Shuttle rolled out to launch pad

[Guest Glenn]

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20 ... 02,00.html

 

THE US space shuttle Atlantis was moved to its oceanside launch pad early today, as NASA readies itself to resume construction of the International Space Station later this month.

 

Twice thwarted from being rolled out by overnight thunderstorms earlier this week, the shuttle began an eight hour crawl to the launch pad at 2am (4pm AEST).

 

Despite the delay, NASA still has plenty of time to prepare the shuttle for blastoff as early as August 27, said Kennedy Space Centre spokesman Bruce Buckingham.

 

The mission will be the agency's first space station assembly flight since before the 2003 Columbia accident forced NASA to ground the shuttle fleet for safety upgrades.

 

Columbia fell apart on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere because falling insulation foam from the external fuel tank had knocked a hole in its wing during liftoff. Seven crew members died.

 

The three remaining US space shuttles are the only spacecraft capable of hauling large components to the $US100 billion ($130.88 billion) multinational space station, and the project must be completed before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

 

Shuttle Discovery returned from a successful test flight last month, clearing the way for NASA to resume flying up to five regular missions per year.

 

"We've gone through a very difficult period in the last 3-1/2 years," Atlantis astronaut Joe Tanner said in an interview.

 

"We needed to understand some things that we weren't maybe paying enough attention to before. We've done that work and feel pretty good about it."

 

Tanner and his crew mates have been training for four years to install the station's next major module - a second set of solar arrays that will double the station's onboard power.

 

With laboratories built by Europe and Japan due to arrive as early as next year, boosting the station's power supply is a crucial step.

 

The solar array module that will be carried aboard Atlantis weighs nearly 16 tonnes - one of the heaviest loads ever carried aboard a shuttle. It fills the shuttle's payload bay.

 

"It's a bit of a shoehorn operation to even get it out of the payload bay when we're docked with station," Tanner said.

 

Installation of the arrays requires back-to-back spacewalks on three days of the flight.

 

Four of the six astronauts assigned to the flight have been trained for spacewalks.

 

Tanner and his crew mates have one more major training exercise planned before launch. Next week, the six Atlantis astronauts are scheduled to scramble aboard the shuttle to participate in a practice launch countdown.

 

 

[Uncle Chop Chop]

When was the last time Atlantis flew in space?

 

 

[Guest Steve R]

Robbo makes a fair point but in fairness the NASA web site is a navigational nightmare.

 

Everything you wanted to know about Atlantis is on the link below

 

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/shuttle/resources/orbiters/atlantis.html