.
"An upper level low off the east coast of Florida is creating a broad shield of mid clouds and rain showers along the Space Coast," the weather office said in its morning forecast. "This low and the associated showers should gradually move southwest allowing drier mid-level air to move in by launch time. At the surface, easterly winds will allow the sea breeze and its associated weather to push inland by early afternoon.
"Upper level winds are forecast to be from the east today, so anvils from any inland thunderstorms that develop should remain inland by launch time. By Saturday afternoon the upper level low is forecast to be over southern Florida, creating favorable conditions for launch; therefore, the 24-hour forecast probability of KSC weather prohibiting launch is decreased to 20%. Our primary concern for launch day is cumulus clouds."
The forecast from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which focuses on landing weather in case of an emergency that might force a quick return to Earth, calls for scattered clouds at 3,000, 10,000 and 25,000 feet with winds out of 100 degrees at 8 knots gusting to 12. The crosswind component at the shuttle's emergency runway is just 9 knots well within NASA's launch guidelines. Likewise, the weather at emergency landing sites in California, New Mexico, Spain and France is forecast "go."
Here is the remainder of today's countdown, along with the ascent timeline (in EDT):
11:05 AM, 6/7/07, Update: Weather improves to 80 percent 'go'
Making up lost time after a stormy night at the launch pad, shuttle workers at the Kennedy Space Center expect to have Atlantis ready for blastoff Friday night on a long-delayed space station assembly mission. There are no technical problems at pad 39A and forecasters now predict an 80 percent chance of good weather at launch time.
"After many months of hard work, Atlantis is finally ready to fly," NASA Test Director Steve Payne told reporters today.
If all goes well, a protective gantry will be rolled away from Atlantis at 10:30 p.m. and engineers will begin pumping a half-million gallons of rocket fuel into the shuttle's external tank starting shortly after 9 a.m. Friday.
Commander Rick Sturckow and his crewmates - pilot Lee Archambault, flight engineer Steve Swanson, Patrick Forrester, Danny Olivas, Jim Reilly and Clay Anderson - plan to begin strapping in around 4:15 p.m. Liftoff is targeted for 7:38 p.m., roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit.
Thunderstorms Wednesday evening delayed work to load the shuttle's internal tanks with liquid hydrogen and oxygen to power the ship's electricity producing fuel cells. But Payne said the launch team was able to make up lost time using built-in holds in the countdown and no major problems were expected.
"We did have some significant weather in the area last night," said shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters. "It did delay the ops a little bit, but generally, all the weather came together over the western portion of Melbourne and back toward the west. There was three-quarter-inch hail down in West Melbourne, but no hail here at Kennedy Space Center."
Atlantis originally was scheduled for launch March 15, but the flight was delayed three months after a freak hail storm caused extensive damage to the top of the shuttle's external fuel tank. That damage has now been repaired and engineers say they are confident the tank's foam insulation will stand up to the thermal and aerodynamic rigors of launch without shedding any potentially dangerous debris.
Winters improved the forecast for Friday from 70 percent "go" to an 80 percent chance of favorable weather.
"We think it looks a little bit better," she said. "Yesterday, we thought some inland thunderstorms might still be close enough to affect us, but today we're more confident they'll be more inland. So just a 20 percent chance of KSC weather prohibiting launch."
Emergency runways in California, New Mexico, Spain and France also are expected to be available for use if needed. Should launch be delayed, the probability drops to 70 percent go on Saturday and 60 percent on Sunday.
As of this writing, flight controllers are using 7:38:02 p.m. as the estimated launch time. That may change by a few seconds based on final checks of the station's orbit and a final hold at the T-minus nine-minute mark will be amended as required. That said, here are countdown highlights (in EDT; fueling could begin up to a half hour earlier than the listed time):
8:30 PM, 6/6/07, Update: Severe storms batter Brevard County but no major impact at spaceport
Thunderstorms boomed and flashed across Brevard County late today, but engineers at the Kennedy Space Center saw no signs of hail and pressed ahead with work to load the shuttle Atlantis with liquid hydrogen and oxygen to power the ship's electricity producing fuel cells. Launch on a space station assembly mission is scheduled for 7:38 p.m. Friday.
Torrential rain fell on Merritt Island late today and forecasters predicted possible wind gusts higher than 50 knots and a chance for half-inch hail. A freak hail storm Feb. 26 damaged Atlantis' external fuel tank and repairs delayed the flight three months.
As it turned out, the worst of today's weather appeared to miss the space center and no major problems were reported. A NASA spokesman said work to load the ship's fuel cell system with hydrogen and oxygen was delayed two hours by the weather, but by 8:30 p.m. engineers were ready to press ahead with the five-hour procedure.
They will make up the lost time as required during a four-hour built-in hold scheduled to begin at 1 a.m. Thursday.
5:20 PM, 6/6/07, Update: MMT clears Atlantis for launch; engineers brace for evening storms, possible hail
NASA's mission management team cleared the shuttle Atlantis for blastoff Friday on a space station assembly mission delayed three months by hail damage to the ship's external fuel tank. Even as the MMT assessed the shuttle's readiness to fly, thunderstorms rumbled toward the Kennedy Space Center and forecasters predicted possible half-inch hail and wind gusts higher than 50 knots at the Kennedy Space Center.
Engineers were scheduled to pump explosive liquid hydrogen and oxygen into on-board tanks starting at 6:30 p.m. to power Atlantis' electricity producing fuel cells. While stormy weather could cause delays, officials said enough "hold" time was available in the countdown to make up any reasonable amount of lost time.
The shuttle itself is protected at the launch pad by a large rotating gantry that fits around the vehicle, along with sliding panels that shield the orbiter's wings and belly from hail or other wind-borne debris. But the top and back side of the shuttle's external tank are exposed to the elements and the upper section of the tank suffered heavy damage during a freak hail storm Feb. 26.
Work to repair that damage delayed launch from March 15 to this week and while the forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of good weather at launch time Friday, shuttle weather officers predicted afternoon thunderstorms, possibly severe, today and Thursday.
"The top of the tank is exposed, we can't do anything about that," Launch Director Mike Leinbach said when asked about storms approaching this afternoon. "If we get any reports of hail out at the pad, we would do a complete walkdown inspection of the flight hardware and the ground support equipment to make sure we were in good shape.
"I hate predicting the weather myself," he said. "We're going to get what we're going to get and we'll deal with it. And this tank will fly perfectly fine whether we get a little bit more hail or not. We would have to be so unlucky to get more hail on this tank that... but I'd better not go any further than that!"
Amid laughter and nods at an afternoon news conference, MMT Chairman LeRoy Cain joked: "I'd be real happy if we just stopped talking about hail."
Weather aside, there are no technical problems at pad 39A - last used by shuttle Columbia for its final voyage in 2003 - and Cain said earlier concern about apparently out-of-spec hydrogen pressurization lines on a tank scheduled for use by the shuttle Endeavour in August had been resolved with no impact for Atlantis.
A detailed, 17,000-word mission preview is now posted in the CBS News STS-117 Mission Archive and as part of the CBS News Space Reporters Handbook, available on the downloads page. The first take of the preview also is posted immediately below.
11:10 AM, 6/6/07, Update: Countdown underway; weather still 70 percent 'go'
The shuttle Atlantis' countdown to blastoff began on time Tuesday night and while stormy weather was expected later today, forecasters continue to predict a 70 percent chance of good weather at launch time Friday.
The only technical issue under discussion involves 2-inch and 4-inch hydrogen pressurization lines on the external tank that will be used by shuttle Endeavour in August that are very slightly - a few ten-thousandths of an inch - out of spec. NASA managers are re-evaluating the results of 400-psi leak checks done after Atlantis' tank was mated with the shuttle to make sure the lines in question are properly seated.
Some engineers have suggested an additional 600-psi leak test to double-check the connections, work in Atlantis' engine compartment that would delay launch three days or so. But given the results of the earlier tests - and normal checks during the fueling process Friday - it appears likely NASA managers will press ahead with the countdown for a launch attempt at 7:38 p.m. Friday.
NASA managers will brief reporters on the status of launch processing later today after a traditional launch-minus two-day review.
"As always when these things come up with any of our flight hardware, we go off and evaluate if there's any implications to any of our other missions," said NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding. "They're off looking at that right now. All of the tests to date and all of the leak checks were all satisfactory on (Atlantis) and what we're going through today is to talk about the flight rationale."
Shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said the forecast for Friday calls for a 70 percent chance of good weather and that the outlook for emergency runways in California, New Mexico, Spain and France is favorable as well. The forecast worsens a bit to 60 percent "go" Saturday and Sunday should launch be delayed, primarily due to the threat of afternoon and evening thunderstorms.
"Our launch day weather actually looks like the best day of the three days," Winters said. "If we happen to delay 24 or 48 hours, the weather looks a little bit worse."
Afternoon thunderstorms were expected today, with winds as high as 50 knots possible at the launch pad. But Winters said the odds of hail at the pad were low. Atlantis originally was scheduled for launch March 15, but the flight was delayed three months to repair damage to the external tank from hail strikes during a freak storm in late February.
12:53 PM, 6/6/07, Update: STS-117 mission preview
ATLANTIS POISED FOR LAUNCH ON
By WILLIAM HARWOOD
The shuttle Atlantis, its hail-battered fuel tank finally repaired, is poised for blastoff June 8 to restart space station assembly after a five-month hiatus. The long-delayed flight is part of a critical sequence of missions to prepare the outpost for delivery of European and Japanese research modules late this year and early next.
The primary goal of Atlantis' mission is to attach a huge new set of solar panels to the right side of the station's main power truss, along with a powerful rotary joint to keep the huge arrays face on to the sun. The combined truss segments measure 44 feet nine inches long, 16 feet across and weigh 35,678 pounds. The two new solar panels, when fully extended, will stretch 240 feet from tip to tip and slowly rotate like giant paddle wheels.
The astronauts also hope to complete the retraction of another set of identical arrays, used to provide power to the lab complex during the initial stages of assembly, so it can be moved to its permanent position on the left end of the power truss later this year.
The crew of shuttle Discovery ran into major problems retracting one side of the P6 array in December and ultimately staged an unplanned spacewalk, manually shaking free stuck grommets on frayed guide wires to fold the pleated blind-like array into its storage canister. While Atlantis' crew hopes to benefit from lessons learned and retract the remaining blanket automatically, they will be standing by to provide hands-on spacewalk assistance if necessary.
"We're going to go through a process to try to slowly retract this array during the sequence of a couple of (spacewalks) so we'll have the crew available to help us as it is retracted and see if we can't sneak it in without shaking the array quite so much," said Mike Suffredini, space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Attaching the new $367.3 million S3/S4 solar array truss segments, completing the retraction of P6 and ultimately re-extending its two wings on the port side of the main power truss later this year will clear the way for attachment of European and Japanese research modules, both major milestones on the road to completing the station in 2010.
"The S3/S4 will be the first set of solar arrays on the starboard side of the station," said Atlantis spacewalker James Reilly. "We currently have the port side arrays up, in the P3/P4 elements that were taken up (last year). What we're doing is bringing up the starboard set of arrays, and that's the foundation for the power supply that will now allow us to truly become an integrated International space station with the European and the Japanese labs."
In August, the shuttle Endeavour will carry supplies to the station and attach a spacer segment to the S4 solar array installed during Atlantis' mission to permit the eventual attachment of a fourth and final set of arrays, known as S6. Educator/astronaut Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's backup in the original Teacher in Space program, will operate the shuttle's robot arm to pull the S5 spacer segment out of the shuttle's cargo bay.
In October, Discovery will deliver a new multi-hatch node called Harmony, temporarily mounting it on the port side of the Unity module that connects the U.S. and Russian segments of the station. The astronauts then will move the retracted P6 solar array to its permanent location the left end of the main power truss in one of the most challenging assembly tasks yet attempted. If all goes well, the arrays will be re-extended, boosting the station's electrical power to between 70 and 90 kilowatts under ideal conditions.
After Discovery departs, the station crew will use the lab's robot arm to remove the shuttle docking port now on the forward end of the Destiny laboratory module and attach it to Harmony. The station astronauts then will move Harmony and its shuttle docking port to the front end of Destiny and stage a series of spacewalks to route power and cooling to the new module.
That will set the stage for the long-awaited December launch of the European Space Agency's Columbus research module, which will be attached to Harmony's starboard port. The Japanese Experiment Module will be bolted to Harmony's port hatch early next year.
"Everything now is pretty serial ... it is quite a production," said Clayton Anderson, a station crew member hitching a ride to the outpost aboard Atlantis. "We're going to put those pieces in place one step at a time and then if we do have any problems, we'll deal with those one step at a time such that we can get the Columbus module, the JEM modules on board the station, docked to Harmony, because that is a huge step to the international capability of the station. This is going to be a big four or five flights in a row."
Starting the year with a months-long delay was a major disappointment, especially with the shuttle's forced retirement looming in 2010 and with it, a hard deadline for completing the space station. But shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale said the agency remains committed to putting safety ahead of schedule.
"We've got to be vigilant to make sure we don't allow ourselves to be driven by the schedule," he said. "We're flying these flights in the order that we can, as rapidly as it's reasonably possible to do it, but we fully intend to keep all of our safety practices in place. ... We cannot let schedule drive us to do something dumb.
"But at the same time, we really would like to get all these flights done by the time that the president and congress have told us to retire this set of vehicles. So, we're struggling a little bit to maintain the proper tension. And that's going to be with us until the end of the program."
Atlantis and its seven-member crew are scheduled for liftoff from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on June 8 at 7:38 p.m., kicking off the first of four flights planned for 2007.
Launch of mission STS-117 is timed to coincide with the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit, setting up a two-day orbital chase and a docking around 3:38 p.m. on June 10. Three spacewalks, and possibly four, are planned to hook up and activate the new S3/S4 solar array segment and to complete the P6-2B retraction.
Atlantis' launch period extends through July 19. But a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload is scheduled for launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station the morning of June 14. NASA can make four attempts to launch Atlantis over a five-day period - June 8, 9, 11 and 12 - before standing down for the Atlas and to top off on-board supplies of hydrogen and oxygen. The shuttle launch period would reopen on June 17, regardless of whether the Atlas went on June 14 or 15.
While Discovery's flight last December - STS-116 - to activate the station's main electrical system remains the most complex shuttle mission ever attempted, "when it comes to other big-picture assembly flights where you're talking robotics and EVA tasks and some commanding from the ground and activating new hardware, then this one's right up there," said Paul Hill, deputy director of the Mission Operations Directorate at the Johnson Space Center.
"We've got a full-volume payload," he said, "this thing is huge, not quite the size of a Greyhound bus, but it's big, and we're going to move this thing out as far as we can to install it and then send a couple of astronauts out there to finish getting it open and connected in and fire this thing up.
"If you think about the paths where this could go wrong, there's still a large number of them. We could still have arm problems pulling this thing out of the bay or trying to get it installed on station. We could have problems with the attachment system where we're trying to get this thing attached to the station well enough where it can handle loads without breaking off. We could have problems getting umbilicals connected to apply keep-alive power and we could have infant mortality."
"So you've got what's already a full flight of tough nuts and bolts assembly activities and right there in the critical path now is this trouble that we had retracting the (P6) solar array," Hill said. "So right up front for the flight control team and the crew is making sure they understand everything they can about everything they saw on that solar array on 116 so if they have to respond on 117 they can still get everything completed they plan to do and get that solar array fully in the can and end up undocking with four solar arrays out, two alpha joints tracking the sun and a P6 that's well on its way to being disconnected and moved outboard of P4.
"That's really what this is all about, keeping your fingers crossed and hoping there are no other surprises with this other solar array. We'll go out there and apply the things we learned coming out of 116 to get that solar array in, and come out of 117 looking really good and ready to install Harmony and ready to move P6."
At the controls aboard Atlantis will be commander Frederick Sturckow, a Marine Corps colonel, pilot Lee Archambault, an Air Force colonel, and flight engineer Steven Swanson. Their crewmates are Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, John "Danny" Olivas and Anderson. Sturckow and Reilly have two previous shuttle flights to their credit while Forrester has one. The rest are space rookies.
Reilly and Olivas will carry out the first and third spacewalks of the mission while Swanson and Forrester will conduct the second and, if necessary, the fourth.
NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on mission STS-117, the first of five planned 2007 shuttle flights, March 15. Under the original schedule, Anderson was to launch in June aboard the Endeavour, replacing astronaut Sunita Williams aboard the station as a member of the Expedition 15 long-duration station crew.
But during a freak storm that thundered over the launch pad on Feb. 26, Atlantis' external tank was blasted by hail, suffering thousands of pits and gouges in its foam insulation. Wind gusts reached 62 knots and hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was found at the pad.
Most of the damage was restricted to the upper liquid oxygen section of Atlantis' tank. Only a handful of dings were found lower down on the hydrogen section and while two dozen heat shield tiles on the orbiter were scraped by hail that worked its way behind weather protection panels, detailed inspections show the ship's critical carbon composite wing leading edge panels and nose cap were undamaged.
But the hail damage to the foam on the top of the tank was severe and Atlantis had to be hauled off the pad and moved back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. When all was said and done, the launch of Atlantis slipped to June while Endeavour and STS-118 moved to August.
Williams was launched to the space station aboard Discovery last December. NASA managers initially said she could safely remain aloft until August but after additional consideration, they decided to bring her home in June, as originally planned, but on mission STS-117 instead of STS-118. Staying up through August was not a health threat for Williams, officials said, but her cumulative exposure to space radiation could preclude a future station flight. And so, the decision was made to bring her back to Earth on schedule aboard Atlantis.
At the same time, NASA managers decided to move Anderson, Williams' replacement, from Endeavour to Atlantis.
"They're a crew of six that's trained to do everything by themselves so I kind of advertise myself as a utility infielder," Anderson said in an interview. "If commander Sturckow needs me to do something, then I'll do it. They're going to train me specifically for a few things and then since I do have station arm experience, on the ground anyway, I can help Lee Archambault when he installs the S3/S4 truss.
"Then as far as STS-118 goes, once those guys arrive I'll pretty much do the same jobs with them that I was planning on doing had I launched with that crew, and that includes EVAs three and four. And then I'll also be helping Charlie Hobaugh when he manipulates the arm to install the S5 truss."
Assuming an on-time launch and docking, Atlantis will undock June 17, leaving Anderson behind with Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov. Williams will return to Earth with Atlantis' crew, gliding to a touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center around 2:45 p.m. on June 19.
Anderson will remain aboard the station until late October, when the shuttle Discovery will deliver his replacement, astronaut Daniel Tani, during mission STS-120. Yurchikhin and Kotov will return to Earth about a week earlier aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Their replacements - Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko - are scheduled to arrive aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Oct. 4, the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik and the birth of the space age.
It will be up to the Expedition 16 crew - Whitson, Malenchenko and Tani - to oversee the attachment of the Harmony node and PMA-2 to the front of the Destiny lab module and the subsequent attachment of the Columbus research module during shuttle mission STS-122 in December.
A CRITICAL YEAR FOR STATION ASSEMBLY
In March 2004, President Bush ordered NASA to complete space station assembly and retire the shuttle by the end of fiscal 2010, freeing up money to support development of a new manned spacecraft to replace the shuttle. The new Orion crew capsule, expected to debut around 2015, will ferry astronauts to and from the station and eventually back to the moon as part of a long-range push to establish a permanent lunar base in the early 2020s.
NASA now views the space station as a test bed for technology development and to collect the medical data needed for future long-duration stays on the moon or voyages to Mars. Completing the station is equally or even more important to the European and Japanese space agencies, which have spent billions developing flight hardware and facilities only to suffer through repeated delays, most recently because of the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Before European and Japanese research modules can be launched, however, the station's solar array truss must be built out to provide the necessary electrical power.
The international space station currently consists of six pressurized modules. At the back end of the outpost is the Russian Zvezda command module featuring two solar arrays and an aft docking port that can accommodate Progress supply ships, Soyuz crew ferry capsules and the European Space Agency's upcoming Automated Transfer Vehicle.
A combined airlock/docking module called Pirs is attached to a downward-facing port on Zvezda's front end. The module's forward port is attached to the Russian Zarya module, a supply and propulsion unit equipped with its own pair of solar arrays. Zarya's front end features a downward-facing docking port used by Progress and Soyuz spacecraft.
Zarya's front end is bolted to a pressurized mating adapter that, in turn, is attached to NASA's Unity module, a multi-hatch node with six ports. Its starboard, or right-side port, connects to the U.S. Quest airlock module while its upper zenith port accommodates the Z1 truss and the now partially stowed P6 solar arrays.
The P6 arrays provided interim power to the U.S. segment of the space station during the initial stages of assembly. An interim cooling system mounted inside P6 was used to dissipate the heat generated by the electrical systems in Destiny lab module. During the most recent shuttle flight last December, NASA activated the station's permanent electrical and cooling systems and the port wing of the P6 array - P6-4B - was retracted. If all goes well, the starboard wing - P6-2B - will be retracted during Atlantis' upcoming mission.
Unity's downward facing port is used by cargo modules brought up by the shuttle and its port hatch is home to another pressurized mating adapter, PMA-3.
Unity's forward port is attached to the Destiny laboratory module. On the forward end of Destiny is another pressurized mating adapter, PMA-2, used as a docking port by visiting space shuttles. The lab module also is home to the station's Canadarm 2 robot arm, a marvel of engineering that is capable of moving, end-over-end like an inchworm, from work site to work site on the solar array truss.
On top of the lab module is the station's main solar array truss, which is mounted at right angles to the long axis formed by the pressurized modules.
The S0 truss segment sits in the middle atop the lab, flanked by the S1 (starboard 1) and P1 (port 1) truss elements. S1, S0 and P1 house four critical electrical equipment and the station's main ammonia cooling system, including huge articulating radiator panels.
Electricity from the solar arrays, known as "primary power," is routed to components in the S0 truss called main bus switching units, or MBSUs. The four MBSUs take that 160-volt primary power and route it to transformers known as DC-to-DC Converter Units, or DDCUs, which lower the voltage to a precisely controlled 124 volts DC. This so-called "secondary power" is then directed to the station's myriad electrical systems using numerous electro-mechanical switches known as remote power controllers.
The eight solar array wings on the completed space station, four on each side, will feed power through separate lines to the MBSUs. For redundancy, power from four SAWs will flow to a pair of major circuits - 1 and 4 - while power from the other four SAWs will be directed to a second pair of circuits - 2 and 3.
The cooling system features two independent ammonia loops - loop A and B - that include large ammonia reservoirs, pumps, cold plates and the plumbing required to route the coolant through the big radiators to dissipate heat.
The loop A and B pumps were powered up during Discovery's visit last December. Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Williams completed the cooling system activation during spacewalks early this year, repositioning large fluid jumpers to route ammonia from the permanent system in loops A and B to heat exchangers in the laboratory module. The interim cooling system then was disabled.
S1 and P1 each feature three sets of ammonia radiators but only one set of cooling panels on each segment is currently extended. In August, the Zarya module's two solar panels will be folded up to provide the clearance necessary for the eventual extension of the other S1 and P1 radiators.
During a shuttle flight last September, the P3 truss segment and P4 solar arrays were bolted to P1 (there is no P2 or S2). P3 features a massive dual-motor solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, which is designed to rotate the outboard solar arrays like a giant paddle wheel to track the sun. P4, like P6, S4 and S6, features solar blankets that stretch 240 feet from tip to tip. In December, a short spacer truss, known as P5, was bolted to the outboard side of P4.
With the attachment of the S3/S4 segments during Atlantis' flight, NASA will resume building out the right side of the main power truss to provide the power necessary for the eventual attachment of the European and Japanese research modules late this year and early next.
During shuttle mission STS-120 in October, the flight that will carry the Harmony node into orbit, the P6 solar array now mounted atop the Z1 truss will be moved to the left end of the main solar power truss, bolted to P5 and redeployed.
"The robotics part we know how to do, I'm not especially concerned about that," said Hill. "But both of those solar arrays have to redeploy. And if we see the same type of behavior on 2B, with frayed guide wires and things like that, I am concerned about how is that going to affect the redeployment of those two solar arrays?"
Moving and redeploying P6, he said, is "probably the sportiest robotic ops we're going to do for the whole assembly."
On that same flight, Harmony will be bolted to Unity's left-side hatch. After the shuttle departs, station astronauts will use the lab's robot arm to remove PMA-2, the shuttle docking port, from Destiny's front end, attach it to Harmony and then move the two components back to the front of the lab module.
This is an especially critical point in the station's construction because space shuttles will be unable to dock at the outpost until PMA-2 and Harmony are in the proper location.
"After shuttle undocks, pulling off PMA-2 from the front of the lab, moving it over to the node and then re-installing the node on the front of the lab, that's huge," Hill said. "Because first, there's no shuttle there so there's only three crew members to get all that done with very limited views outside. And, from the time we pull the PMA off until the whole thing is complete, there's not a shuttle docking port. So that'll be sporty. But all the robotics necessary to do it are well within our experience base."
If all that goes well, including complex spacewalks to route power and cooling to Harmony, Atlantis will return to orbit on mission STS-122 in December to attach the Columbus research module to Harmony's right-side hatch and make the required electrical and cooling connections.
With Columbus in place, powered and cooled by the station's main solar array truss, NASA will turn its attention to launching two modules for the Japanese Space Agency. First up is a pressurized experiment module next February that will be temporarily mounted to the upper hatch on Harmony. The huge Kibo research module then will be launched next April and bolted to Harmony's left-side hatch. The experiment module then will be moved to an upward-facing port on Kibo.
Nine additional shuttle flights are required after that to carry up a final set of solar arrays - S6 - a cupola, a third and final node, supplies and spare parts. Station crew size will expand from three to six in 2009. Here is the current manifest:
"The international space station originally was conceived as a world class research facility," Suffredini said last year. "It will continue to provide that capability for research that you can do in space that can open our eyes to problems on the ground. Today, we have a number of plans to up the research capability, the research suite of hardware, during the assembly process such that we will be able to utilize it.
"However, what we look to ISS for as well is the exploration," he said. "We will use it to test systems that we plan to utilize on the moon and Mars, it's going to be really critical that we build highly reliable systems. The best place to test systems, particularly that have to operate in a zero-gravity environment, would be on the space station."
A FREAK STORM GROUNDS ATLANTIS
NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on mission STS-117 on March 15, but the Feb. 26 hail storm derailed the agency's plans and ultimately delayed launch three months.
"I'll never forget the day of the hail storm itself and then the first time I saw the external tank in the VAB," said Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "I was really wondering if we were going to be able to fix this tank or not."
John Chapman, external tank program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said the hail storm caused more than 4,200 individual dings, dents, pits and gouges to the foam insulation.
Of that total, between 1,400 and 1,500 were tightly clustered at the very tip of the tank near its carbon composite nose cap. Rather than make individual repairs in that area, the foam was sanded down to eliminate the pits and then filled in with sprayed-on insulation. That fresh insulation was then milled to the proper slope and to an acceptable thickness by a cleverly engineered "pencil sharpener" device that rotated about the top of the tank.
Of the remaining damage sites, 449 were clustered together on the side of the oxygen tank and repaired with a second large-area spray. Another 1,038 pits and gouges were fixed using a pourable foam known as "PDL" and 889 dents were fixed by simply sanding them down using a "sand-and-blend" technique. Another 412 sites were so minor no repairs were required.
To make sure the required repairs could stand up to the aerodynamic and thermal rigors of launch, engineers re-assessed the flight performance of past PDL repairs, simulated damage sites using steel balls to impart hail-like crush forces and then subjected repairs to a hot-gas wind tunnel at Marshall.
"We were able to place simulated repairs in close proximity to each other to study the effect of multiple repairs, both side by side and downstream from each other," Chapman said. "In fact, we even developed a drop test capability to be able to drop steel balls that would represent the amount of kinetic energy the hail stones would have ... and then put that into the hot-gas facility and see how it performs."
The goal, Hale said, was assurance no dangerous debris would fall off the tank during ascent.
"We have gone through an extensive set of tests and analyses with the repairs that have been done in these test facilities to ensure they won't release debris and all our testing today indicates that will not happen," he said.
During the first 110 seconds of ascent, atmospheric friction raises the tank's temperature to some 650 degrees in some places and heating continues throughout the climb to space. Along with thermal concerns, foam debris falling off the tank could threaten a Columbia-type impact to Atlantis' heat shield.
"As you accelerate this vehicle supersonically in the lower atmosphere, you build up quite a bit of heat, several hundred degrees," Hale said. "But you increase in temperature all the way up and even in second stage, when you are almost at orbital altitudes, you continue to put heat in.
"The point is, we have to protect both the thermal environment, in other words you cannot allow those temperatures to get to the aluminum-lithium substrate, which would weaken the metal, nor can you allow a significant amount of foam to come off," he said.
"The foam up in the forward part of the tank, because it does get that warm, does have an ablation process, so you lose at the molecular level small pieces of foam, but when we're talking about debris that can cause damage, again, the goal is not to have any of that. That's the kind of testing that was done at the hot-gas facility at Marshall to ensure these repairs don't liberate any significant amount of foam, even at the elevated temperatures."
No previous PDL repairs have ever failed in flight. While there is some slight additional risk flying the repaired tank, Hale said, it is not considered significant.
The hail storm, Chapman said, "left the external tank team with a tremendous amount of work to do. This team has been essentially working 24/7 since the storm, doing engineering analysis, testing and repair of the tank. In my estimation, they have done a fantastic job. This has truly been unique. We've had hail damage before, but never to this magnitude."
Said Leinbach: "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."
As with all post-Columbia shuttle flights, NASA will utilize an upgraded tracking camera network at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to make sure any foam that might fall off is seen as soon as possible.
Columbia was destroyed during re-entry Feb. 1, 2003, because of damage to the leading edge of the ship's left wing that was caused by the impact of foam debris during launch 16 days earlier. The foam in question has been eliminated and a variety of other changes have been made to minimize potentially dangerous debris shedding. The two most recent tanks performed well and NASA managers believe they have done all that can reasonably be done to improve safety.
But the tank still features foam buildups known as ice-frost ramps and the threat of impact damage remains high. The ability to quickly spot such damage, giving engineers time to assess the consequences and possible repair options, is critical.
At launch complex 39A, some 38 16mm cameras are mounted on the launch pad itself with three short-range camera sites around the pad perimeter featuring two 35mm cameras and one high definition TV camera each. Another 11 medium-range camera sites are positioned around the pad between one and six miles away, each one equipped with a 35mm camera and all but one equipped with an HDTV camera. Another 11 long-range camera sites are located between four and 40 miles of the pad. All long-range sites include 35mm cameras, two have 70mm cameras and 10 are equipped with HDTV.
From liftoff through the first 30 seconds of flight, objects an inch wide or larger can be seen. Between 30 seconds and one minute, the resolution drops to objects three inches in diameter or larger and from one minute to 90 seconds, it drops to objects eight inches or larger. Between 90 seconds and booster separation two minutes after liftoff, ground-based tracking cameras can detect objects 15 inches across and pinpoint an impact site to within five feet.
Finally, a radar system is in place featuring one ground-based C-band and two ship-based Doppler X-band instruments to look for debris coming off the external tank.
For Atlantis' flight, eight cameras mounted on the shuttle, its tank and twin boosters will provide close-up views of the external tank and the orbiter's belly during ascent.
Another camera mounted high up on the external tank looking down on the underside of the space shuttle will beam back live television views throughout the eight-and-a-half-minute climb to orbit.
As with Discovery's flight in December, Atlantis is equipped with four other cameras, two near the top of each booster and two mounted near the back end of the powerful rockets. Each booster also carries a camera focused on a region of the tank known for losing small, popcorn-like pieces of foam.
Imagery from the six booster cams will be available after the spent rockets are recovered and towed back to Port Canaveral a few days after launch.
In addition, a digital camera mounted in a cavity where a propellant line enters the belly of the orbiter will photograph the tank as it separates in space.
As if all that wasn't enough, an X-band marine radar seven-tenths of a mile from the pad will be on the lookout for vultures and other large birds. During Discovery's launch in 2005, a large vulture struck the external tank a few seconds after liftoff, rammed by the shuttle at some 70 mph. If any large birds are seen prior to Atlantis' launch, the countdown can be halted briefly if necessary.
POST-LAUNCH INSPECTIONS NOW STANDARD PART OF SHUTTLE FLIGHT
The shuttle's external fuel tank foam and work to minimize debris shedding has been the central focus of NASA's post-Columbia safety upgrades. But a variety of other improvements have been made, including development of new main engine computer technology designed to detect potentially catastrophic vibrations before they develop into "major malfunctions."
The new Advanced Health Management System, or AHMS, flew on one engine in monitor-only mode during the most recent shuttle flight in December. For Atlantis' flight, AHMS will be fully active on one engine, able to automatically shut down the powerplant if problems develop. NASA plans to use AHMS on all three engines starting with the next shuttle flight in August.
Each of the shuttle's three hydrogen-fueled main engines is equipped with a controller that monitors engine performance 50 times per second. The new system, the sixth upgrade for engine controllers since shuttle flights began in 1981, uses new digital signal processors to monitor vibration levels in an engine's high pressure hydrogen and oxygen turbopumps.
Roughly the size of a beer keg, a main engine high pressure hydrogen pump operates at 34,000 rpm while the oxygen pump turns at 23,000 rpm. The new system analyzes data from accelerometers 20 times per second to detect vibrations "indicative of impending failure of rotating turbopump components such as blades, impellers, inducers and bearings," NASA said in a news release.
"If the magnitude of any vibration anomaly exceeds safe limits, the upgraded main engine controller would shut down the unhealthy engine immediately."
Depending on when a main engine shut down, a shuttle crew could be forced to make a risky return to Florida, an emergency landing in Europe or limp into a lower-than-planned orbit. But any of those options would be preferable to a catastrophic turbopump failure.
"The space shuttle main engine project has, for many years, pursued a reliable means to monitor high-pressure turbomachinery health in real time," Tim Kelley, deputy manager of the main engine project, said in a release. "AHMS provides that capability and significantly improves shuttle flight safety."
Not counting pad aborts and the Challenger disaster, which was triggered by a solid-fuel booster failure, only one shuttle main engine has ever shut down prematurely, triggering a dramatic abort to a lower-than-planned orbit in July 1985.
Like all shuttle pilots, Sturckow and Archambault are trained to handle a wide variety of possible aborts they hope will never happen.
Data collected by the wing leading edge impact sensors also will be downlinked to Houston for detailed analysis. Located on each wing's forward spar behind every reinforced carbon carbon panel, the 132 accelerometers will provide data indicating whether anything struck the leading edges during launch.
On the second day of the mission, the astronauts will use Atlantis' robot arm and the 50-foot orbiter boom sensor system - OBSS - extension in a tedious but now routine inspection of the wing leading edge panels and the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap.
A laser sensor on the end of the boom is capable of spotting any wing leading edge damage that could pose a threat to the shuttle. The astronauts will start with the starboard, or right-side, wing leading edge, making multiple passes up and down the wing to cover all the angles. After scanning the nose cap, they will move on to the port wing and repeat the procedure.
The astronauts will need 75 to 90 minutes to complete the starboard leading edge scan, 50 minutes for the nosecap and another 90 minutes for the left wing. The new scanning procedure covers most of the crew cabin as well, eliminating the need for separate photo scans of the cabin. All in all, the flight day two thermal protection system inspections will only take about four hours instead of six.
One of the most effective ways to look for signs of damage occurs during final approach to the space station on flight day three. Sturckow will fly a standard rendezvous profile, approaching the lab complex from behind and below. The terminal phase of the rendezvous procedure begins about three hours before docking with the shuttle trailing the station by about 9.2 miles.
"We'll basically fly up the R-bar and then we will look to stop our approach around 600 feet, and we'll do a full 360-degree pivot while the station crew takes photographs of the underside of the space shuttle Atlantis," Sturckow said in a NASA interview. "The job for us is to set the shuttle up so it's in a good position when we initiate that maneuver, and then we turn the flight controller power off and perform the pivot."
Kotov will snap 800-mm photos, Yurchikhin will handle the 400-mm lens and Williams will operate a video camera. The pictures and video will be downlinked later that day.
Good imagery, radar and impact sensor data are just part of NASA's post-Columbia approach to ascent damage to the shuttle from external tank foam or any other source. The other two components are the crew's ability to repair minor damage and, in a worst-case scenario, the capability of the space station to support a combined crew of 10 until a rescue flight could be mounted.
It would not be easy. The Russian Elektron oxygen generator has a history of malfunctions, there is only one toilet on board and supplies would be tight. Worse, the only way down in a major emergency would be a single three-seat Soyuz capsule.
But NASA and the Russians have pre-positioned additional supplies for just such a contingency, including food, water and lithium hydroxide to scrub carbon dioxide from the air. Going into the STS-117 launch campaign, the station has enough supplies and oxygen generation capability to support the combined 10-member crew for at least 68 days. NASA engineers say the shuttle Discovery could be ready for launch on a rescue flight in just 50 days, by July 28.
NASA managers are increasingly optimistic they will never have to invoke the "safe haven" option. Along with removing all large concentrations of foam on the external fuel tank, engineers have been working on techniques for repairing damage to a shuttle's heat shield tiles and even the critical wing leading edge panels.
Tests carried out during previous post-Columbia spacewalks show small cracks in the reinforced carbon carbon material are repairable with a material known as NOAX. Two repaired cracks subjected to arc jet tests showed the material held up well under actual re-entry level temperatures.
The repair techniques are not officially "certified" for use. But Reilly, who helped develop the procedures, says they would probably get a crippled shuttle safely back to Earth.
"When we first got that task and we were assigned to those jobs, I know for me personally I thought this was almost an insurmountable technical problem," he said. "But of course, we've got a lot of incredibly intelligent folks here working with us and we've got what now look to be some pretty good solutions that are well on their way to getting certified as a repair technique that will survive the re-entry environment. And as you know, the re-entry environment is a pretty dynamic place to be and one of the things that was a surprise to me was really how narrow the margins were on everything we do. So that made it really difficult for the guys working on the materials to come up with the solutions.
"But ... we have a lot of people looking at different options when we first got started on the problem and then took the most suitable options and carried them forward. And Danny and I have both been lucky enough to be involved in the testing and development, both of the materials as well as the techniques, the application techniques and how we would actually effect these repairs. So for either one of us, I would feel pretty confident ... that we would be able to bring it home safely."
Olivas agreed, saying "I would second that. I had the luck and good fortune to work alongside several, many of the engineers back right after Columbia happened when we first started looking at repair options for both tile and RCC repair. I happened to work with the folks working RCC repair and I'm here to tell you, I've got every bit of confidence in what they've done and the hardware they've produced."
One other event on flight day three is worthy of note: Anderson's custom Soyuz seat liner will be moved into the lab complex and his Sokol pressure suit will be tested. Once the seat liner is in place on the station, Anderson will be a member of the Expedition 15 crew, sleeping aboard the laboratory, while Williams will join the shuttle crew and sleeps aboard Atlantis.
A ROBOTIC HANDOFF IN SPACE
With the R-bar pitch maneuver complete, Stuckow will guide Atlantis through a slow quarter-loop to a point about 400 feet directly in front of the station with the shuttle's tail pointed toward Earth and its open payload bay pointed toward pressurized mating adapter No. 2 on the front of the Destiny module. From there, flying the shuttle from the aft flight deck, Sturckow will manually guide Atlantis to a precision docking.
After leak checks and hatch opening, Yurchikhin, Kotov and Williams will welcome the shuttle astronauts aboard and provide a quick safety briefing.
On past flights, rendezvous and docking would have capped a busy day in space. But for Atlantis' crew, docking will kick off a busy afternoon of work to pull the S3/S4 truss segment from the shuttle's cargo bay so it can be handed off to the station's robot arm and safely "parked" overnight.
"The robotic arm operations will actually start immediately after docking, but even prior to us opening the hatches between the space shuttle and the space station," Archambault said in a NASA interview. "Right after docking Pat Forrester and myself will go ahead and grapple the payload with the space shuttle robotic arm. This is about a 30-minute procedure. Pat will be flying the arm and I'll be assisting him, but it's kind of a tricky procedure in that Pat's going to have to reach across the belly of the shuttle payload bay and over the top of the payload and grab it from the starboard grapple fixture on the payload.
Forrester will have just an inch or so of clearance between S3/S4 and the OBSS heat shield inspection boom mounted along the right wall of Atlantis' payload bay. As he is lifting the payload straight up from its perch in the payload bay, he will have to jog it slightly to the left to avoid the OBSS. It is a delicate procedure because of the payload's inertia and the need to avoid any overshoots that could cause it to hit anything.
A similar maneuver was required last September when the P3/P4 truss segments were installed.
"I am what we call R1 for the space shuttle arm," Forrester said in a NASA interview. "I will reach into the payload bay of the space shuttle and will grapple the S3/S4 truss. The grapple fixture is on the S3 portion, and right after that the hatches will be opened, weÕll say our hellos to everyone on board station and then weÕll get right back to work. And, with Lee Archambault as my R2, we will pull the S3/S4 Truss out of the bay, put it through a series of maneuvers and bring it to a point where we can turn it over to the computers, what we call automated maneuvers, and then the computers will fly that arm and the truss section attached out to a position where we can hand it off to the space station robotic arm.
"The S3/S4 weighs about 35,000 pounds, very similar to P3/P4. ItÕs just a little bit heavier, and I think to date this will be the heaviest payload that weÕve delivered to station. The folks, the trainers in the robotic area have simplified things for us and have designed a series of what we would call one-axis maneuvers as we bring it out of the bay and then shift it a little bit to the port side of the orbiter to move it away from the new boom that we carry for inspections. Then weÕll bring it out a little bit higher, push it back a little, do a couple other small maneuvers, and then itÕll be in a position for the computers to fly. So actually itÕs a very simple task."
At that point, Archambault said, "I will hurry over to the space station and then assist Suni Williams, who's one of our space station crew members, and she will have the space station robotic arm ready to go. She will move in and double grapple, if you will, the payload with the space station robotic arm. And then once we get the payload grappled with the space station robotic arm, it will now be double grappled, and then I'll hurry back over to the space shuttle and then assist Pat in ungrappling the space shuttle robotic arm from the payload, and that's where we'll complete our arm operations for that day. We'll leave the payload grappled to the space station robotic arm in that handoff position overnight."
Reilly and Olivas will spend the night sealed up in the Quest airlock module as part of a new "camp out" procedure. The airlock's pressure will be lowered from 14.2 pounds per square inch to 10.2 psi to help the spacewalkers purge nitrogen from their blood and prevent the bends when working in their 5-psi spacesuits. The next morning, after a "hygiene break," Reilly and Olivas will begin donning their spacesuits. Archambault, meanwhile, will return to the Destiny module, take control of Canadarm 2 and move S3/S4 up to a pre-install position just a few inches from S1. He will be assisted by Williams.
"On the morning of flight day 4 weÕre going to start our space station robotic arm operations by performing an automated maneuver, takes about 40 or so minutes, to put it in a pre-install position which is approximately a meter and a half from the S1 truss," Archambault said. "In between that meter and a half and actually installing it, weÕre going to pause for a few moments at around 45 centimeters, to allow our Space Vision System to go ahead and give me a an updated depiction of my exact position with respect to the S1 truss, and be able to install this thing within a one or two centimeter tolerance."
The Space Vision System uses television cameras and powerful software to measure the precise locations of large black dots attached to the truss elements. The SVS software computes the relative positions of the dots to give the arm operator very precise distance and orientation information. Temperature effects can cause distortions of up to five inches and misalignments of 1 to 2 degrees. The SVS helps compensate for any such effects.
Once S1 and S3 are in close proximity, a large claw on the S1 truss will rotate around a capture bar on the S3 segment to pull the two together. Four motorized bolts on S1 then will drive into attachment fittings on S3, firmly locking the two truss elements together. Three of four bolts must engage to call the operation a success. At that point, Reilly and Olivas, now suited up in the Quest airlock, will float out into space and begin the first of two critical spacewalks to hook up and activate S3/S4.
FIRST SPACEWALK KEY STEP IN TRUSS ACTIVATION
During the first spacewalk of STS-117, Reilly and Olivas must connect 13 electrical cables, split between two utility trays at the S1/S3 interface, to route power and data to and from the new truss segments and S1. They also must engage one of the two motors in the solar alpha rotary joint that eventually will move the outboard solar panels to track the sun; they must prepare the arrays themselves for extension; release the clamps holding a folding ammonia radiator panel in place; remove launch locks and re-arrange internal braces to stiffen the new truss components to withstand normal flight loads. They also plan to throw no-longer-needed thermal shrouds overboard.
"The view out there is going to be absolutely awesome, potentially even intimidating to some extent," Olivas said. "I think if you don't find it intimidating you're liable to get careless, and so you have a healthy respect for the environment that you work in and recognize that you are on the tip of this very large structure. I'm very much looking forward not only to turning around and looking at Earth, both in daylight as well as the night, but also turning around and looking into space. Because I can imagine ... the only thing between you and the rest of the universe is, you know, a thin visor. I think it's going to be a pretty neat experience."
Reilly will exit the Quest airlock module first, making his way across a spur to the S0 truss and from there out to the S1 segment where he will hook up two 85-foot-long safety tethers. At that point, Olivas will venture outside.
"Now the way it works out in our EVA is that Jim Reilly kind of has all the real estate on the front side of the truss segment, and I have all the real estate on the back side of the truss segment," Olivas said. "One of the first things that happens after the installation has occurred, we have to basically start putting keep-alive power to all the subsystems on S3/S4."
Reilly will make the electrical connections between S1 and S3, hooking up six cables near the upper part of the S1/S3 interface and seven in a lower utility tray.
"While Jim Reilly takes care of that, my primary responsibility will be to start to get the solar array blanket boxes in from their stowed configuration, get them ready for the deployed configuration. We have a variety of restraints on those boxes that we'll have to pop off and get them ready. I'll do that for both the front side and the back side, the 1A and the 3A side.
"After that's complete my next major task is to go down and reconfigure the photovoltaic radiator, which is just a giant radiator that radiates the heat being generated by the electrical power system on the S4 segment out to space. My job is to go down there on the bottom side of the truss, the nadir side of the truss. A variety of cinches and winches keep it in the compressed configuration. My job is to get those fully deployed, get them opened up, and get it configured so that it can be commanded into the deployed configuration."
"Bru and Suni will be taking the space station arm through a series of maneuvers to position the truss into the proper orientation for installation. Once they have that in the proper orientation, then Suni and Pat Forrester will operate the segment-to-segment attach system to permanently attach that module. The first step of that is operating a claw like mechanism on the S1 side of the interface and that claw will close around a capture bar on S3, bring the two segments together tightly so we can start the bolting sequence. Then Suni and Pat will do the bolting.
"Once that's complete, Bru and Suni can ungrapple the station arm and maneuver it into a position to watch the EVA. By the time the truss is securely attached, the spacewalking crew will be ready and suited up. First thing that they'll be doing is mate the umbilical connections to provide power and commands to the components on the truss and also receive data from those components. The next thing they'll be doing is preparing the solar arrays for deploy. They'll first release the restraints so that the mast canisters, the circular canisters that house the masts, the central structural member, they'll deploy those into position and then they'll release the restraints on the boxes containing the solar array blankets and they'll swing those out into position in preparation for deploy the following day.
"The crew will also release the restraints on the radiator so it can be deployed later on in the EVA," Beck said. "They will start the preparation tasks for the solar alpha rotary joint. They'll be repositioning four struts that provide additional structural integrity to maintain, to take the on orbit loads. They'll also be positioning one of the drive lock assemblies, this is the mechanism that rotates the joint and also locks the joint when it becomes operational. And they'll start to remove the launch locks. So they'll get a good head start getting the SARJ prepped for its operational state."
Toward the end of the spacewalk, the astronauts inside the station will send commands to deploy the folding radiator needed to keep the S4 array's electronics cool during normal operation. The radiator measures 44 feet long and 12 feet wide.
A NEW SET OF SOLAR PANELS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
The space station's solar array truss eventually will stretch the length of a football field, sporting two sets of dual-wing solar arrays on each end of the main truss. The solar array wings, or SAWs, are numbered based on their position on the station with even numbers assigned to panels on the left, or port, side of the main truss and odd numbers assigned to SAWs on the right, or starboard, side.
The P4 segment's two SAWs are numbered 2A and 4A while the P6 SAWs are numbered 2B and 4B. The S4 arrays are designated 1A and 3A while the S6 SAWs will be known as 1B and 3B.
The four sets of solar arrays are essentially identical. In each set, solar power flows from two SAWs into a sequential shunt unit. Power coming into the SSU can vary from 130 to 180 volts DC depending on a variety of factors, including blanket degradation, shadowing, etc.
SSU output can be adjusted as required, but it typically will be set at 160 volts and passed on to an integrated equipment assembly, or IEA. The SSU routes excess power back to the SAWs to be dissipated as heat and it also can be used to isolate a set of SAWs from the power grid if necessary.
Because each solar array wing powers a separate station circuit, the IEAs in each array include two sets of electronics. A direct current switching unit (DCSU), containing six high power switches, routes SAW electricity from the SSU into battery charge/discharge units that regulate the flow of power to and from six batteries, three for each SAW.
When the array's SAWs are in sunlight, the DCSU sends solar power to one of four main bus switching units, or MBSUs, mounted in the S0 truss that. Solar array power is routed through the SARJ, and also into the batteries to charge them up. As the station moves into Earth's shadow, the DCSU begins adding battery power to the flow going to its MBSU to maintain the proper voltage. When the arrays are completely eclipsed, the DCSU sends battery power alone to the MBSU in a continuous, automatic procedure.
The DCSU, the battery chargers and other components in each array's integrated electronics unit are cooled by ammonia circulated through cold plates and then routed to a single deployable radiator. Each of the four sets of arrays that eventually will be attached to the station include its own ammonia cooling system, which is independent of the main cooling systems in the S1 and P1 truss segments.
Electricity from the solar arrays - "primary power" - flows to the MBSUs on S0 and then to transformers that lower the voltage to 124 volts DC. This so-called "secondary power" is then directed to the station's myriad electrical systems using numerous electro-mechanical switches known as remote power controllers.
The S4 solar array wings are marvels of engineering, folding into shallow "blanket boxes" for launch, yet extending some 240 feet from tip to tip when deployed in space. The blankets are extended by a self-erecting central masts made up of 31 "bays," each one measuring about 40 inches deep. Boeing is the prime contractor for the S3/S4 truss segment while Lockheed Martin built the included SAWS. Here's a bit of background from Boeing:
Each SAW is made up of two solar blankets mounted to a common mast. Before deployment, each panel is folded accordion style into a Solar Array Blanket Box (SABB) measuring 20 inches high and 15 feet in length. Each blanket is only about 20 inches thick while in this stored position. The mast consists of interlocking battens that are stowed for launch inside a Mast Canister Assembly (MCA) designed, built and tested by ATK-Able.
When deployed by the astronauts, the SAW deploys like an erector set as it unfolds. Like a human torso, it has two arms when mounted on S4, and they are rotated outwards by astronauts during a spacewalk so they can be fully deployed. Because these blankets were stored for such a long time, NASA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin conducted extensive testing to ensure they would unfold properly once on orbit so the blankets would not stick together. This testing was completed in July 2003 and proved to be successful when the P4 solar array was successfully deployed on STS-115 in September.
When fully deployed, the SAW extends 115 feet and spans 38 feet across and extends to each side of the Integrated Equipment Assembly. Since the second SAW is deployed in the opposite direction, the total wing span is more than 240 feet.
Each SAW weighs more than 2,400 pounds and uses 32,800 solar array cells per wing, each measuring 8-cm square with 4,100 diodes. The individual cells were made by BoeingÕs Spectrolab and ASEC. There are 400 solar array cells to a string and there are 82 strings per wing. Each SAW is capable of generating nearly 32.8 kilowatts (kW) of direct current power. There are two SAWs on the S4 module yielding a total power generation capability approaching 66 kW, enough power to meet the electrical needs of about 30 2,800-square-foot houses, consuming about 2kW of power each.
Following S3/S4 attachment to the power truss on flight day four, the astronauts plan to deploy the new SAWS on flight day five. Getting a head start, flight controllers will send commands while the crew sleeps to unlatch the solar array blanket boxes and to extend each SAW one mast bay. After crew wakeup, the SAWs will be extended, one at a time, in a stepwise fashion, first to 49 percent and then to 100 percent with a half-hour gap in the middle of the sequence to permit the sun to warm up the blankets. The idea is to avoid a problem seen during the first array extensions in 2000 when array slats stuck together and caused problems.
"What happens is these panels tend to stick together and then as the mast is being deployed, the panels would release and they would do that fairly dynamically and you can see how there's a wave that propagates up and down the array and those panels towards the base moved quickly into the blanket box and that did cause some problems with the tensioning mechanism," Beck said of the first P6-2B extension in 2000. "The crew had to go outside during a spacewalk and correct it.
"So the new technique is designed to avoid that dynamic motion. Basically what we do is we deploy the array about halfway out, we let it sit with sun shining on the panels so those panels can warm up and as they warm up, they tend to release. And so we'll sit there for 30 minutes and let the panels release. We'll deploy the 1A array first to the halfway point, wait 30 minutes with sun on it and then complete the deploy of that array. It will be repositioned and we'll do a small attitude maneuver to get sun directly on the 3A array. It will be deployed halfway, same sequence, wait for 30 minutes to warm the panels and then complete the deploy."
"Every person on the crew will have a role because there are a number of things that weÕll be watching for," he said in a NASA interview. "As the solar arrays unfurl, after we initiate the drive command and as these are unfurling, they basically just, as if you had folded up a piece of paper back and forth, we just basically unfurl the whole solar array in that way. But as itÕs unfurling thereÕs a, occasionally the panels that will tend to stick a little bit because theyÕve been boxed up now for quite some time; but as they unfurl theyÕll start to unstick and jostle themselves a little bit, which is normal.
"But what weÕll be watching for are those that might stick a little bit harder than what we expect, and so we have what are called the tension reels, so weÕll have two of our people on the crew that are going to be watching the tension reels the whole time during the deploy. ThereÕll be two of the other folks that will be then counting the individual bays, because we deploy out about halfway, to about 49 percent of the deploy, and then we stop and let sun basically heat up the components so that we donÕt hit a high-tension condition. The problem there is if we hit a high-tension condition then these tension reels could lose their tension on the wires that actually hold everything in position. If thatÕs the case, then we would have to go out and do an EVA so weÕre going to be watching that very carefully. The ground will then leave this at 50 percent for one day-cycle, and then we come back once we hit another day pass, then we will then deploy the solar arrays out the rest of the way to the 100 percent.
"Things we'll be watching for are the tension reels, as I mentioned, but weÕll also be watching a tension bar thatÕs at the base of the solar panel itself, and weÕll be watching to make sure that is basically not moving until we get to the very last panels, and when we start pulling them out to final tension, then that bar at the base will actually separate about 22 inches. Those are the things that weÕll be watching for. But, for the most part, itÕs really just making sure everything just deploys nominally and just in a nice, orderly sequence, nothing sticking, and nothingÕs really trying to jerk too much tension on the mechanisms and the base of the solar array blanket box."
During the P3/P4 attachment last September, the port-side solar alpha rotary joint was configured for operation before the extension of the two SAWs. That was because the P4 arrays had to be rotated before their cooling radiator could be deployed. That is not necessary for the S3/S4 segments, so the crew is reversing that sequence, deploying the new SAWs and radiator first before completing SARJ activation during their second spacewalk on flight day six.
SARJ ACTIVATION AND P6 RETRACTION
Assuming solar array deployment goes smoothly, Swanson and Forrester will spend the night in the Quest airlock module in preparation for a critical spacewalk to configure the SARJ for normal operation and to assist, if necessary, the retraction of the P6-2B solar array extending at right angles to the long axis of the station and the newly installed S4 arrays. P6 must be retracted 14 to 16 bays to permit the S4 arrays to rotate as required to track the sun.
But a partial retraction, while acceptable for a brief period, is not acceptable over the long haul. P6 must be moved by the station's robot arm in October to the left end of the main power truss and the solar array support masts are too fragile to withstand the sort of side-to-side forces they would experience if the move was attempted with more than just a few of the mast bays extended.
"Our whole objective with this plan is to try to reduce the overall time we spend on this array outside during the spacewalks," Beck explained. "And we're trying to complete all the planned activities we had originally had for this mission, so we're trying to minimize that time and trying to put ourselves in a good posture so we can retract it remotely, without the EVA crews assistance. So we start out doing that.
"Because we think it's very likely that the panels are not going to fold up properly, we initiate the retract (from the ground), we're going to start the morning of flight day six, right before our second spacewalk. The ground will actually do some configuration to try to minimize the tension on that array to hopefully give us the best chance for getting that panel to fold right. So the ground will actually do that before the crew ever starts their activities."
All four spacewalkers have received extensive training for assisting the retraction process during the second spacewalk and, if necessary, the third.
"If you've ever tried to fold a map, if you don't have the creases just lined up quite right it's very difficult to get it to fold up properly," Beck said. "It's a similar case here. ... That is one problem that we're anticipating with the 2B array.
Another possible problem is trouble with the guide wires that pass through grommets in each blanket slat.
"You can kind of think of these solar arrays sort of like window blinds, that these guidewires run through the center and through the edges of the array and that's to tend the solar array panels so they'll retract neatly just as if you were raising a blind, the panels on the blind would stack up," Beck said. "And so what happened is, these guidewires were getting hung up on the small rings that are attached to the arrays that the guide wires go through and it was causing the panels to retract unevenly and they were getting hung up. So what we're trying to avoid is that stack of panels being brought down towards the blanket box and possibly spilling out of the blanket box.
"We're expecting we're going to have similar problems with 2B, so our plan involves the initial retraction before we ever send the crew out of the airlock for their spacewalk. We hope to have about an hour of time to try to get the array to start the initial retraction and see if we're going to have that same backward panel folding problem that the 4B array experienced. if we do have that problem, we'll have some time that we can try to redeploy the array and then start the retraction again to see if we can correct the problem that way.
"If not, then the whole reason for doing it before that second spacewalk is that gives us the opportunity to have Pat and Steve correct that backward panel folding during their EVA.
"So once they get out the door, we'll get Pat on the station arm and Steve will also be up on the truss on the other side so that they can both assist us to get retracted," Beck said. "We're shooting for two or three mast bays because we think if we can get it retracted that far we'll have a good clear indication if the panels are folding properly. So if we need them to, we'll have them go up and push on that hinge so that the panels are allowed to fold up properly.
"Once we are done with that small amount of 2B retraction we're going to be doing during that second spacewalk, then Pat and Steve will continue on with their other tasks, which involve prepping that solar alpha rotary joint. They will be positioning the second drive lock assembly so the ground can engage that. They will be installing brace beams, which provide additional structural integrity to the element to carry on orbit loads. And then they'll also start to release the launch locks."
"If it turns out that they have some problems, theyÕll let us know that before we come out of the hatch and weÕll grab a different set of tools and weÕll head up that direction and be prepared to help with that. If things are going well, we probably are still going to go up and get into that vicinity for about the first hour of our spacewalk and be ready to help out, give direction, maybe, if we need to, help the solar array panels fold the right way.
"ItÕs almost like folding a map in your car - you know, once youÕve unfolded the first time you think it would be easy to get it back but itÕs not, and these things have been extended for a while and they have a tendency to want to fold the wrong direction back on themselves. And so weÕll just be ready to help out with whatever is required."
Using custom-built, insulated tools, the spacewalkers can push the blankets along creases to help them fold or manually push grommets along guide wires should any hang ups be spotted.
"I would push along the hinge line if itÕs trying to fold the wrong way," Forrester said. "The other thing is. that sometimes thereÕs a possibility that these guide wires that help guide the solar array down into the box can get hung up on the panels themselves, in which case IÕll use this same tool or another tool that they have kind of manufactured and help that, assist that along the hinges or the where the guide wires run through the panels themselves. And the other part is just watching and being up there to help direct as theyÕre doing the commands inside the space station."
But Forrester and Swanson will only spend an hour or so on the P6 retraction. After that, even if the array remains hung up, they will turn their attention to getting the starboard SARJ activated.
"Even if we run into a lot of problems, weÕre only going to devote about the first hour of our spacewalk to (P6-2B retraction)," Forrester said. "At that point, theyÕll have enough information on the ground to begin to prepare for the next spacewalk, and we will move out to the SARJ and begin the spacewalk that we had already trained for."
And there's plenty to do.
The S3 solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, is equipped with two redundant motors that drive a large gear to slowly spin the outboard solar arrays so they can stay roughly face on to the sun as the station flies through each 90 minute orbit. Power from the arrays, along with data and computer commands, passes through the center of the SARJ without regard to orientation.
Before the SARJ can be activated, both motors, called drive lock assemblies, must be manually engaged and then precisely positioned by flight controllers to ensure the drive teeth mesh properly with the main gear. Braces must be positioned, launch locks and thermal shrouds removed, along with a keel pin used to help mount the S3/S4 truss segments in the shuttle's cargo bay.
In addition, the astronauts must prepare rails on the front face of the new segments to extend the "track" used by the mobile transporter to carry the station's robot arm to and from various work sites.
During the second spacewalk, Forrester and Swanson will concentrate on positioning the second DLA, removing a variety of launch locks and installing the necessary braces to stiffen the truss segment as required.
"We are going out to remove a series of launch locks," Forrester said. "ThereÕs 16 of them that are holding this rotary joint, keeping it from turning. ThatÕs mainly because of the launch loads in the shuttle. And so once we get out there, theyÕre all covered by thermal covers, and weÕll remove those covers then reach in and remove those launch locks. They are basically about a 10-by-12 steel plate being held on by four bolts. WeÕll remove those launch locks and then weÕll put those thermal covers back on for protection, and weÕll bring those 16 launch locks in.
"There are also six launch restraints that we will remove," he said. "There are several other pieces of structure that help just strengthen the actual truss section. Those were not installed for launch also, so thereÕs a little flexibility as the shuttle kind of shakes and bends on the way up there, that the truss would not be damaged. So itÕs really just preparation to be able to rotate the solar array."
During installation of the P3/P4 truss segments last September, spacewalkers Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean ran into problems with supposedly captive washers that floated away during removal of the port SARJ launch locks. More troubling, it took all their combined strength and about a half hour of work to free one stuck bolt that could have prevented the SARJ from rotating.
This time around, Forrester and Swanson will be equipped with a custom-built "torque multiplier" to permit them to apply the force necessary to free tight bolts without stripping the any threads.
"They took a torque multiplier thatÕs in the inventory, that was used for shuttle payloads, and we have modified it so that it will fit on these bolts," Forrester said. "Using that, we donÕt think weÕll have any problem pulling any of the launch restraints off."
WRAPPING UP RETRACTION
Flight controllers do not know what to expect from the P6-2B SAW. While they hope to get it retracted without any intervention by the spacewalkers, they have blocked out time throughout the mission to continue troubleshooting, if necessary.
On flight day seven, while Reilly and Olivas prepare their suits and tools for a third spacewalk on flight day eight, ground controllers have set aside three hours for additional P6-2B retraction work, depending on the SAW's condition after the second spacewalk.
If additional retraction is needed, the plan is to command the mast to pull in one bay and then to use the SAWs beta gimbal joints to rotate the mast about the vertical axis to set up additional motion in the blankets that might work a stuck grommet free from a guide-wire hang up.
"Depending on how successful we are on flight day seven, it's really hard for me to tell you how long we might be spending during that third spacewalk. But during the third spacewalk, the objective will be to retract it the rest of the way if we weren't able to get it all the way retracted. They'll also take a very good, close look, make sure everything is in the right configuration before we latch up the blanket boxes."
If additional retraction work is needed, Reilly and Olivas will do whatever they can during the third spacewalk the next day. NASA is reserving the option of extending Atlantis' mission by two days to permit a fourth spacewalk to finish up any work that might be delayed by the P6-2B retraction work.
If P6-2B remains partially or fully extended on flight day eight, Reilly will anchor himself to the station's robot arm while Olivas moves up to the array mast canister.
"WeÕll retract as far as we can on flight day seven and then stop, and then our objective will be to go out and do pretty much what Bob Curbeam was doing (during the P6-4B retraction work last December), and that is just smoothing out any of the hang-ups that we get on the guide wires, look for any frays like they saw on the opposite solar array panel, work those out so that they can run smoothly and then slowly retract the entire array until we get it completely retracted."
Reilly said based on lessons learned, he's optimistic about getting P6-2B folded back into its canister.
"ItÕs like anything, after you do it a second time you can do it better and faster," he said. "So weÕve taken everything that theyÕve learned and distilled it down with our team and the engineering team here at JSC and at Boeing, to look very closely at what the problems were, what they could be, and whatÕs the best way to solve it. So we think weÕve got a pretty good plan about how weÕre going to approach at least the problems that they saw.
"We can always be surprised and weÕre setting ourselves up so that we can adapt and respond to something else happening up there. WeÕre spending, as you might expect, a lot of training time on the ground looking at the hardware to try to really, truly understand how this system works."
"So our plan will be to go out and replace that valve. ThatÕll take us approximately an hour, hour-and-a-half, and then we have a series of other tasks behind it. ThereÕs a wireless instrumentation system which is being used to monitor the motions within the station itself, how do these mechanical structures flex and bend under all the stresses and loads that they see? That helps the engineers here on the ground model how this structureÕs going to react, how long itÕs going to live, what kind of stresses itÕs going to take, whatÕs the ultimate life of the station.
"WeÕre going to put some of those antennas on the end of the lab as well, so DannyÕs going to be doing that task while IÕm doing the Oxygen Generation System valve replacement, and then weÕll work from there down through a whole series of essentially smaller tasks until we can get them all done if we can. We hope to. If we have everything work well on the solar array, we should be able to accomplish just about everything they have for us. "
ANDERSON REPLACES WILLIAMS ABOARD STATION
After the third spacewalk, assuming P6-2B is fully retracted and all other high-priority tasks are complete, the astronauts will take a break of sorts, enjoying a half day of off-duty time before sharing a joint meal with the station crew and participating in a news conference with reporters back on Earth.
A brief farewell ceremony is planned that evening before hatches are closed between Atlantis and the space station to set the stage for undocking.
"One of the big reasons we do this is so we can get good documentation, photo imagery of the space station as we leave it," Archambault said. "At a minimum, we'll be backing out to approximately 400 feet. If the propellant does not permit, then we'll separate at that point. Propellant permitting, we'll do a 360-(degree trip) round the space station to get good photo imagery from all angles."
As soon as the fly-around is complete, the shuttle astronauts will use the ship's robot arm around to pick up the orbiter boom sensor system for a final set of nose cap and wing leading edge inspections.
"On flight day two, the scans are primarily looking for damage caused by the launch environment," said shuttle Flight Director Cathy Koerner. "Here on flight day 10, what we're looking for are any micrometeoroid impacts that may have occurred while we were on orbit. And again, we're trying to ensure the integrity of the thermal protection system before entry day."
"We periodically take (shuttles) into depot-level maintenance where you can take the systems out, get down to the basic structure to see if there's corrosion going on, you can examine all the parts and make sure they are all working as they were designed to work," Program Manager Wayne Hale said. "We have a process that puts our shuttles into what we call OMDP, orbiter maintenance down period, every three-and-a-half or four years. As a matter of fact Endeavour, is just completing that kind of maintenance period.
"Atlantis times out at the end of calendar year 2008, it's time to put Atlantis into that regularly scheduled maintenance period. That takes about a year to a year and a half to accomplish. So if we were to put Atlantis into that OMDP period starting in 2009, it would be done and ready to fly just at the time the program's ready to end. That doesn't make a lot of sense.
"So what we're going to do is not put Atlantis into an OMDP. ... The current plan is to put Atlantis into a state where we keep the power on, we keep the purges on so that piece parts, black boxes and so forth will be kept healthy for use as spares. This will help us draw down our spares inventory, by the way, but Atlantis will not be in a flyable condition and it won't be in a condition where we could very quickly get into a flyable condition."
Atlantis will remain at the Kennedy Space Center until the end of the shuttle program.
10:30 AM, 6/5/07, Update: Start of countdown on tap; launch forecast 70 percent 'go'
Shuttle engineers are gearing up today for the start of the shuttle Atlantis' countdown to blastoff Friday on a mission to deliver a new set of solar arrays to the international space station. With forecasters predicting a 70 percent chance of good weather, the countdown is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. this evening, targeting a launch attempt at 7:38:02 p.m. Friday.
"All our systems right now are in great shape, we're tracking no constraints that are show stoppers," said NASA Test Director Steve Payne. "The teams are ready and everybody's eager to launch. We're looking forward to a safe and successful assembly mission."
Shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said today she expects a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the only concern being possible showers or thunderstorms in the area. The weather at emergency runways in California, Spain and France also is expected to be good.
"We do expect to see some afternoon thunderstorms in the area on launch day but by launch time, all that weather should move inland with the sea breeze," Winters said. "So for the coast here, the weather looks reasonably promising for launch."
Atlantis originally was scheduled for liftoff on mission STS-117 on March 15, but the flight was put on hold after a freak hail storm Feb. 26 that caused extensive damage to the protective insulation on the shuttle's external fuel tank. Repairing the tank was a major technical challenge, but NASA managers say they are satisfied the repairs will stand up to the thermal and aerodynamic rigors of launch.
"We are relieved that we're finally there," Payne said. "It's been a long waiting period and as you probably know, whenever you're ready to go and you have to stop and wait for a few months, it's a disappointment. But once you spool back up and everything's ready, and it looks like everything's falling into place nicely, the team's really excited and we're ready to get off the ground."
A detailed countdown timeline is posted on the CBS News STS-117 Quick-Look page. Here are highlights (in EDT and hours and minutes to launch):
6:50 PM, 6/4/07, Update: Astronauts arrive at KSC for final preparations
The crew of shuttle Atlantis flew to the Kennedy Space Center today for final preparations before blastoff Friday on a long-delayed space station assembly mission. Arriving in two waves aboard T-38 jet trainers, the astronauts took a moment to greet reporters at the Shuttle Landing Facility around 6:45 p.m.
"It's great to be down here in Florida," said commander Rick Sturckow. "We appreciate this great weather you got for us today to fly in here. If you can just get some weather like this for us on Friday evening, we'll appreciate that, too.
"The crew is very excited to be in Florida. We've spent a long time training for this mission. As you know, we had a little bit of a setback, we were supposed to go in March. We especially appreciate all the great work that was done on ET-124, our external tank. ... We just flew by the launch pad on the way in here. It looks great."
Running three months late because of hail damage to the shuttle's external fuel tank insulation, Atlantis' crew plans to deliver and install a $367 million set of solar arrays and a powerful rotary joint to help them track the sun. They also plan to complete the retraction of another set of arrays so it can be moved as required later this year.
Three spacewalks are planned and the crew is prepared to stage a fourth, supplies permitting, if they run into problems retracting the P6-2B solar array wing.
The countdown for shuttle mission STS-117 is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Tuesday, setting up a launch attempt at 7:38:02 p.m. Friday. NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group has not yet released a launch forecast, but the National Weather Service in nearby Melbourne predicts partly cloudy skies and a 30 percent chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms Friday, decreasing to 20 percent Friday night.
If all goes well, engineers will pump liquid hydrogen and oxygen aboard the orbiter Wednesday evening to power the ship's three electricity producing fuel cells. NASA's mission management team will meet Friday morning to assess launch processing and the weather. If no major problems develop, the shuttle's huge external fuel tank will be loaded with a half-million gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen starting around 9:42 a.m.
Sturckow and his crewmates are scheduled to suit up and head for pad 39A a few minutes before 4 p.m. Friday to strap in for launch.
Today's crew arrival kicks off a busy week of space activity. Aboard the international space station, Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov are gearing up for a six-hour spacewalk Wednesday to complete the installation of micrometeoroid shields on the Zvezda command module.
Yurchikhin and Kotov installed five panels during a spacewalk last week and another 12 are to be installed Wednesday. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.
04:17 PM, 05/31/07, Update: FRR concludes; Atlantis 'go' for June 8 launch
NASA managers today wrapped up a two-day flight readiness review and cleared the shuttle Atlantis and its seven-member crew for blastoff June 8, at 7:38 p.m., on a hail-delayed mission to deliver a new set of solar arrays to the international space station.
"We had a very good review over the past day and half," said Bill Gerstenmaier, director of space operations at NASA headquarters. "I have two things I'd like to announce. First, we've set the launch date for June 8 at 7:38 in the evening. And the second thing is that there was no hail storm the evening before the meeting began."
Launch originally was scheduled for March 15, but the flight was delayed in the wake of a freak hail storm Feb. 26 - the day before the original flight readiness review - that caused major damage to foam insulation protecting the shuttle's external tank. That damage has now been repaired, and shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale said there are no other major issues to be resolved.
"We have a team, particularly in the external tank area, that was hit with this unforeseen and unexpected occurrence of the hail storm," he said. "In spite of a great deal of work that had to be done, they accomplished it in a very professional manner. ... We are extremely confident, we have done perfectly good repairs and we will have a tank that is safe to fly."
The primary goals of mission STS-117 are to deliver a new crew member - Clayton Anderson - to the space station; to install a $367 million set of solar arrays and a powerful rotary joint to help them track the sun; and to complete the retraction of another set of arrays so it can be moved later this year.
Three spacewalks are planned and the crew is prepared to stage a fourth, supplies permitting, if they run into problems retracting the P6 array.
The work is a critical step in a sequence of three shuttle flights to build up the station's electrical power system and clear the way for the long-awaited attachment of European and Japanese research modules late this year and early next.
At the controls aboard Atlantis will be commander Frederick Sturckow, pilot Lee Archambault and flight engineer Steven Swanson. Their crewmates are Patrick Forrester, James Reilly, John "Danny" Olivas and Anderson, who will replace astronaut Sunita Williams aboard the space station.
The astronauts are scheduled to fly to the Kennedy Space Center from Houston Monday evening, arriving around 6:30 p.m. If all goes well, engineers will begin Atlantis' countdown at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
"The processing out at the launch pad is going extremely well," said Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "We got our ordnance on board the ship last night, we'll be pressurizing our hypergolic and MPS (main propulsion system) tanks over the weekend, we have one more round of battery charging for the payload and we'll be ready to pick up the launch countdown Tuesday night.
"The team is really pumped to get this done this time," he said. "We've endured three months of down time due to the hail storm and the recovery from that. ... Team, Atlantis is ready to go and we'll look forward to launch next Friday night."
Atlantis' launch period extends through July 19. But a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload is scheduled for launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station the morning of June 14.
NASA can make four attempts to launch Atlantis over a five-day period - June 8-12 - before standing down for the Atlas and to top off on-board supplies of hydrogen and oxygen. The shuttle launch period would reopen on June 17, regardless of whether the Atlas went on June 14 or 15.
Assuming Atlantis gets off on time, however, the shuttle will dock with the space station around 3:40 p.m. on June 10. Landing back at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for June 19 at around 2:44 p.m. A detailed timeline is available on the CBS News STS-117 Quick-Look page.
02:30 p.m., 05/24/07, Update: Flight plan, launch window update
Work to ready the shuttle Atlantis for launch June 8 on a long-delayed space station assembly mission is going smoothly at pad 39A, officials said today, with four days of contingency time still available to handle unexpected problems.
A two-day flight readiness review is scheduled for May 30 and 31 to assess launch processing and to set an official launch date. A news conference is planned for the afternoon of May 31 with shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale, Launch Director Mike Leinbach and Bill Gerstenmaier, chief of space operations at NASA headquarters.
As of this writing, the target launch time is 7:38:00 p.m. on June 8. The launch period extends through July 19.
The goal of Atlantis' mission is to attach the 36,000-pound S3/S4 solar array segment and rotary joint to the right side of the space station's main power truss, to extend the new arrays and to activate the solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, to permit the arrays to track the sun.
The astronauts also plan to complete the retraction of two solar array blankets that must be folded before the P6 segment can be moved to the left end of the power truss later this year. The crew of the shuttle Discovery ran into major problems retracting one side of the array - P6-4B - in December and procedures have been modified for the P6-2B blankets.
In addition, Atlantis will deliver a new space station crew member - Clay Anderson - and bring Sunita Williams back to Earth after six months in space.
A detailed mission preview will be posted early next week. In the meantime, an updated launch windows chart has been posted on the CBS News STS-117 Quick-Look page
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/currentglance.html
along with a revised mission flight plan. Here is a summary, in EDT and mission elapsed time:
07:30 a.m., 05/15/07, Update: Shuttle Atlantis returns to launch pad
Catching a break from the weather, engineers began hauling the shuttle Atlantis to pad 39A early today for work to ready the ship for blastoff June 8 on a long-delayed space station assembly mission.
Bolted to a mobile launch platform carried by a powerful crawler-transporter, Atlantis began the 3.2-mile trip at 5:02 a.m. If all goes well, the shuttle's MLP will be "hard down" atop pad 39A around noon. Despite initial forecasts calling for possible thunderstorms today, NASA officials said good weather was expected all morning.
Atlantis originally was scheduled for launch March 15, but insulation near the top of the ship's external fuel tank was damaged during a freak hail storm Feb. 26. The tank has now been repaired, with the lighter color foam insulation used to fill in thousands of pits and gouges clearly visible in NASA television shots today.
Rollout had been planned for Wednesday, but engineers completed preparations in time to move the trip up one day. NASA now has four days of contingency time left in the schedule to handle unexpected problems.
11:45 a.m., 05/14/07, Update: Rollout moved up one day
Engineers completed rollout preparations over the weekend and now plan to move the shuttle Atlantis to the launch pad Tuesday, one day ahead of schedule. A powerful crawler-transporter, carrying Atlantis and its mobile launch platform, is scheduled to begin the 3.2-mile trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad 39A at 4 a.m. Tuesday, weather permitting. The forecast calls for lightning and thunderstorms in the area that could cause problems. More of the same is expected Wednesday.
NASA managers plan to meet May 30 and 31 for a formal flight readiness review to assess the status of ground processing and to set an official launch date. Liftoff currently is targeted for 7:37:56 p.m. on June 8. Assuming Atlantis gets to the pad Tuesday, engineers will have four days of contingency time between then and June 8 to handle any unexpected problems.
05:45 p.m., 05/11/07, Update: Hail damage repair work virtually complete; Atlantis, external tank cleared for rollout
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 during a teleconference today. "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."
Rollout to the launch pad is scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, May 16. But 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.
NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on mission STS-117, the first of five planned 2007 shuttle flights, March 15. But during a freak storm that thundered over the launch pad on Feb. 26, the shuttle's external tank was blasted by hail, suffering thousands of pits and gouges in its foam insulation. Wind gusts reached 62 knots and hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was found at the pad.
Most of the damage was restricted to the upper liquid oxygen section of Atlantis' tank. Only a handful of dings were found lower down on the hydrogen section and while two dozen heat shield tiles on the orbiter were scraped by hail that worked its way behind weather protection panels, detailed inspections show the ship's critical carbon composite wing leading edge panels and nose cap were undamaged.
But the hail damage to the foam on the top of the tank was severe and Atlantis had to be hauled off the pad and moved back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs.
"I'll never forget the day of the hail storm itself and then the first time I saw the external tank in the VAB," Leinbach reflected today. "I was really wondering if we were going to be able to fix this tank or not."
John Chapman, external tank program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said today the hail storm caused more than 4,200 individual dings, dents, pits and gouges to the foam insulation.
Of that total, between 1,400 and 1,500 were tightly clustered at the very tip of the tank near its carbon composite nose cap. Rather than make individual repairs in that area, a broad area of foam was sanded down to eliminate the pits and then filled in with sprayed-on insulation. That fresh insulation was then milled to the proper slope and to an acceptable thickness by a cleverly engineered "pencil sharpener" device that rotated about the top of the tank.
Of the remaining damage sites, 449 were clustered together on the side of the oxygen tank and repaired with a second large-area spray. Another 1,038 pits and gouges were fixed using a pourable foam known as "PDL" and 889 dents were fixed by simply sanding them down using a "sand-and-blend" technique. Another 412 sites were so minor no repairs were required.
To make sure the required repairs could stand up to the aerodynamic and thermal rigors of launch, engineers re-assessed the flight performance of past PDL repairs, simulated damage sites using steel balls to impart hail-like crush forces and then subjected repairs to a hot-gas wind tunnel at Marshall.
"We were able to place simulated repairs in close proximity to each other to study the effect of multiple repairs, both side by side and downstream from each other," Chapman said. "In fact, we even developed a drop test capability to be able to drop steel balls that would represent the amount of kinetic energy the hail stones would have ... and then put that into the hot-gas facility and see how it performs."
The goal, Hale said, was assurance no dangerous debris would fall off the tank during ascent.
"We have gone through an extensive set of tests and analyses with the repairs that have been done in these test facilities to ensure they won't release debris and all our testing today indicates that will not happen," he said.
During the first 110 seconds of ascent, atmospheric friction raises the tank's temperature to some 650 degrees in some places and heating continues throughout the climb to space. Along with thermal concerns, foam debris falling off the tank could threaten a Columbia-type impact to Atlantis' heat shield.
"As you accelerate this vehicle supersonically in the lower atmosphere, you build up quite a bit of heat, several hundred degrees," Hale said. "But you increase in temperature all the way up and even in second stage, when you are almost at orbital altitudes, you continue to put heat in.
"The point is, we have to protect both the thermal environment, in other words you cannot allow those temperatures to get to the aluminum-lithium substrate, which would weaken the metal, nor can you allow a significant amount of foam to come off," he said. "The foam up in the forward part of the tank, because it does get that warm, does have an ablation process, so you lose at the molecular level small pieces of foam, but when we're talking about debris that can cause damage, again, the goal is not to have any of that. That's the kind of testing that was done at the hot-gas facility at Marshall to ensure these repairs don't liberate any significant amount of foam, even at the elevated temperatures."
No previous PDL repairs have ever failed in flight. While there is some slight additional risk flying the repaired tank, Hale said, it is not considered significant.
The hail storm, Chapman said, "left the external tank team with a tremendous amount of work to do. This team has been essentially working 24/7 since the storm, doing engineering analysis, testing and repair of the tank. In my estimation, they have done a fantastic job. This has truly been unique. We've had hail damage before, but never to this magnitude."
Said Leinbach: "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."
But Chapman cautioned that shuttle watchers should be prepared for a somewhat strange-looking tank when Atlantis heads for the pad next week. 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 p.m. 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.
05:30 p.m., 04/26/07, Update: Shuttle repairs move into critical phase; NASA opts to bring Williams down from station aboard Atlantis
Repairs to the shuttle Atlantis' hail-damaged external fuel tank are going relatively smoothly, with the first of two large-area foam sprays scheduled to begin as early as Sunday. While rollout to launch pad 39A has slipped several days to around May 15, NASA managers say a launch June 8 is still possible, although the schedule is very tight.
Shuttle managers today also approved a plan to bring space station astronaut Sunita Williams back to Earth aboard Atlantis in June. Williams was launched to the station aboard the shuttle Discovery in December and before Atlantis was damaged by hail during a freak storm in February, she was scheduled to come home aboard the Endeavour in June.
But because of the work to repair Atlantis, Endeavour's flight has slipped to August. NASA managers monitor the cumulative radiation long-duration crews are exposed to and while Williams faced no specific health threat remaining in space through August, sources said there was some concern that her total exposure might preclude any future station flights. By coming home in June as originally planned, she likely will remain eligible for a future flight assignment.
But moving her return up to June also meant moving her replacement, astronaut Clay Anderson, from Endeavour to Atlantis. NASA managers are debating whether to add an astronaut to Endeavour's crew to help out with moving equipment and supplies back and forth between the shuttle and the station.
The crew rotation was approved by NASA managers today "after a more detailed review determined there would be no impact on space station operations or future shuttle mission objectives," NASA said in a statement. "Since an earlier crew rotation was possible, NASA managers decided it would be prudent to return Williams and deliver Anderson sooner rather than later."
As a result, the duration of Williams' flight will be roughly the same as originally planned and on her return, she will set a new space endurance record for female astronauts. She already holds the record for spacewalks by a female flier with 29 hours and 17 minutes of EVA time during four excursions.
Told of the decision earlier today, Williams said she was looking forward to seeing the crew of Atlantis.
"It's going to be a fun flight, hopefully putting on that next solar array and retracting the other one," she said, referring to an array that must be retracted so it can be moved later. "It should be a lot of fun, looking forward to it. Thanks for the news."
NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on mission STS-117, the first of five planned 2007 shuttle missions, March 15. But during a freak storm that thundered over pad 39A on Feb. 26, the shuttle's external tank was blasted by hail, suffering thousands of pits and gouges in its foam insulation. Wind gusts reached 62 knots and hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was found at the pad.
Most of the damage was restricted to the upper liquid oxygen section of Atlantis' tank. Only a handful of dings were found lower down on the hydrogen section and while two dozen heat shield tiles on the orbiter were scraped by hail that worked its way behind weather protection panels, detailed inspections show the ship's critical carbon composite wing leading edge panels and nose cap were undamaged.
John Honeycutt, deputy manager of the external tank project, said April 10 that some 2,664 areas of damage requiring repair had been identified. Two areas, one near the tip of the tank that had between 1,000 and 1,600 hits and the other lower down on the side of the oxygen tank with 200 or so tightly packed impact sites, were so heavily pitted that engineers opted against individual repairs.
Instead, the damaged foam was sanded down so fresh insulation can be sprayed on by tank engineers. About 700 dings and pits were subject to repairs by boring them out and pouring in fresh foam.
Foam sprays normally are carried out robotically at Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The repair sprays will use a different type of foam and it will be applied manually. These are "non-standard" repairs and extensive testing was ordered to make sure the foam will provide the proper pre-launch insulation and also stand up to the rigors of launch without shedding any debris that could damage the shuttle's heat shield.
The first of those sprays could begin as early as Sunday. That's also when engineers plan to begin removing Atlantis' three main engines for main propulsion system inspections to look for signs of contamination from a silicon rubber material used between flights to look for signs of cracks. A small amount of debris was found inside plumbing aboard the shuttle Discovery, prompting concern about similar contamination in Atlantis and Endeavour.
The RepliSet technique is used before and after a shuttle flight to make exact three-dimensional impressions of the fuel line flow liners to look for signs of potentially catastrophic cracks. Engineers apparently missed a small bit of the material after impressions were made in Discovery's flow liners between two of its most recent flights. NASA managers wanted to make sure no similar contamination is present in the main propulsion systems of the other orbiters. So far, no other contamination has been found.
09:00 p.m., 04/17/07, Update: NASA managers reassess Williams' status
NASA managers are reassessing whether to leave astronaut Sunita Williams aboard the international space station until August, a longer-than-planned stay because of a shuttle launch delay, or to bring her home aboard the Atlantis when flights resume in June, sources say.
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Williams was launched to the station aboard the shuttle Discovery in December. She originally planned to return to Earth aboard the shuttle Endeavour in June, after the flight of Atlantis in March. But Atlantis was grounded by hail damage to the ship's external tank and the March launch has been delayed to no earlier than June 8. As a result, Endeavour's launch has slipped to Aug. 9 and along with it, Williams' ride home.
Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief of spaceflight operations, said during a news conference April 10 that barring major problems, Williams would come home in August aboard Endeavour as planned. He said the impact of additional exposure to space radiation was minimal.
Sources, however, now say NASA is revisiting the issue but a timetable for making a final decision was not known.
For her part, Williams said during an earlier interview she was not overly concerned about increased exposure to space radiation or any other aspects of a longer-than-planned stay in space.
"Well, you know, I've been in constant contact with my flight surgeon and he's keeping me up to date on the concerns we have," she told reporters during a news conference April 10. "I think eight months is fine from all the indications I've heard, we're at a time right now where we're not getting too much extra radiation from activity on the sun. So I think right now, all indications say that's no problem."
During an interview Monday evening, she was asked again whether she might come home early.
"I think, actually, the jury is out on that," she said. "I think they are debating this week when to bring me home - on the next shuttle or the shuttle after that. So it is up in the air. That's just par for the course. I have a Navy background and been on deployments that have been extended and shortened. It's no big deal."
Whatever happens, she said, "I'm happy to stay, I'm happy to go home early and get Clay Anderson up here so that he can enjoy his time up in space. We'll just have to see what happens."
Anderson is scheduled to launch aboard Endeavour in August to replace Williams. If a decision is made to bring her home aboard Atlantis in June, Anderson presumbably would be added to that crew and launched ahead of schedule. The impact of such a change on crew training, the sequence of spacewalks aboard the space station and whether NASA would add an astronaut to Endeavour's crew to replace Anderson is not yet known.
08:00 a.m., 04/17/07, Update: Shuttle manifest updated
As expected, NASA managers Monday (4/16/07) approved a revised shuttle manifest covering the next 12 months or so. The space station assembly sequence stays the same, but three missions were assigned to different orbiters to improve the processing flow. By changing the order in which Atlantis and Discovery are launched, NASA can minimize the impact of a long delay this year in the launch of Discovery on ISS assembly mission 13A because of hail damage to the ship's external fuel tank.
08:00 p.m., 04/10/07, Update: NASA hopes to launch Atlantis, with repaired fuel tank, around June 8
Launch of the shuttle Atlantis on a hail-delayed flight to the international space station is slipping to no earlier than June 8, officials said today, to give engineers more time to repair damaged foam insulation on the ship's external fuel tank.
The decision was made after assessing the progress of repairs to date and extensive testing and analysis to evaluate how those repairs will stand up to the thermal and aerodynamic rigors of launch. While agency managers were forced to give up any hope of launching before the May 21 end of the current launch window, the assessment showed it made more sense to stick with the current tank and launch in early June than it did to switch to a new tank.
"If we continue at this pace of repair, we should be looking at a vehicle rollout to the launch pad perhaps as early as May 6 and launch that would come ... no earlier than June the 8th," said shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale. "What we're doing, of course, is letting the work drive the schedule instead of the other way around. We are proceeding with a great deal of caution."
Hale said NASA hopes to launch the shuttle Endeavour on the next flight in the sequence as early as Aug. 5 and, if no major problems develop, two more flights in October and December.
"We sent out the potential manifest to review to all the parts of the shuttle program," Hale said. "We are going to come back Monday afternoon, April 16, and review what people think of that. But I will tell you it depends entirely on when we get done with these ET repairs and launch STS-117. I mean, that's the first part of flying the rest of the flights this year. I would tell you that flying four flights is not outside the realm of possibility, but we want to do this in a safe and orderly manner and we'll just see how it works out."
NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on mission STS-117, the first of five planned 2007 shuttle missions, March 15. But during a freak storm that thundered over pad 39A on Feb. 26, the shuttle's external tank was blasted by hail, suffering thousands of pits and gouges in its foam insulation. Wind gusts reached 62 knots and hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was found at the pad.
Atlantis, shielded by moveable weather protection panels, was unscathed. But NASA managers ultimately decided to move the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for detailed inspections and, if possible, repairs.
As it turned out, most of the damage was restricted to the upper liquid oxygen section of Atlantis' tank. Only a handful of dings were found lower down on the hydrogen section and while two dozen heat shield tiles on the orbiter were scraped by hail that worked its way behind the weather protection panels, detailed inspections show the ship's critical carbon composite wing leading edge panels and nose cap were undamaged.
John Honeycutt, deputy manager of the external tank project, said today some 2,664 areas of damage requiring repair have been identified. Two areas, one near the tip of the tank that had between 1,000 and 1,600 hits and the other lower down on the side of the oxygen tank with 200 or so tightly packed impact sites, were so heavily pitted that engineers opted against individual repairs.
Instead, the damaged foam will be sanded down and fresh insulation will be sprayed on by tank engineers. About 700 dings and pits will be fixed by boring them out and pouring in fresh foam. Honeycutt said about half of those repairs have been completed to date. The remainder of the damage will be fixed by so-called "sand-and-blend" techniques or simply flying as is.
Foam sprays normally are carried out robotically at Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The repair sprays will use a different type of foam and it will be applied manually. These are "non-standard" repairs and extensive testing was ordered to make sure the foam will provide the proper pre-launch insulation and also stand up to the rigors of launch without shedding any debris that could damage the shuttle's heat shield.
Today, managers concluded the engineering team has a reasonable chance of completing the repairs and getting Atlantis off around June 8. Hale said recently ordered inspections of the shuttle's main propulsion system fuel lines will be completed under the umbrella of the external tank work.
"The repairs as they're tracking today, leading to a rollout about the fifth or sixth of May - and again, that's going to depend on how we do with the repairs - but assuming we get out then, we could not launch within the May window, which closes on May 21," Hale said. "That pushes us into the June 8 window.
"If we were to decide today to switch to the new tank (slated for use by Endeavour) we could launch no earlier than June 19. ... We'd like to avoid ... all the effort that's involved in switching tanks. So as long as we're on a good path to repair the hail-damaged tank, we should stay with it."
Assuming the repair work goes as planned and the ongoing analysis shows the repairs will, in fact, be safe, liftoff of STS-117 will be targeted for around 7:34 p.m. on June 8. If that schedule holds up, the shuttle would dock with the international space station June 10, spacewalks would be carried out June 11, 13 and 15, with landing on tap the afternoon of June 19. Launch times for subsequent days in June are posted on the CBS News STS-117 Quick-Look page:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/currentglance.html
The shuttle Endeavour, which had been scheduled for launch in June, will instead slip to around Aug. 5.
Endeavour's crew includes teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan and Clay Anderson, who will replace station crew member Sunita Williams. Williams was launched to the outpost Dec. 9 aboard the shuttle Discovery and if she remains in space until mid August, she will set a new U.S. single-flight duration record of some 250 days.
Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief of manned spaceflight operations, said today NASA is looking at what might be needed to rotate Williams home early aboard Atlantis if the flight faces any additional delays. But barring major problems, he said, she will come home as planned aboard Endeavour.
For her part, Williams said today she was not overly concerned about increased exposure to space radiation or any other aspects of a longer-than-planned stay in space.
"Well, you know, I've been in constant contact with my flight surgeon and he's keeping me up to date on the concerns we have," she told reporters during a news conference earlier today. "I think eight months is fine from all the indications I've heard, we're at a time right now where we're not getting too much extra radiation from activity on the sun. So I think right now, all indications say that's no problem."
Williams' current crewmates - Expedition 14 commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin - are scheduled to return to Earth April 20, along with U.S. space tourist Charles Simonyi, aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin were launched Sept. 18 and on landing, Lopez-Alegria will set a new U.S. single-flight endurance record of 214 days.
Launch dates for downstream shuttle flights are still under discussion and will be assessed during a shuttle/station management review April 16.
But a proposed manifest change would move the third flight in the sequence to just after a Russian Soyuz flight in mid October and delay a high-profile flight to launch the European Space Agency's Columbus module to early December. Again, those dates will require agreement by shuttle and station managers.
In the meantime, Hale said, Atlantis' crew remains in good spirits. Moving the flight to June 8 means what had been a deep overnight mission will instead be conducted during afternoon and evening hours U.S. time. Here is a summary timeline (in mission elapsed time and EDT). A more detailed flight plan is posted on the Quick-Look page.
07:30 p.m., 04/05/07, Update: External tank repairs continue; MPS inspections ordered
With external tank repairs in high gear, NASA managers today ordered removal of the shuttle Atlantis' three main engines for inspections to make sure no contamination is present in the ship's hydrogen fuel lines. While engineers are hopeful the work can be completed under the umbrella of external tank repairs, getting Atlantis off before its May launch window closes remains a major challenge.
The latest issue involves small bits of silicon rubber RepliSet, used to help detect cracks in main propulsion system fuel line flow liners, that were found in the shuttle Discovery recently, prompting concern about similar contamination in Atlantis and Endeavour.
The RepliSet technique is used before and after a shuttle flight to make exact three-dimensional impressions of the fuel line flow liners to look for signs of potentially catastrophic cracks. Engineers apparently missed a small bit of the material after impressions were made in Discovery's flow liners between two of its most recent flights. NASA managers want to make sure no similar contamination is present in the main propulsion systems of the other orbiters.
"This was an easy decision to make," said a NASA official. "No one wants contamination in the propulsion system."
Assuming no other problems are found, engineers say Atlantis' main engines can be removed, the inspections carried out and the engines reinstalled without impacting when the shuttle will eventually take off on a space station assembly mission. The long pole in the tent remains the work needed to repair extensive hail damage to the foam insulation on the top of the ship's external fuel tank.
Senior NASA managers plan to meet April 10 to discuss whether to press ahead with tank repairs for a possible May launch or whether to switch Atlantis to the external tank slated for use by the shuttle Endeavour for the next flight on the manifest. That tank, ET-117, is scheduled to arrive at the Kennedy space Center on Friday.
Switching Atlantis to ET-117 would delay launch to mid June. NASA managers want to stick with the current tank, ET-124, if at all possible.
Astroanut Steve Swanson, awaiting his first flight aboard Atlantis, told a reporter today he was not concerned about flying with a repaired external tank.
"I'm not worried," he said. "I've talked to the engineers and seen the tank and the repairs they are doing. They are doing a very good job. After talking to them, I believe when they tell me the tank is ready, it is going to be just as good as a brand new tank.
"It really doesn't matter to me on which tank (we fly)," he said. "When they are both ready to go, they're both going to be equal, the same amount of safeness, if you want to call it that. I'm happy with either one."
Assuming the ET-124 repairs can be completed in time, the earliest Atlantis could take off using the current tank is believed to be around May 15, after the launch and docking of an unmanned Russian Progress supply ship. And that assumes engineers can compress the current shuttle processing schedule. The shuttle's launch window, based on temperature constraints related to the station's orbit, closes around May 21 and reopens June 8.
Given the extensive foam repairs required, many engineers believe NASA will be hard pressed to get Atlantis off the ground in May, but they are still assessing the work remaining and the results will be presented April 10.
"It looks pretty bleak," one senior engineer said today. "Having to pull the engines, the ET repair and more important, getting comfortable with the ET repair ... (a May launch is) becoming more and more unlikely."
Shuttle planners, meanwhile, continue to assess proposed downstream manifest changes that would move two missions from Atlantis to Discovery and one from Discovery to Atlantis. By changing orbiter assignments, the agency can still get four flights off this year if no other major problems develop.
The proposed changes, which require space station program concurrence, will be discussed during a meeting April 16. The changes, if approved, would result in the following near-term launch schedule (NOTE: assumes STS-117 stays with ET-124; the target date for STS-117 - May 11 - is a place holder; the actual date will depend on the progress of tank repairs):
07:45 p.m., 03/21/07, Update: NASA holds off on tank decision; still hopeful repairs will permit May launch
NASA is pressing ahead with work to repair the shuttle Atlantis' hail-damaged external fuel tank in hopes of getting the orbiter off on a space station assembly mission before the current launch window closes in late May, officials said today.
At the same time, shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale said he is holding open the option of moving Atlantis to a new external tank, scheduled for delivery to the Kennedy Space Center on April 10, if it turns out the current tank needs more extensive work or if there are unresolved safety questions. Under that scenario, launch would be delayed to mid June.
"The repair study is still in work and we need to see how quickly we can make repairs and what the final number and types of repairs come out of the engineering assessment," Hale said. "So I'm hesitant to tell you what the earliest launch date would be based on repairing this tank.
"It is possible we could still squeak into the May part of the launch window. If we go to the other tank, we're probably looking at the middle of June. So we're talking about a difference of maybe three weeks."
While NASA managers are hopeful the current tank can be repaired in time to make the May 21 end of the current launch window, it will be difficult to meet that goal. To have more than a few attempts, Atlantis would have to be back out on the pad by the last week in April, giving engineers a little more than one month to complete repairs and other routine preparations.
But Hale said NASA has until April 10 to make a decision. That's when the next tank will arrive from Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and that's when program managers will have to decide whether to press ahead with repairs or switch Atlantis to the new tank.
Hale said the delay in launching Atlantis will push a flight that had been planned for late this year into 2008, leaving four flights on the agency's 2007 manifest. But however the tank repair issue plays out, Hale said he believes the shuttle program can make up the long-range impact of the delay by the end of 2008.
"There is always speculation about what this means to the long-range manifest," he said. "We expect we will be able to get back on the previously described manifest within about 12 months. So it does not affect us out much more than a year in terms of getting back to the manifest and it certainly does not affect our capability of completing the international space station by 2010."
NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on the first of five planned 2007 shuttle missions March 15. But during a freak storm that thundered over pad 39A on Feb. 26, the shuttle's external tank was blasted by hail, suffering thousands of pits and gouges in its foam insulation. Wind gusts reached 62 knots and hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was found at the pad.
Atlantis, shielded by moveable weather protection panels, was unscathed. But NASA managers ultimately decided to move the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for detailed inspections and, if possible, repairs.
As it turned out, most of the damage was restricted to the upper liquid oxygen section of Atlantis' tank. Only a handful of dings were found lower down on the hydrogen section and while two dozen heat shield tiles on the orbiter were scraped by hail that worked its way behind the weather protection panels, detailed inspections show the ship's critical carbon composite wing leading edge panels and nose cap were undamaged.
Much of the damage to the external tank - some 2,400 sites - can be resolved by either flying as is, sanding and blending areas with relatively shallow crush damage or by pouring in fresh insulation that can be sanded and shaped after it cures. The latter two are considered "standard" repair techniques that are known to hold up well based on past experience.
But up near the very top of the tank, the hail damage was so extensive - some 1,600 sites were catalogued, many of them overlapping - that engineers concluded the best way to make repairs would be to simply remove a large section of damaged robotically sprayed NCFI foam and replace it with hand-sprayed BX insulation.
The two types of foam have different characteristics and manual large-area sprays are considered "non-standard" work that will require considerable analysis to demonstrate the repaired areas can withstand the thermal and aerodynamic rigors of launch.
The tip of the tank experiences the most extreme heating and buffeting during ascent and any foam insulation that might break free could impact the shuttle's heat shield. As the shuttle climbs out of the thick, lower atmosphere, that becomes less of a threat. But for the first 135 seconds or so of flight, foam debris is considered a serious issue because the shuttle is still in air thick enough to quickly decelerate lightweight debris, resulting in high relative impact velocities.
"The issue we're working is from an aerodynamic heating standpoint," said John Honeycutt, deputy manager of the external tank project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "We've always flown the robotically sprayed foam in that area of the tank. ... So the issue, or the thing the technical folks have got to get comfortable with is how does this (BX) foam we're going to spray on (manually) interact with the aerodynamic heating?
"It's a function of how the foam comes off. When we're going up hill, the foam ablates, which means as it heats up, small particles of it just erode away. And what we want to look at is the ablation, or the erosion characteristics of the BX, which is our hand-sprayed foam, in that area."
Hale said engineers "have got to do some work to prove first of all that it doesn't come off in big hunks, we don't think it will, and secondly that it will stand up to the heating and not expand or degrade thermally. And that impact is a major part of the testing that's ahead of us."
Engineers will use a mockup of the tip of the external tank to practice manually spraying on BX foam. The mockup then will be put in a test chamber to assess aerodynamic and thermal effects. That data, plus an assessment of the work to repair the other 2,400 damage sites, will play into the eventual decision on which tank to use.
"We have to go to this engineering evaluation process where we build a mock up, practice spraying foam onto that mockup and trimming it and then putting that into a test facility where we can see how it reacts to ascent heating and other things," Hale said. "So there is that group of work going on, which we think will come to a point where we can evaluate whether we've got a good technique or not about the end of the first week in April. That is one thing. The other thing are these 2,400 damage sites and how quickly we can repair them and with which technique."
The current shuttle launch window closes around May 21 because of thermal issues related to the space station's orbit. The next launch window opens June 8 and extends through July 17. During a management briefing today, engineers laid out two general launch options, one based on use of the current tank and one that assumed a tank swap. The former led to a launch right around the end of the May window while the latter showed a launch around June 17.
But Hale downplayed those timelines, saying that until the analysis is complete, the dates were little more than discussion points. All he would say when pressed was that if engineers are able to complete the 2,400 less demanding repairs faster than currently projected NASa will have a shot at getting Atlantis off before the end of the May window.
Regardless of whether Atlantis flies in May or June, Hale said, "my confidence level we'll be able to repair and fly this tank is high."
06:00 p.m., 03/15/07, Update: External tank assessment continues
Senior NASA managers, including agency Administrator Mike Griffin, plan to meet late next week to assess the shuttle Atlantis' hail-damaged external tank, what will be needed to repair it and when the shuttle, originally scheduled for launch March 15, might be able to take off on a space station assembly mission.
Program managers continue to hold out hope the damage can be fixed before the current shuttle launch window closes May 21. But repairs near the tip of the tank, which experiences the most extreme heating and buffeting during ascent, will require engineers to spray on new foam insulation. That is considered a "non-standard" repair and it will require a detailed engineering analysis to ensure the new foam can stand up to the aerodynamic and thermal rigors of launch, at least until the shuttle is out of the dense lower atmosphere.
"They are still hopeful they can develop flight rationale that will say this is a safe tank," said a NASA official familiar with the ongoing assessment.
Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale today cleared tank workers to begin repairing damage that can be fixed by so-called "sand-and-blend" techniques or filling in isolated dings and pits, both considered "standard" repairs. No spraying will be attempted until engineers practice with a mockup.
Engineers are hopeful the tank can be fixed during a somewhat arbitrarily defined 45-day processing flow that would lead to a launch around May 11. But that is little more than a best-case hope at present and it assumes program managers decide it is safe to press ahead with the manual spraying required to fix the current tank.
NASA could opt to move Atlantis to the tank scheduled for use by the shuttle Endeavour on the next shuttle mission, STS-118, a tank that is scheduled to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in early April. Switching to that tank, however, would delay the Atlantis launch until around June 21 at the earliest and delay Endeavour's flight to late August. Subsequent flights would be similarly affected.
Even if NASA ultimately moves Atlantis to Endeavour's tank, the current hail-damaged tank will still be repaired at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA managers have decided repair crews would have better access at Kennedy than at Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The long-term ramifications of a delay to mid May or late June are not yet clear. Shuttle managers believe they can eventually make up the lost time but with the shuttle program scheduled to end in 2010, "the clock is ticking," said one official. Falling behind now would make it more difficult to recover from problems down the road.
In the near term, the current launch window closes May 21 and reopens June 8, based on thermal issues related to the space station's orbit. The only other known deadline affecting STS-117 launch options involves the age of Atlantis' boosters. Officials say one or more segments will be five years old on July 8, the currently certified maximum age for booster segment propellant loads.
04:00 p.m., 03/12/07, Update: NASA more optimistic about tank repair, but analysis needed to demonstrate safety
Amid ongoing inspections of the shuttle Atlantis' hail-damaged external fuel tank, engineers are optimistic they can make unprecedented repairs at the Kennedy Space Center, avoiding a lengthy launch delay to late June. Until the assessment is complete, NASA officially continues to hold out some hope for a launch attempt in late April, after a Russian mission to the international space station. But engineers say a flight in early to mid May appears much more likely.
And that assumes a detailed, yet-to-be-completed analysis shows repaired foam high above the shuttle won't come off in flight and, if any does, the timing and expected debris size won't pose any significant additional risk of catastrophic impact damage to the shuttle's heat shield.
"The jury is still out on that," said one NASA manager.
That's at least in part because some of the damaged insulation up near the tip of the fuel tank needs to be repaired by spraying on new foam, a so-called "non-standard" procedure that will require test sprays on a mockup before engineers are cleared to attempt repairs on the flight hardware. Relatively shallow pits and dings can be repaired by "sand-and-blend" techniques and in cases of moderate damage, foam can be poured into depressions and then sanded as required.
NASA managers had hoped to launch Atlantis on the first of five planned 2007 shuttle missions March 15. But during a freak thunderstorm that moved over pad 39A on Feb. 26, the shuttle's external tank was blasted by hail, suffering more than 1,000 pits and gouges in its foam insulation. Atlantis, shielded by moveable weather protection panels, was relatively unscathed. But NASA managers ultimately decided to move the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for detailed inspections and, if possible, repairs.
After erecting access platforms, engineers used a grid system to characterize and pinpoint damage across all areas of the tank. NASA managers initially were concerned they might have to move Atlantis to a tank slated for use by the shuttle Endeavour this summer, a tank not scheduled for delivery until early April. Moving to a new tank would have delayed Atlantis' launch to around June 21.
NASA's damage assessment is not yet complete, but during meetings late last week, engineers said they were much more optimistic about making repairs in the Vehicle Assembly Building, with Atlantis still attached, and avoiding a more lengthy delay to late June. But that assumes the engineering analysis provides confidence the non-standard repairs can stand up to the aerodynamic and thermal rigors of launch and won't pose an additional impact threat. And it assumes the major players in launch decisions, including the astronaut office, concur.
More meetings are planned this week to discuss schedule options and as of this writing, NASA managers do not yet have a credible target launch date. Tank repairs aside, the shuttle cannot fly until after the April 7 launch of a space tourist and a fresh crew to the space station and the April 20 landing of the lab's outgoing crew.
Here is the schedule of upcoming events for the Russian missions to and from the international space station:
While NASA has not ruled out a late-April launch, that appears to be a long shot at best given the repairs and supporting analysis that is required.
The May 11 date was little more than a rough guesstimate, sources said, and was not based on any actual repair scenarios. Until the damage assessment is complete, there is no way to generate a credible repair flow and launch processing schedule.
That said, "the real, no-kidding expectation is mid May," an official said today.
For the record, here are the current manifest options for launches May 11 and June 21:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/currentglance.html
05:35 p.m., 02/27/07, Update: Shuttle flight delayed to late April; engineers hope to repair external tank hail damage in VAB
A sudden, explosive thunderstorm Monday battered the shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank with wind-driven, golf ball-sized hail, causing extensive damage to the tank's protective foam insulation. NASA managers said today engineers will have to move the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, delaying launch on a space station assembly mission from March 15 to late April.
With wind gusts as high as 62 knots at launch complex 39A Monday, early estimates indicated some 7,000 visible hail dings or blemishes in the orange insulation, mostly around the top of the external tank. John Chapman, external tank program manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center, said today not all of those dings will require repairs. But initial estimates have identified "hundreds" of sites that will require sanding to smooth over or foam "pours" to fill in deeper pits.
In addition, at least three so-called ice-frost ramps on the upper part of the tank were damaged and two dozen or so shuttle tiles showed signs of minor surface damage.
"This constitutes, in our evaluation, the worst damage that we have ever seen from hail on the external tank foam," shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale told reporters today. "We have had hail a number of times in the past, hail is not unusual in Florida. ... But usually the hail is quite small and rarely causes damage.
"This was large, wind-driven, damaging hail. It is very clear a number of these areas need to be repaired. There is not access on the launch pad so we will be required to move the space shuttle back from the launch pad to the Vehicle Assembly Building."
Launch director Mike Leinbach said today the 3.2-mile trip from pad 39A to the VAB likely will get underway Sunday morning. Once the shuttle is back in the cavernous VAB, where engineers can position access platforms around the tank, Hale said a more accurate assessment of the damage will be made.
In the meantime, "we do not believe we can make the launch window for the March launch of Atlantis," Hale said. "We have a fairly high degree of confidence we can repair this at the Kennedy Space Center. Most likely that would lead us to a launch of Atlantis and her crew ... after the Russian Soyuz changeout."
March 25 marked the end of the March launch window to give Atlantis' crew time to carry out a space station assembly mission and to undock in time for the planned April 7 launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying the station's next full-time crew and American space tourist Charles Simonyi.
Outgoing station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, Mikhail Tyurin and Simonyi are scheduled to return to Earth on April 19 or 20, depending on how much daylight the Russians want for landing. Current agreements between NASA and the Russian space agency require a few days of separation between shuttle and Soyuz missions because of crew rest and other issues.
Assuming a Soyuz landing on April 19 or 20, the next shuttle launch window would open around April 21 or 22 and extend a full month. The next shuttle launch window after that opens June 9.
If a detailed assessment of Atlantis' tank shows the hail damage can, in fact, be repaired inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, Hale said he was optimistic about a late April launch attempt.
"The bottom line here is we will have to roll back to the VAB for repairs," Hale said. "We believe ... it will probably be about a month before we can talk about being back in a launch posture, sometime in late April."
But Chapman said that assumes the damage can be fixed by "sand-and-blend" techniques or by pouring foam into damaged areas and then sanding and smoothing it over. If foam has to be sprayed across wider areas, engineers likely would have to carry out tests to verify the technique can be accomplished with the tank in a vertical orientation in the VAB. And that could take additional time.
But based on the preliminary assessment, "we don't see anything that looks irreparable," he said.
If it turns out the tank cannot be safely repaired in Florida, NASA has the option of switching Atlantis to a tank slated for use in June by the shuttle Endeavour. But that tank is not scheduled to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center until April 10 and it typically takes two months to complete preparations and checkout. In that case, the flight likely would slip into the June launch window.
But Hale said he was optimistic it won't come to that. He also believes the long-term effects of the slip from March 15 to late April will be minimal when all is said and done. While the next few flights would face delays of up to several weeks, "I still believe we have a very strong probability of flying five flights this calendar year."
09:00 a.m., 02/27/07, Update: Flight readiness review begins; engineers assess apparent hail damage to Atlantis' external tank (UPDATED at 1:30 p.m. with launch window options)
Engineers and managers gathered at the Kennedy Space Center today for the start of a two-day flight readiness review faced an unexpected topic of discussion: apparent hail damage to the foam insulation on the shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank.
A strong thunderstorm rumbled across the Florida spaceport Monday afternoon and closed circuit television cameras at pad 39A showed signs of hail damage to the tank. The damage appears extensive, but NASA has not made any decisions on how to proceed.
Atlantis is targeted for launch on a space station assembly mission at 6:44 a.m. March 15. The shuttle must be off the ground by around March 25 to ensure the ship undocks from the space station in time to clear the way for launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft April 7 carrying the lab's next full-time crew and an American space tourist.
Outgoing station crew Mike Lopez-Alegria, Mikhail Tyurin and American space tourist Charles Simonyi are scheduled to return to Earth around April 19. Assuming Atlantis fails to get off in March, the next available shuttle launch window would open just after the Soyuz landing and extend through May 21. The next window after that opens June 9.
Hail damage is difficult to repair at the launch pad because of access issues. While NASA has not officially ruled out repairs at the pad, it does not seem likely at this point. If the tank can be repaired in the Vehicle Assembly Building, an April launch may be possible. If the tank must be shipped back to Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans for repairs, Atlantis would have to use a tank currently slated for a June shuttle flight.
That tank is not scheduled to arrive in Florida until April 10 and it typically takes two months or so to process a tank for flight. Under that scenario, Atlantis' launch on mission STS-117 could slip into the June window.
During preparations for shuttle mission STS-96 in 1999, the shuttle Discovery had to be hauled off the pad to repair hail damage to tank insulation. Discovery also had to be moved back to the Vehicle Assembly Building in 1995 to repair foam damage caused by woodpeckers during preparations for mission STS-70.
But as of this writing, it's not yet clear what impact this week's storm might have. A news conference is planned for later today.
The flight readiness review will assess the hail damage and launch preparations in general. NASA typically sets an official launch date at the conclusion of the FRR. Whether this issue will be resolved by Wednesday remains to be seen.
01:30 p.m., 12/29/06, Update: Setting up STS-117 page; posting flight plan, mission personnel; updating calendar of events
With the shuttle Discovery just back from a successful mission to re-wire the international space station, NASA is setting its sights on preparing the shuttle Atlantis for blastoff March 16 on another complex flight to add a new set of solar arrays to the right side of the lab's main power truss.
A detailed mission overview will be posted here in early January, but in the meantime the flight plan is posted on the CBS News STS-117 Quick-Look page, along with an updated calendar of events and a list of mission personnel where known. Demographic data, the shuttle flight chronology, EVA stats, etc., have been updated to reflect STS-116.
Atlantis is being processed for launch at 6:20 a.m. EDT on March 16 to carry the S3/S4 solar power truss segments into orbit. S3 features the starboard, or right-side solar alpha rotary joint - SARJ - which will slowly rotate the starboard solar wings to track the sun. The attached S4 segment features two huge solar wings that will match the P4 arrays on the left end of the main truss. P4 and the port SARJ, part of the P3 truss segment, were added to the station in September.
The Atlantis astronauts also will attempt to retract a solar wing extending to the right from the P6 truss extending upward from the Unity connecting module. The port-side wing of the P6 solar array - the P6-4B wing - failed to robotically retract during Discovery's mission, but two spacewalking astronauts ultimately were able to coax the folding panels back into their storage canister.
STS-117 Crew Portrait MS4/EV1 James Reilly, MS2/FE/EV4 Steven Swanson, CDR Frederick "Rick" Sturckow,
If all goes well, the P6 segment and its two retracted solar arrays will be moved to the left end of the main power truss in September and bolted to the P5 spacer segment that was attached to P4 during Discovery's December mission. The stowed arrays then will be re-extended to complete the port-side of the power truss. A final set of arrays - S6 - will be attached to the right side of the truss in June 2008.
Here is an abbreviated timeline for STS-117 (in EDT and mission elapsed time):
08:45 p.m., 12/22/06, Update: Shuttle Discovery glides to smooth Florida landing; NASA managers thrilled with success of flight
Dropping out of an overcast sky, the shuttle Discovery glided to a picture-perfect one-orbit-late landing today at the Kennedy Space Center, closing out a complex space station assembly mission and avoiding a feared diversion to New Mexico.
With commander Mark Polansky and pilot William Oefelein at the controls, Discovery flew through a sweeping left overhead turn, lined up on runway 15 and swooped to a smooth touchdown on the broad concrete landing strip at 5:31:24 p.m.
Barreling down the runway with the shuttle's nose still elevated, Oefelein fired Discovery's red-and-white braking parachute, the nose landing gear rotated to the pavement and the orbiter slowly rolled to a stop.
"Houston, Discovery, wheel stop," Polansky radioed.
"Roger, wheel stop, Discovery," astronaut Ken Ham replied from mission control. "You've got a building full of thrilled folks back here in Houston that are thrilled to have you in Florida. Roman, to you and your crew ... congratulations on what was probably the most complex assembly mission to date."
"Thanks for the words," Polansky replied. "You've got seven thrilled people right here and we're just really proud of the entire NASA team that put this together. So thank you, and I think it's going to be a great holiday."
Mission duration was 12 days 20 hours 44 minutes and 24 seconds spanning 5.3 million miles and 203 complete orbits.
"The crew on orbit and the crew on the ground could not have done better," said NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. "I mean, I think when you look back at this mission, they just could not have done better. They did four EVAs (spacewalks) instead of three planned EVAs, accomplishing some additional tasks to get past a stuck solar array that teaches us once again we have a lot to learn about spaceflight and how our hardware performs in spaceflight.
"But we did learn and in the learning we made it better. So it was a wonderful day, it was a wonderful end to a great mission and I'm proud to be here."
Already running one orbit late because of low clouds and threatening rain showers, Polansky, Oefelein and their crewmates awaited a down-to-the-wire decision on whether to attempt a landing at California's Edwards Air Force Base or whether to press ahead for a final chance to make it home to Kennedy.
The only alternative was a landing at White Sands Space Harbor, N.M., a backup site only used once in shuttle history and one that is not equipped to rapidly prepare a shuttle for return to Florida.
Entry flight director Norm Knight, overseeing his first shuttle landing, initial held out hope of going to Edwards when forecasters told him Kennedy appeared to be "no go." But as the time approached for the rocket firing needed to reach Edwards, crosswinds picked up at the Mojave Desert test flight facility and Polansky was told to reset the shuttle's flight computers for a possible Kennedy landing.
With less than seven minutes to go until the critical rocket firing, forecasters with the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston predicted Kennedy would be "go" at landing time and chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, flying a NASA training jet near the runway, gave a thumbs up, saying rain showers were clearly dissipating.
Knight then gave Polansky clearance to proceed with re-entry.
"On behalf of the Kennedy Space Center, Christmas came three days early for us," said Mike Leinbach, launch director at the Kennedy Space Center. "We, uh, a great, great mood to have Discovery out on our runway.
"As you know, we did deploy some folks out to White Sands Space Harbor for a potential landing out there because at certain points late in the mission, it looked like we might have to land out there. So we were fully prepared to do that. We sent 52 folks out there, along with some special equipment, backup equipment we have here at the Kennedy Space Center in case we had to land out there. And we always have a backup crew out at (Edwards) in case we have to go out to California.
"But all that didn't have to happen," Leinbach said. "We came here today, it was a great call by Norm Knight and the flight team. And so it's great to have Discovery home."
Flying upside down and backward over the Indian Ocean, Polansky and Oefelein fired the shuttle Discovery's twin orbital maneuvering system rockets for three minutes and 46 seconds starting at 4:26:30 p.m. to lower the far side of the ship's orbit and set up a landing on runway 15.
The burn went normally and a half hour later, Discovery dropped into the discernible atmosphere 400,000 feet above the south Pacific Ocean.
The sky at Kennedy remained overcast throughout the descent, but the ceilings were well above NASA's 5,000-foot safety limit and the prevailing winds were pretty much right down the runway. Lindsey reported light turbulence just above the runway threshold, but said it posed no problem for Polansky.
Getting Discovery back to Florida was a welcome surprise to the astronauts, their waiting families and NASA managers who feared a diversion to Northrup Strip in White Sands.
Concerned about the threatening weather on both coasts, NASA managers rushed equipment and personnel to White Sands Wednesday and Thursday to assist the astronauts and protect the space shuttle from the elements if it had to land there.
Because NASA does not have the cranes and other equipment stationed at White Sands needed to service the shuttle and lift it up onto a 747 carrier jet for transport back to Florida, engineers estimated it could take a month or more to get Discovery home.
That would have thrown a major wrench into NASA's plans to launch Discovery next fall on a critical mission to deliver a European research module to the space station. But as it turned out, the fears were groundless and Discovery made it home without any major problems.
Polansky, Oefelein, flight engineer Robert Curbeam, Nicholas Patrick, Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter plan to fly back to Houston Saturday.
For Reiter, launched to the station aboard Discovery last July, today's return marks a return to gravity for the first time in some six months. A team of flight surgeons was standing by to assist the veteran space flier, who faces weeks of physical therapy to regain his "land legs."
Reiter was replaced aboard the station by NASA astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams, who was ferried to the lab complex by Polansky and his crewmates. Williams, who joined Expedition 14 commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, plans to remain aboard the station until next spring.
Discovery's mission was the most complex flight yet in the space station assembly sequence, a challenging mission to switch the outpost from interim power to its permanent electrical system.
During two spacewalks, Curbeam and Fuglesang added a spacer segment to the station's main solar array truss and rewired two of the lab's four major power channels. Curbeam and Williams then re-wired the other two channels during a third spacewalk.
The astronauts also had to retract one wing of a huge solar panel in the system that provided the station's interim power. The array is scheduled to be moved to the far left end of the solar array truss next September.
But initial attempts to retract the panel were unsuccessful as the folding slats in the solar blankets repeatedly hung up on guide wires. Curbeam and Fuglesang eventually staged a fourth, unplanned spacewalk last Monday to successfully stow the balky blankets. But the addition of the spacewalk, and a decision to retain a final heat shield inspection Wednesday, pushed landing from Thursday to today.
Along with re-wiring the space station, the astronauts also transferred 69 pounds of oxygen, 47 pounds of nitrogen, delivered 4,800 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station and brought 4,900 pounds of trash and no-longer-needed gear back to Earth.
They also installed a camea on the station's solar array truss, delivered space debris shields for the Russian Zvezda command module, upgraded the U.S. carbon dioxide removal system and delivered a new charcoal bed for an air cleaner.
"This was a tremendous way to end this year, I think it's great to be back here in Florida, it's great to see the teams work and operate together," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief of space flight. "It was just a great, great day."
EDT...........EVENT
12:42:00 PM...Begin 3-hour built-in hold (T-minus 3 hours)
12:42:00 PM...Closeout crew to white room
12:57:00 PM...Astronaut support personnel comm checks
01:30:00 PM...NASA TV coverage begins
01:45:00 PM...Astronaut photo opportunity
03:07:00 PM...Final crew weather briefing
03:17:00 PM...Astronauts don pressure suits
03:42:00 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 3 hours)
03:47:00 PM...Crew departs O&C building
04:17:00 PM...Crew ingress
05:07:00 PM...Astronaut comm checks
05:22:00 PM...Hatch closure
06:07:00 PM...White room closeout
06:22:00 PM...Begin 10-minute built-in hold (T-minus 20m)
06:32:00 PM...NASA test director countdown briefing
06:32:00 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 20m)
06:33:00 PM...Backup flight computer to OPS 1
06:37:00 PM...KSC area clear to launch
06:43:00 PM...Begin final built-in hold (T-minus 9m)
06:54:04 PM...NASA test director launch status verification
07:29:04 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 9m)
07:30:34 PM...Orbiter access arm retraction
07:33:04 PM...Hydraulic power system (APU) start
07:33:09 PM...Terminate LO2 replenish
07:34:04 PM...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic test
07:34:04 PM...IMUs to inertial
07:34:09 PM...Aerosurface movement check
07:34:34 PM...Main engine steering test
07:35:09 PM...LO2 tank pressurization
07:35:29 PM...Fuel cells to internal reactants
07:35:34 PM...Clear caution-and-warning memory
07:36:04 PM...Crew closes visors
07:36:07 PM...LH2 tank pressurization
07:37:14 PM...SRB joint heater deactivation
07:37:33 PM...Shuttle computers take control of countdown
07:37:43 PM...SRB steering test
07:37:57 PM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds)
07:38:04 PM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)
07:38:14 PM...Shuttle roll maneuver begins (alt: 796 feet)
07:38:22 PM...Roll maneuver ends (alt: 3,294 feet)
07:38:37 PM...Engine throttle down to 72 percent (alt: 11,405 feet)
07:38:47 PM...Maximum aerodynamic pressure (684 psf; alt: 20,122 feet)
07:38:53 PM...Main engine throttle up to 104.5% (alt: 25,601 feet)
07:40:09 PM...Booster separation (alt: 30.2 statute miles; velocity: 2,982 mph)
07:40:19 PM...Starts OMS rocket assist
07:40:51 PM...Trans-Atlantic abort window opens (alt: 44.6 sm; vel: 3,533 mph)
07:42:01 PM...Return to launch site abort window closes
07:43:21 PM...Abort to orbit window opens (alt: 67.5 sm; vel: 7,245 mph)
07:43:51 PM...Shuttle rolls to heads up orientation
07:44:21 PM...Press to MECO (alt: 67 sm; vel: 9,536 mph)
07:45:05 PM...Single-engine press to main engine cutoff
07:45:26 PM...3G limiting (alt: 64.3 sm; vel: 13,009 mph)
07:46:22 PM...Trans-Atlantic abort window closes
07:46:28 PM...Main engine cutoff command (alt: 64.7 sm; vel: 16,942 mph)
07:46:34 PM...Zero thrust
A detailed trajectory timeline is available as a SpaceCalc screenshoot on the Current Mission page, along with a full list of ascent abort boundaries.
EDT...........EVENT
Thursday 06/07/07
01:00:00 PM...Begin 13-hour 42-minute hold
03:50:00 PM...JSC flight control team on station
04:00:00 PM...Crew weather briefing
05:00:00 PM...Communications system activation
05:30:00 PM...Crew module voice checks
06:40:00 PM...Flight crew equipment late stow
10:30:00 PM...Rotating service structure to park position
11:30:00 PM...Final tile, debris inspection
Friday 06/08/07
12:30:00 AM...Ascent switch list
02:42:00 AM...Resume countdown
02:42:00 AM...Terminate pad tours
03:02:00 AM...Pad clear of non-essential personnel
03:52:00 AM...Fuel cell activation
04:42:00 AM...Booster joint heater activation
07:27:00 AM...Fuel cell integrity checks complete
07:42:00 AM...Begin 2-hour built-in hold (T-minus 6 hours)
07:52:00 AM...Safe-and-arm system test
08:27:00 AM...Mission management team tanking meeting
09:12:00 AM...Test team ready for fueling
09:42:00 AM...Resume countdown (T-minus 6 hours)
09:42:00 AM...LO2, LH2 transfer line chilldown (could start earlier)
09:52:00 AM...Main propulsion system chill down
09:52:00 AM...LH2 slow fill
10:00:00 AM...Astronaut wakeup
10:22:00 AM...LO2 slow fill
10:27:00 AM...Hydrogen ECO sensors go wet
10:32:00 AM...LO2 fast fill
10:42:00 AM...LH2 fast fill
11:57:00 AM...LH2 topping
12:37:00 PM...LH2 replenish
12:42:00 PM...LO2 replenish
12:42:00 PM...Begin 3-hour built-in hold (T-minus 3 hours)
12:42:00 PM...Closeout crew to white room
12:42:00 PM...External tank in stable replenish mode
12:57:00 PM...Astronaut support personnel comm checks
01:30:00 PM...NASA TV coverage begins
01:45:00 PM...Astronaut photo opportunity
03:07:00 PM...Final crew weather briefing
03:17:00 PM...Astronauts don pressure suits
03:42:00 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 3 hours)
03:47:00 PM...Crew departs O&C building
04:17:00 PM...Crew ingress
05:07:00 PM...Astronaut comm checks
05:22:00 PM...Hatch closure
06:07:00 PM...White room closeout
06:22:00 PM...Begin 10-minute built-in hold (T-minus 20m)
06:32:00 PM...NASA test director countdown briefing
06:32:00 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 20m)
06:33:00 PM...Backup flight computer to OPS 1
06:37:00 PM...KSC area clear to launch
06:43:00 PM...Begin final built-in hold (T-minus 9m)
06:54:02 PM...NTD launch status verification
07:29:02 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 9m)
07:30:32 PM...Orbiter access arm retraction
07:33:02 PM...Hydraulic power system (APU) start
07:33:07 PM...Terminate LO2 replenish
07:34:02 PM...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic test
07:34:02 PM...Inertial measurement units to inertial
07:34:07 PM...Aerosurface movement check
07:34:32 PM...Main engine steering test
07:35:07 PM...LO2 tank pressurization
07:35:27 PM...Fuel cells to internal reactants
07:35:32 PM...Clear caution-and-warning memory
07:36:02 PM...Crew closes visors
07:36:05 PM...LH2 tank pressurization
07:37:12 PM...SRB joint heater deactivation
07:37:31 PM...Shuttle computers take control of countdown
07:37:41 PM...SRB steering test
07:37:55 PM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds)
07:38:02 PM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)
CRITICAL STATION ASSEMBLY MISSION
CBS News
DATE........STS/ISS........Orbiter......MISSION
06/08/07...STS-117/13A.....Atlantis.....S3/S4 solar array truss
........................................segment; P6-2B retraction
08/09/07...STS-118/13A.1...Endeavour....S5 spacer segment; supplies
10/20/07...STS-120/10A.....Discovery....Harmony connecting node;
........................................P6 relocation
12/06/07...STS-122/1E......Atlantis.....Columbus research module
02/14/08...STS-123/1JA.....Endeavour....Japanese experiment module;
........................................Canadian dextrous manipulator
04/24/08...STS-124/1J......Discovery....Japanese Kibo research module
08/08/08...STS-125.........Atlantis.....Hubble Space Telescope
........................................servicing mission
10/02/08...STS-119/15A.....Endeavour....S6 solar array truss segment
11/20/08...STS-126/ULF-2...Discovery....Supplies
TBD........STS-127/2JA.....TBD..........Japanese exposed experiment
........................................facility
TBD........STS-128/17A.....TBD..........Crew equipment (6-person
........................................capability)
TBD........STS-129/ULF-3...TBD..........Supplies
TBD........STS-130/19A.....TBD..........Supplies
TBD........STS-131/ULF-4...TBD..........Contingency re-supply flight
TBD........STS-132/20A.....TBD..........Node 3, cupola
TBD........STS-133/ULF-5...TBD..........Contingency re-supply flight
By the end of assembly, the international space station will mass nearly 1 million pounds and have the pressurized volume of two 747 jumbo jets. Its finished solar array truss will stretch the length of a football field and its eight huge solar array wings will generate, on average, some 75 kilowatts of power, enough to supply 55 average homes. Crew size will be bumped up to six astronauts and cosmonauts by early 2009 with Russian Soyuz spacecraft and NASA's new Orion capsules providing crew ferry and lifeboat capability after the shuttle is retired.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/08/07
Fri 07:38 PM...00...00...00...STS-117 launch
Fri 08:16 PM...00...00...38...OMS-2 rocket firing
Fri 08:28 PM...00...00...50...Post-insertion timeline begins
Fri 10:08 PM...00...02...30...Portable computer, TV setup
Fri 10:18 PM...00...02...40...Robot arm (RMS) powerup
Fri 10:33 PM...00...02...55...RMS checkout
Fri 11:08 PM...00...03...30...SEE (emergency eyewash) setup
Fri 11:18 PM...00...03...40...RMS payload bay survey
Fri 11:38 PM...00...04...00...RMS powerdown
Fri 11:38 PM...00...04...00...External tank umbilical camera downlink
Fri 11:38 PM...00...04...00...Group B computer powerdown
Fri 11:58 PM...00...04...20...Wing leading edge sensor system setup
Fri 11:58 PM...00...04...20...ET handheld video downlink
06/09/07
Sat 12:23 AM...00...04...45...Thermal protection system imagery downlink
Sat 01:38 AM...00...06...00...Crew sleep begins
Assuming Atlantis reaches the desired initial orbit, Sturckow and his crewmates will carry out their own inspections of the shuttle's thermal protection system, photographing the external tank as it tumbles away using digital still and movie cameras. Another digital camera mounted in the shuttle's belly will photograph the tank in detail as it moves away. Lighting is expected to be good and all of the on-board ascent and post-separation imagery will be downlinked before the crew goes to bed.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/09/07
Sat 09:38 AM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup
Sat 11:00 AM...00...15...22...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing
Sat 11:38 AM...00...16...00...Portable computer setup (part 2)
Sat 12:38 PM...00...17...00...Spacesuit checkout preps
Sat 12:48 PM...00...17...10...RMS powerup
Sat 01:03 PM...00...17...25...OBSS unberth
Sat 01:08 PM...00...17...30...Spacesuit checkout
Sat 02:03 PM...00...18...25...OBSS surveys starboard wing
Sat 02:53 PM...00...19...15...Spacesuit transfer preps
Sat 03:33 PM...00...19...55...OBSS surveys nose cap
Sat 04:23 PM...00...20...45...Crew meals begin
Sat 05:23 PM...00...21...45...OBSS surveys port wing
Sat 06:53 PM...00...23...15...OBSS berthing
Sat 07:08 PM...00...23...30...Centerline docking camera installation
Sat 07:38 PM...01...00...00...Fuel cell monitoring system operations
Sat 07:38 PM...01...00...00...Orbiter docking system ring extension
Sat 08:03 PM...01...00...25...Ergometer setup
Sat 08:08 PM...01...00...30...Wing leading edge impact sensor downlink
Sat 08:18 PM...01...00...40...Rendezvous tools checkout
Sat 09:11 PM...01...01...33...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing
Sat 09:18 PM...01...01...40...OBSS laser downlink
Sat 09:48 PM...01...02...10...Astronauts survey tiles on the shuttles OMS pods
06/10/07
Sun 01:08 AM...01...05...30...Crew sleep begins
For Atlantis' flight, the inspection procedures have been modified based on lessons learned during the previous three post-Columbia missions. The scans will take less time, cover a larger area and incorporate the use of a camera on the end of the OBSS to take close-up photographs at the same time the laser scanner is collecting data. With high-resolution photos in hand, flight controllers hope to avoid the need for potential "focused inspections" later, after analysis of the laser data. If any problems are seen in the laser data, the corresponding close-up picture will already be available.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/10/07
Sun 09:08 AM...01...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Sun 10:28 AM...01...14...50...Group B computer powerup
Sun 10:43 AM...01...15...05...Rendezvous timeline begins
Sun 11:26 AM...01...15...48...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing
Sun 12:33 PM...01...16...55...Middeck prepped for docking
Sun 12:48 PM...01...17...10...Spacesuit removal
Sun 12:59 PM...01...17...21...TI burn
Sun 02:03 PM...01...18...25...Orbit 29 sunrise (approximate)
Sun 02:18 PM...01...18...40...Approach timeline begins
Sun 02:38 PM...01...19...00...Rendezvous pitch maneuver
Sun 03:08 PM...01...19...30...Orbit 30 sunset (approximate)
Sun 03:33 PM...01...19...55...Orbit 30 sunrise (approximate)
Sun 03:38 PM...01...20...00...DOCKING
Sun 03:58 PM...01...20...20...Hard mate
Sun 03:58 PM...01...20...20...Leak checks; portable computer reconfig
Sun 04:28 PM...01...20...50...Group B computer powerdown
Sun 04:28 PM...01...20...50...Docking system prepped for entry
Sun 04:58 PM...01...21...20...Hatches open
Sun 05:13 PM...01...21...35...SRMS grapples S3/S4
Sun 05:28 PM...01...21...50...Welcome ceremony
Sun 05:33 PM...01...21...55...Safety briefing
Sun 05:58 PM...01...22...20...S3/S4 unberthing
Sun 06:18 PM...01...22...40...Anderson seat liner transfer
Sun 06:58 PM...01...23...20...REBA checkout
Sun 07:18 PM...01...23...40...S3/S4 handoff
Sun 07:23 PM...01...23...45...Equipment lock preps
Sun 08:38 PM...02...01...00...SRMS ungrapples S3/S4
Sun 08:58 PM...02...01...20...SRMS positioned for S3/S4 attach viewing
Sun 09:13 PM...02...01...35...EVA-1: Procedures review
Sun 11:23 PM...02...03...45...EVA-1: EV1/EV2 mask pre-breathe
06/11/07
Mon 12:18 AM...02...04...40...EVA-1: Crew lock depress to 10.2 psi
Mon 01:08 AM...02...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
On final approach, at a distance of about 600 feet directly below the station on an imaginary line known as the R-bar, Sturckow will guide Atlantis through a slow end-over-end flip known as a rotational (or rendezvous) pitch maneuver. The RPM maneuver will take about nine minutes to complete - three quarters of a degree per second - allowing the station crew to photograph the shuttle's belly with video and digital cameras equipped with 400-mm and 800-mm telephoto lenses.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/11/07
Mon 09:08 AM...02...13...30...STS crew wakeup
Mon 09:38 AM...02...14...00...EV1/EV2 wakeup
Mon 10:13 AM...02...14...35...Mission control: S3 activation begins
Mon 10:18 AM...02...14...40...EVA-1: Crew lock 14.7 psi repress
Mon 10:33 AM...02...14...55...EVA-1: Hygiene break
Mon 11:08 AM...02...15...30...EVA-1: Crew lock depress to 10.2 psi
Mon 11:38 AM...02...16...00...SSRMS S3/S4 install
Mon 11:48 AM...02...16...10...EVA-1: Camp out EVA preps
Mon 01:18 PM...02...17...40...EVA-1: Spacesuit purge
Mon 01:33 PM...02...17...55...EVA-1: Spacesuit pre-breathe
Mon 01:43 PM...02...18...05...S1-S3 Segment-to-segment bolting
Mon 02:23 PM...02...18...45...SSRMS ungrapples S3/S4
Mon 02:23 PM...02...18...45...EVA-1: Crew lock depressurization
Mon 02:38 PM...02...19...00...SSRMS to park position for EVA-1
Mon 02:58 PM...02...19...20...EVA-1: Airlock egress
Mon 03:18 PM...02...19...40...SSRMS support
Mon 03:18 PM...02...19...40...EVA-1: EV1: S1-S3 lower utility tray electrical connections
Mon 03:38 PM...02...20...00...EVA-1: EV2: Release aft-fwd solar array blanket box restraints
Mon 03:58 PM...02...20...20...EVA-1: EV1: S3 black box shroud removal
Mon 03:58 PM...02...20...20...EVA-1: EV1: Keel pin rotate
Mon 04:13 PM...02...20...35...ISS: Sokol suit pressure checks
Mon 04:28 PM...02...20...50...EVA-1: EV1: S1-S3 upper utility tray electrical connections
Mon 05:38 PM...02...22...00...EVA-1: EV2: Release radiator panel cinch/winch
Mon 05:48 PM...02...22...10...EVA-1: EV1: Release 1A-3A beta gimbal restraint
Mon 06:08 PM...02...22...30...EVA-1: EV2: Unstow aft SABB
Mon 06:28 PM...02...22...50...EVA-1: EV2: Remove MLI insulation
Mon 06:28 PM...02...22...50...EVA-1: EV1: Unstow forward SABB
Mon 06:48 PM...02...23...10...EVA-1: EV1: Install SARJ drive motor 2
Mon 06:58 PM...02...23...20...EVA-1: EV2: Rigidize AJIS struts (4)
Mon 07:38 PM...03...00...00...EVA-1: SARJ prep (locks)
Mon 08:08 PM...03...00...30...Photo-voltaic radiator deploy
Mon 08:38 PM...03...01...00...EVA-1: Cleanup and ingress
Mon 09:23 PM...03...01...45...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization
Mon 09:38 PM...03...02...00...Spacesuit servicing
06/12/07
Tue 12:38 AM...03...05...00...ISS crew sleep begins
Tue 01:08 AM...03...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
Tue 04:23 AM...03...08...45...Mission control: S4-1A mast deploy (1 bay)
Tue 07:33 AM...03...11...55...Mission control: S4-3A mast deploy (1 bay)
"Flight day four is really the big day where station is going to take on a new look," said Kelly Beck, lead space station flight director. "When the crew wakes up on flight day four, they're going to begin their robotics and EVA preparation activities. The airlock will be repressurized, that'll allow JR and Danny to get out, do their morning routine, grab some breakfast, go back inside and then they'll be assisted ... to get them suited up. In the meantime, while they're getting ready for their spacewalk, Bru (Archambault) and Suni will be performing their robotic operations to install the truss.
Source: Boeing
S3 and S4 were delivered to the Kennedy Space center in 2000 and 2001 respectively. They originally were scheduled for launch in 2004, but the flight was put on hold in the wake of the Columbia disaster. Because of the long launch delay, engineers replaced the batteries in S4.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
Tue 09:08 AM...03...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Tue 10:38 AM...03...15...00...SSRMS maneuver
Tue 11:43 AM...03...16...05...1A mast deploy to 49 percent
Tue 12:23 PM...03...16...45...1A mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 01:13 PM...03...17...35...3A mast deploy to 49 percent
Tue 01:23 PM...03...17...45...Spacesuit swap
Tue 01:53 PM...03...18...15...3A mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 02:33 PM...03...18...55...Joint crew meal
Tue 03:33 PM...03...19...55...Crew off duty time
Tue 05:33 PM...03...21...55...SRMS moves to retraction viewing point
Tue 05:58 PM...03...22...20...EVA-2: Tools configured
Tue 06:03 PM...03...22...25...SSRMS WS-2 config translation
Tue 07:03 PM...03...23...25...Equipment lock preps
Tue 09:03 PM...04...01...25...EVA-2: Procedures review
Tue 10:03 PM...04...02...25...PAO event
Tue 10:48 PM...04...03...10...MT translates from WS-2 to WS-3
Tue 11:23 PM...04...03...45...EVA-2: Mask pre-breathe and tool config
06/13/07
Wed 12:18 AM...04...04...40...EVA-2: Crew lock to 10.2 psi
Wed 12:38 AM...04...05...00...ISS crew sleep begins
Wed 01:08 AM...04...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
Working at a computer in the Destiny lab module, Reilly will send commands to fully extend the new SAWs.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/13/07
Wed 12:18 AM...04...04...40...EVA-2: Crew lock to 10.2 psi
Wed 12:38 AM...04...05...00...ISS crew sleep begins
Wed 01:08 AM...04...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
Wed 07:48 AM...04...12...10...MCC: P6-2B retracted 1/2 bay
Wed 09:08 AM...04...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Wed 09:48 AM...04...14...10...EVA-2: Crew lock repress to 14.7 psi
Wed 10:03 AM...04...14...25...EVA-2: Hygiene break
Wed 10:38 AM...04...15...00...EVA-2: Crew lock depress to 10.2 psi
Wed 10:58 AM...04...15...20...EVA-2: Camp out EVA preps
Wed 11:23 AM...04...15...45...SSRMS set for retraction viewing
Wed 12:03 PM...04...16...25...P6-2B retraction operations
Wed 12:28 PM...04...16...50...EVA-2: Spacesuit purge
Wed 12:43 PM...04...17...05...EVA-2: Spacesuit pre-breathe
Wed 12:58 PM...04...17...20...SSRMS maneuver
Wed 01:33 PM...04...17...55...EVA-2: Crew lock depressurization
Wed 02:08 PM...04...18...30...EVA-2: Airlock egress
Wed 02:48 PM...04...19...10...EVA-2: P6-2B retraction
Wed 03:33 PM...04...19...55...EVA-2: Deploy SARJ BR
Wed 04:03 PM...04...20...25...EVA-2: EV3: Install SARJ DLA 1
Wed 04:03 PM...04...20...25...EVA-2: EV4: SARJ locks
Wed 05:03 PM...04...21...25...EVA-2: EV3: SARJ locks
Wed 07:58 PM...05...00...20...EVA-2: Cleanup and ingress
Wed 08:33 PM...05...00...55...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization
Wed 08:48 PM...05...01...10...Spacesuit servicing
06/14/07
Thu 12:08 AM...05...04...30...ISS crew sleep begins
Thu 12:38 AM...05...05...00...STS crew sleep begins
"We were going to go out there and remove a series of launch locks and launch restraints on that SARJ, that rotary joint, that would allow that external portion to turn," Forrester said in a NASA interview. "But the program, knowing that we might have some problems retracting that other solar array wing up there, which is 2B, theyÕd like to look ahead at that and so while Swanny and I are putting our suits on and in the airlock, they will begin to try and retract that solar array.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
Thu 08:38 AM...05...13...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Thu 11:38 AM...05...16...00...SSRMS maneuvers to P6-2B retraction viewing
Thu 11:38 AM...05...16...00...P6-2B retraction window opens
Thu 03:03 PM...05...19...25...P6-2B retraction window closes
Thu 03:03 PM...05...19...25...Post-EVA tool reconfig
Thu 03:03 PM...05...19...25...Crew meals begin
Thu 04:03 PM...05...20...25...Spacesuit swap
Thu 04:53 PM...05...21...15...Equipment lock preps
Thu 05:43 PM...05...22...05...EVA-3: Tools configured
Thu 07:18 PM...05...23...40...O2 system reconfig
Thu 08:23 PM...06...00...45...EVA-3: Procedures review
Thu 09:23 PM...06...01...45...PAO event
Thu 10:53 PM...06...03...15...EVA-3: Mask pre-breathe and tool config
Thu 11:48 PM...06...04...10...EVA-3: 10.2 depress
06/15/07
Fri 12:08 AM...06...04...30...ISS crew sleep begins
Fri 12:38 AM...06...05...00...STS crew sleep begins
"We'll have a maximum of three-and-a-half hours to continue that retraction and this is the part where we'll retract one bay, do that beta gimbal motion, to do the back and forth sinusoidal motion, see what we get and we'll continue that until the point where if we have snags in these guidewires, we don't want to get them bunched up near the bottom of the blanket box," Beck said. "So if at any point we get a snag down close to the blanket box, that's when we'll stop and we'll finish it up the following day during the (third) spacewalk.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
Fri 08:38 AM...06...13...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Fri 09:18 AM...06...13...40...EVA-3: Hygiene break
Fri 09:48 AM...06...14...10...EVA-3: Airlock repress
Fri 10:28 AM...06...14...50...EVA-3: Camp out EVA prep
Fri 10:38 AM...06...15...00...EVA-3; Airlock depress to 10.2 psi
Fri 11:58 AM...06...16...20...EVA-3: Spacesuit purge
Fri 12:13 PM...06...16...35...EVA-3: Spacesuit pre-breathe
Fri 01:03 PM...06...17...25...EVA-3: Crew lock depressurization
Fri 01:08 PM...06...17...30...SSRMS EVA-3 maneuver
Fri 01:38 PM...06...18...00...EVA-3: Airlock egress
Fri 01:48 PM...06...18...10...EVA-3: Containment inspection
Fri 02:48 PM...06...19...10...EVA-3: EV1: H2O/H2 vent valve R&R
Fri 02:48 PM...06...19...10...EVA-3: EV2: EWIS antenna installation
Fri 04:18 PM...06...20...40...EVA-3: Stow S3 drag link
Fri 05:18 PM...06...21...40...EVA-3: EV1: MMOD shield bolt release
Fri 05:18 PM...06...21...40...EVA-3: EV2: APFR relocation
Fri 05:48 PM...06...22...10...EVA-3: Node/Service Module LAN cable routing
Fri 06:33 PM...06...22...55...EVA-3: 13A.1 get aheads
Fri 07:23 PM...06...23...45...EVA-3: Cleanup and airlock ingress
Fri 07:53 PM...07...00...15...Work site three configuration
Fri 08:03 PM...07...00...25...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization
Fri 08:18 PM...07...00...40...Spacesuit servicing
Fri 08:48 PM...07...01...10...SRMS powerdown
Fri 11:38 PM...07...04...00...ISS crew sleep begins
06/16/07
Sat 12:03 AM...07...04...25...MT moves from WS-3 to WS-5
Sat 12:08 AM...07...04...30...STS crew sleep begins
Assuming P6-2B is fully retracted before the third spacewalk begins, "we have a list of what are essentially get-ahead tasks," Reilly said. "The primary one on our list is the, the hydrogen vent valve replacement in the end cone of the U.S. lab, which will allow the oxygen generating system that has gone up on a recent flight to be used by the crew to regenerate station atmosphere with oxygen generation on board.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
Sat 08:08 AM...07...12...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Sat 10:28 AM...07...14...50...SSRMS walks off MBS to lab
Sat 11:08 AM...07...15...30...Crew off duty time
Sat 02:58 PM...07...19...20...MT moves from WS-5 to WS-1
Sat 03:08 PM...07...19...30...Joint crew meal
Sat 04:23 PM...07...20...45...Post-EVA transfer and reconfig
Sat 05:23 PM...07...21...45...O2 system teardown
Sat 06:23 PM...07...22...45...Joint crew news conference
Sat 07:03 PM...07...23...25...Joint crew photo
Sat 07:23 PM...07...23...45...Farewell ceremony
Sat 07:38 PM...08...00...00...Egress and hatch closure
Sat 08:18 PM...08...00...40...Leak checks
Sat 08:38 PM...08...01...00...Rendezvous tools checkout
Sat 11:08 PM...08...03...30...ISS crew sleep begins
Sat 11:38 PM...08...04...00...STS crew sleep begins
The next morning, Archambault will take the controls for undocking, guiding Atlantis straight away from the space station before beginning a slow loop around the outpost to permit his crewmates to photograph the station and its new solar arrays.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/17/07
Sun 07:38 AM...08...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Sun 09:48 AM...08...14...10...Group B computer powerup
Sun 10:18 AM...08...14...40...Centerline camera installation
Sun 10:48 AM...08...15...10...Undocking timeline begins
Sun 11:31 AM...08...15...53...UNDOCKING
Sun 12:46 PM...08...17...08...Separation burn No. 1
Sun 01:14 PM...08...17...36...Separation burn No. 2
Sun 01:18 PM...08...17...40...Group B computer powerdown
Sun 01:33 PM...08...17...55...SRMS powerup
Sun 01:48 PM...08...18...10...PMA-2 depressurization
Sun 01:48 PM...08...18...10...Crew meals begin
Sun 02:48 PM...08...19...10...OBSS unberth
Sun 03:33 PM...08...19...55...Starboard wing survey
Sun 04:48 PM...08...21...10...Nose cap survey
Sun 05:38 PM...08...22...00...Port wing survey
Sun 06:53 PM...08...23...15...OBSS berthing
Sun 07:53 PM...09...00...15...SRMS powerdown
Sun 08:08 PM...09...00...30...NC-5 rocket firing
Sun 10:53 PM...09...03...15...STS crew sleep begins
Sun 11:08 PM...09...03...30...ISS crew sleep begins
Assuming no problems are found, the astronauts will spend flight day 11 packing up and rigging the shuttle for re-entry. Sturckow, Archambault and Swanson will test the shuttle's flight control systems, fire up one of its three hydraulic power units and test fire maneuvering jets. The two pilots also will use a computer simulator to practice landing procedures.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/18/07
Mon 07:08 AM...09...11...30...STS crew wakeup
Mon 10:08 AM...09...14...30...Cabin stow
Mon 11:08 AM...09...15...30...Flight control system checkout
Mon 12:18 PM...09...16...40...Reaction control system hotfire
Mon 12:33 PM...09...16...55...PILOT landing practice
Mon 01:33 PM...09...17...55...Deorbit review
Mon 02:03 PM...09...18...25...Crew meal
Mon 03:03 PM...09...19...25...Cabin stow resumes
Mon 03:38 PM...09...20...00...L-1 comm check
Mon 03:58 PM...09...20...20...PAO event (all)
Mon 04:18 PM...09...20...40...Entry video setup
Mon 05:18 PM...09...21...40...Launch-entry suit checkout
Mon 06:18 PM...09...22...40...Recumbent seat setup
Mon 06:58 PM...09...23...20...Wing leading edge sensor system deact
Mon 06:58 PM...09...23...20...KU-band antenna stow
Mon 07:08 PM...09...23...30...Ergometer stow
Mon 07:18 PM...09...23...40...PGSC stow (part 1)
Mon 07:18 PM...09...23...40...SRMS powerdown
Mon 10:38 PM...10...03...00...STS crew sleep begins
Touchdown back at the Kennedy Space Center is planned for around 2:44 p.m. on June 19.
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/19/07
Tue 06:38 AM...10...11...00...Crew wakeup
Tue 08:43 AM...10...13...05...Group B powerup
Tue 08:58 AM...10...13...20...IMU alignment
Tue 09:23 AM...10...13...45...PGSC stow (part 2)
Tue 09:28 AM...10...13...50...GIRA stow, PGSC stow
Tue 09:43 AM...10...14...05...Deorbit prep timeline begins
Tue 01:42 PM...10...18...04...Deorbit ignition (orbit 171)
Tue 02:44 PM...10...19...06...KSC Landing
With touchdown, Atlantis will be left with just two more missions: A flight in December to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus research module and a final voyage in late 2008 to service the Hubble Space Telescope. After that flight, Atlantis will become the first of NASA's space shuttles to be retired from flight status.
HH...MM...SS....EDT..........EVENT
Tue 06/05/07
...............08:30:00 PM...Call to stations
70...32...00...09:00:00 PM...Countdown begins
Wed 06/06/07
...............10:30:00 AM...Russian ISS spacewalk begins
54...32...00...01:00:00 PM...Begin 4-hour hold
...............04:30:00 PM...Russian ISS spacewalk ends
50...32...00...05:00:00 PM...Resume countdown
49...02...00...06:30:00 PM...Fuel cell oxygen loading begins
46...32...00...09:00:00 PM...Fuel cell oxygen load complete
46...32...00...09:00:00 PM...Fuel cell hydrogen loading begins
44...02...00...11:30:00 PM...Fuel cell hydrogen loading complete
Thu 06/07/07
43...02...00...12:30:00 AM...Pad open; ingress white room
42...32...00...01:00:00 AM...Begin 4-hour hold
38...32...00...05:00:00 AM...Countdown resumes
38...32...00...05:00:00 AM...Main engine preps
36...02...00...07:30:00 AM...Tile inspection
30...32...00...01:00:00 PM...Begin 13-hour 42-minute hold
27...42...00...03:50:00 PM...JSC flight control team on station
26...32...00...05:00:00 PM...Communications system activation
26...02...00...05:30:00 PM...Crew module voice checks
21...02...00...10:30:00 PM...Rotating gantry moves to park position
Fri 06/08/07
16...50...00...02:42:00 AM...Resume countdown
16...30...00...03:02:00 AM...Pad clear of non-essential personnel
15...40...00...03:52:00 AM...Fuel cell activation
11...50...00...07:42:00 AM...Begin 2-hour hold (T-minus 6 hours)
11...05...00...08:27:00 AM...Mission management team tanking meeting
09...50...00...09:42:00 AM...Resume countdown (T-minus 6 hours)
09...50...00...09:42:00 AM...Liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen transfer line chilldown
09...40...00...09:52:00 AM...Main propulsion system chill down
09...40...00...09:52:00 AM...LH2 slow fill
09...10...00...10:22:00 AM...LOX slow fill
09...05...00...10:27:00 AM...Hydrogen ECO sensors go wet
09...00...00...10:32:00 AM...LOX fast fill
08...50...00...10:42:00 AM...LH2 fast fill
07...35...00...11:57:00 AM...LH2 topping
06...55...00...12:37:00 PM...LH2 replenish
06...50...00...12:42:00 PM...LOX replenish
06...50...00...12:42:00 PM...Begin 3-hour hold (T-minus 3 hours)
06...50...00...12:42:00 PM...Closeout crew to white room
06...50...00...12:42:00 PM...External tank in stable replenish mode
06...02...00...01:30:00 PM...NASA TV coverage/commentary begins
05...47...00...01:45:00 PM...Crew photo opportunity on NASA TV
03...50...00...03:42:00 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 3 hours)
03...45...00...03:47:00 PM...Crew departs O&C building
03...15...00...04:17:00 PM...Crew begins boarding Atlantis
02...25...00...05:07:00 PM...Astronaut comm checks
02...10...00...05:22:00 PM...Hatch closure
01...10...00...06:22:00 PM...Begin 10-minute hold (T-minus 20m)
01...00...00...06:32:00 PM...NASA test director countdown briefing
01...00...00...06:32:00 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 20m)
00...05...00...07:32:00 PM...Launch window opens
00...02...55...07:35:07 PM...LO2 tank pressurization
00...02...35...07:35:27 PM...Fuel cells to internal reactants
00...01...57...07:36:05 PM...LH2 tank pressurization
00...00...07...07:37:55 PM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds)
00...00...00...07:38:02 PM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/08/07
Fri 07:38 PM...00...00...00...STS-117 Launch
06/09/07
Sat 01:38 AM...00...06...00...Crew sleep begins
Sat 09:38 AM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup
Sat 02:03 PM...00...18...25...Thermal protection system survey
06/10/07
Sun 01:08 AM...01...05...30...Crew sleep begins
Sun 09:08 AM...01...13...30...Crew wakeup
Sun 03:38 PM...01...20...00...Atlantis docks with space station
Sun 05:58 PM...01...22...20...S3/S4 unberthing with shuttle arm
Sun 07:18 PM...01...23...40...S3/S4 handoff to station arm
06/11/07
Mon 01:08 AM...02...05...30...Crew sleep begins
Mon 09:08 AM...02...13...30...Crew wakeup
Mon 11:38 AM...02...16...00...S3/S4 installation
Mon 02:58 PM...02...19...20...EVA-1: Airlock egress
Mon 09:23 PM...03...01...45...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization
06/12/07
Tue 01:08 AM...03...05...30...Crew sleep begins
Tue 09:08 AM...03...13...30...Crew wakeup
Tue 11:43 AM...03...16...05...1A mast deploy to 49 percent
Tue 12:23 PM...03...16...45...1A mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 01:13 PM...03...17...35...3A mast deploy to 49 percent
Tue 01:53 PM...03...18...15...3A mast deploy to 100 percent
06/13/07
Wed 01:08 AM...04...05...30...Crew sleep begins
Wed 07:48 AM...04...12...10...MCC: P6-2B retracted 1/2 bay
Wed 09:08 AM...04...13...30...Crew wakeup
Wed 12:03 PM...04...16...25...P6-2B retraction operations
Wed 02:08 PM...04...18...30...EVA-2: Airlock egress
Wed 02:48 PM...04...19...10...EVA-2: P6-2B retraction
Wed 08:33 PM...05...00...55...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization
06/14/07
Thu 12:38 AM...05...05...00...Crew sleep begins
Thu 08:38 AM...05...13...00...Crew wakeup
Thu 11:38 AM...05...16...00...P6-2B retraction window opens (if needed)
Thu 03:03 PM...05...19...25...P6-2B retraction window closes
06/15/07
Fri 12:38 AM...06...05...00...Crew sleep begins
Fri 08:38 AM...06...13...00...Crew wakeup
Fri 01:38 PM...06...18...00...EVA-3: Airlock egress
Fri 08:03 PM...07...00...25...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization
06/16/07
Sat 12:08 AM...07...04...30...Crew sleep begins
Sat 08:08 AM...07...12...30...Crew wakeup
Sat 06:23 PM...07...22...45...Joint crew news conference
Sat 07:23 PM...07...23...45...Farewell ceremony
Sat 07:38 PM...08...00...00...Hatch closure
Sat 11:38 PM...08...04...00...Crew sleep begins
06/17/07
Sun 07:38 AM...08...12...00...Crew wakeup
Sun 11:31 AM...08...15...53...Shuttle undocks from station
Sun 03:33 PM...08...19...55...Thermal protection system survey
\Sun 10:53 PM...09...03...15...Crew sleep begins
06/18/07
Mon 07:08 AM...09...11...30...Crew wakeup
Mon 11:08 AM...09...15...30...Flight control system checkout
Mon 12:18 PM...09...16...40...Reaction control system hotfire
Mon 10:38 PM...10...03...00...Crew sleep begins
06/19/07
Tue 06:38 AM...10...11...00...Crew wakeup
Tue 01:42 PM...10...18...04...Deorbit ignition (orbit 171)
Tue 02:44 PM...10...19...06...Kennedy Space Center Landing
DATE/EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
06/08/07
Fri 07:34 PM...00...00...00...STS-117 Launch
06/09/07
Sat 01:34 AM...00...06...00...Crew sleep begins
Sat 09:34 AM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup (begins flight day 2)
Sat 01:59 PM...00...18...25...Heat shield survey begins
06/10/07
Sun 01:34 AM...01...06...00...Crew sleep begins
Sun 09:34 AM...01...14...00...STS crew wakeup (FD-3)
Sun 04:15 PM...01...20...41...Atlantis docks with space station
Sun 06:34 PM...01...23...00...S3/S4 power truss unberthing
06/11/07
Mon 01:34 AM...02...06...00...STS crew sleep begins
Mon 09:34 AM...02...14...00...STS crew wakeup (FD-4)
Mon 02:09 PM...02...18...35...Power truss bolted in place
Mon 03:24 PM...02...19...50...EVA-1: Airlock egress
Mon 08:04 PM...03...00...30...Photo-voltaic radiator deploy
Mon 09:49 PM...03...02...15...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization
06/12/07
Tue 01:34 AM...03...06...00...STS crew sleep begins
Tue 09:34 AM...03...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup (FD-5)
Tue 01:04 PM...03...17...30...1A mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 02:34 PM...03...19...00...3A mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 04:14 PM...03...20...40...Crew off duty time
06/13/07
Wed 01:34 AM...04...06...00...STS crew sleep begins
Wed 09:34 AM...04...14...00...STS crew wakeup (FD-6)
Wed 11:19 AM...04...15...45...P6-2B retraction attempt
Wed 02:34 PM...04...19...00...EVA-2: Airlock egress
Wed 03:14 PM...04...19...40...EVA-2: P6-2B retraction attempt
Wed 08:59 PM...05...01...25...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization
06/14/07
Thu 01:04 AM...05...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
Thu 09:04 AM...05...13...30...STS crew wakeup (FD-7)
Thu 12:04 PM...05...16...30...P6-2B retraction window opens
Thu 03:29 PM...05...19...55...P6-2B retraction window closes
06/15/07
Fri 01:04 AM...06...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
Fri 09:04 AM...06...13...30...STS crew wakeup (FD-8)
Fri 02:04 PM...06...18...30...EVA-3: Airlock egress
Fri 08:29 PM...07...00...55...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization
06/16/07
Sat 12:34 AM...07...05...00...STS crew sleep begins
Sat 08:34 AM...07...13...00...STS crew wakeup (FD-9)
Sat 11:34 AM...07...16...00...Crew off duty time
Sat 06:49 PM...07...23...15...Joint crew news conference
Sat 07:49 PM...08...00...15...Farewell ceremony
Sat 08:04 PM...08...00...30...Egress and hatch closure
06/17/07
Sun 12:04 AM...08...04...30...STS crew sleep begins
Sun 08:04 AM...08...12...30...STS crew wakeup (FD-10)
Sun 12:12 PM...08...16...38...Atlantis undocks from station
Sun 04:14 PM...08...20...40...Heat shield survey begins
Sun 10:49 PM...09...03...15...STS crew sleep begins
06/18/07
Mon 07:04 AM...09...11...30...STS crew wakeup (FD-11)
Mon 10:34 PM...10...03...00...STS crew sleep begins
06/19/07
Tue 06:34 AM...10...11...00...Crew wakeup (FD-12)
Tue 01:41 PM...10...18...07...Deorbit ignition (orbit 171)
Tue 02:43 PM...10...19...09...KSC Landing (approximate)
DATE.......EDT...........EVENT
03/15/07...TBD...........Space station reboost maneuver for Soyuz launch
03/27/07...TBD...........23 Progress undocks from Zvezda aft port
03/29/07...TBD...........Soyuz TMA-9 relocation from Zarya nadir port to Zvezda aft port
04/07/07...01:31:03 PM...Soyuz TMA-10/ISS-15 crew/space tourist launch
04/09/07...03:03:00 PM...Soyuz TMA-10 docking at Zarya nadir port
04/20/07...06:11:00 AM...Soyuz TMA-9/ISS-14 crew/space tourist undocking
04/20/07...09:30:00 AM...Soyuz TMA-9/ISS-14 crew/space tourist landing
The current shuttle launch period closes May 21 based on temperature constraints related to the station's orbit. The next launch period after that opens June 9.
As of late last week, three broad options were on the table: A launch in late April; a launch May 11 after an arbitrarily chosen 45-day VAB repair flow; and a launch June 21 with a new tank.
As this writer's own "option exercise," here is the STS-117 flight plan adjusted for a May 11 launch. As with a March 15 launch, major mission events would take place in the late night/pre-dawn hours U.S. time (times in EDT and mission elapsed time):
DATE/TIME......DD...HH...MM...EVENT
05/11/07
Fri 07:18 AM...00...00...00...STS-117 launch
Fri 01:18 PM...00...06...00...Crew sleep begins
Fri 09:18 PM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup
05/12/07
Sat 01:43 AM...00...18...25...Heat shield inspection begins
Sat 01:18 PM...01...06...00...Crew sleep begins
Sat 09:18 PM...01...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
05/13/07
Sun 03:59 AM...01...20...41...Shuttle docks with space station
Sun 06:18 AM...01...23...00...S3/S4 solar array truss unberthing
Sun 08:33 AM...02...01...15...S3/S4 handoff to station robot arm
Sun 01:18 PM...02...06...00...STS crew sleep begins
Sun 09:18 PM...02...14...00...STS crew wakeup
Sun 11:18 PM...02...16...00...S3/S4 installation
05/14/07
Mon 03:08 AM...02...19...50...EVA-1: Airlock egress
Mon 09:33 AM...03...02...15...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization
Mon 01:18 PM...03...06...00...STS crew sleep begins
Mon 09:18 PM...03...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
05/15/07
Tue 12:48 AM...03...17...30...1A solar array mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 02:18 AM...03...19...00...3A solar array mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 01:18 PM...04...06...00...STS crew sleep begins
Tue 09:18 PM...04...14...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Tue 11:03 PM...04...15...45...P6-2B solar array retraction attempt
05/16/07
Wed 02:18 AM...04...19...00...EVA-2: Airlock egress
Wed 02:58 AM...04...19...40...EVA-2: P6-2B retraction assist (if needed)
Wed 08:43 AM...05...01...25...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization
Wed 12:48 PM...05...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
Wed 08:48 PM...05...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Wed 11:48 PM...05...16...30...P6-2B retraction window opens (if needed)
05/17/07
Thu 03:13 AM...05...19...55...P6-2B retraction window closes
Thu 12:48 PM...06...05...30...STS crew sleep begins
Thu 08:48 PM...06...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
05/18/07
Fri 01:48 AM...06...18...30...EVA-3: Airlock egress
Fri 08:13 AM...07...00...55...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization
Fri 12:18 PM...07...05...00...STS crew sleep begins
Fri 08:18 PM...07...13...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Fri 11:18 PM...07...16...00...Crew off duty time
05/19/07
Sat 06:33 AM...07...23...15...Joint crew news conference
Sat 07:33 AM...08...00...15...Farewell ceremony
Sat 07:48 AM...08...00...30...Egress and hatch closure
Sat 11:48 AM...08...04...30...STS crew sleep begins
Sat 07:48 PM...08...12...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Sat 11:56 PM...08...16...38...Shuttle undocks from space station
05/20/07
Sun 03:58 AM...08...20...40...Starboard wing survey
Sun 10:48 AM...09...03...30...ISS crew sleep begins
Sun 06:48 PM...09...11...30...STS crew wakeup
Sun 09:48 PM...09...14...30...Cabin stow
Sun 10:48 PM...09...15...30...Flight control system checkout
Sun 11:58 PM...09...16...40...Reaction control system hotfire
05/21/07
Mon 10:18 AM...10...03...00...STS crew sleep begins
Mon 06:18 PM...10...11...00...Crew wakeup
05/22/07
Tue 01:25 AM...10...18...07...Deorbit ignition (orbit 171)
Tue 02:27 AM...10...19...09...KSC Landing
A more detailed version of this timeline is posted on the CBS News STS-117 Quick-Look page:
PLT Lee Archambault, MS1/EV3 Patrick Forrester, MS3/EV2 John "Danny" Olivas
DATE/EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT
03/16/07
Fri 06:20 AM...00...00...00...STS-117 Launch (planned)
Fri 12:20 PM...00...06...00...Crew sleep begins
Fri 08:20 PM...00...14...00...Crew wakeup
03/17/07
Sat 12:15 AM...00...17...55...Heat shield inspection begins
Sat 10:50 AM...01...04...30...Crew sleep begins
Sat 06:50 PM...01...12...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
03/18/07
Sun 02:00 AM...01...19...40...Atlantis docks with space station
Sun 04:20 AM...01...22...00...S3/S4 unberthing
Sun 10:50 AM...02...04...30...Crew sleep begins
Sun 06:50 PM...02...12...30...STS crew wakeup
Sun 11:20 PM...02...17...00...S3 robotically bolted to S1 truss segment
03/19/07
Mon 12:10 AM...02...17...50...EVA-1: Airlock egress
Mon 06:35 AM...03...00...15...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization
Mon 10:50 AM...03...04...30...STS crew sleep begins
Mon 06:50 PM...03...12...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Mon 10:50 PM...03...16...30...1A array mast deploy to 100 percent
03/20/07
Tue 12:20 AM...03...18...00...3A array mast deploy to 100 percent
Tue 10:20 AM...04...04...00...STS crew sleep begins
Tue 06:20 PM...04...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Tue 11:20 PM...04...17...00...EVA-2: Airlock egress
03/21/07
Wed 05:45 AM...04...23...25...EVA-2: Airlock repressurization
Wed 10:20 AM...05...04...00...STS crew sleep begins
Wed 06:20 PM...05...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
03/22/06
Thu 03:25 AM...05...21...05...Crew off duty time
Thu 10:20 AM...06...04...00...STS crew sleep begins
Thu 06:20 PM...06...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Thu 11:20 PM...06...17...00...EVA-3: Airlock egress
03/23/07
Fri 05:45 AM...06...23...25...EVA-3: Airlock repressurization
Fri 10:20 AM...07...04...00...STS crew sleep begins
Fri 06:20 PM...07...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Fri 09:20 PM...07...15...00...Crew off duty time
03/24/07
Sat 04:20 AM...07...22...00...Joint crew news conference
Sat 05:20 AM...07...23...00...Farewell ceremony
Sat 10:20 AM...08...04...00...STS crew sleep begins
Sat 06:20 PM...08...12...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
Sat 10:05 PM...08...15...45...Atlantis undocks from space station
03/25/07
Sun 01:20 AM...08...19...00...Final heat shield inspection begins
Sun 09:20 AM...09...03...00...STS crew sleep begins
Sun 05:20 PM...09...11...00...STS crew wakeup
Sun 09:05 PM...09...14...45...Flight control system checkout
03/26/07
Mon 12:30 AM...09...18...10...Deorbit review
Mon 09:20 AM...10...03...00...STS crew sleep begins
Mon 05:20 PM...10...11...00...Crew wakeup
03/27/07
Tue 12:30 AM...10...18...10...Deorbit ignition (orbit 171)
Tue 01:32 AM...10...19...12...KSC Landing