SETH BORENSTEIN,
AP Science Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - With Tropical Storm Ernesto breathing down their necks,
NASA managers gave up on a Tuesday space shuttle launch and prepared to move Atlantis indoors if the storm continues to threaten
NASA managers gave up on a Tuesday space shuttle launch and prepared to move Atlantis indoors if the storm continues to threaten
The
National Hurricane Center's Monday morning forecast put Ernesto's track almost directly over
Kennedy Space Center late Wednesday or early Thursday, and listed a nearly 50 percent chance of tropical storm force winds just south of the cape.
If NASA decides to move Atlantis, it won't start actually moving the shuttle until Tuesday, giving engineers the opportunity to still launch on Sept. 3 if Ernesto's track moves away from Florida, NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said Monday.
The preparations are already started but the final decision on whether to move the shuttle likely won't be made before Tuesday morning, he said.
Mission Control informed astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth, about the delay in the launch of the six visitors to his home at the international space station.
"Sounds like everyone's got a lot of replanning to do," Williams said. "We're flexible."
NASA is caught between two competing interests: a tight launch schedule to get Atlantis in orbit and a need to keep the multibillion shuttle from preventable damage. NASA rules say the shuttle should not be outside in winds of more than 45 mph.
It takes nearly two days of preparations to get Atlantis from the launch pad into its massive Vehicle Assembly Building.
The first step was the delicate removal of Atlantis' super-cooled on-orbit fuel and other potentially dangerous supplies. After that, NASA removes the explosive devices on the shuttle, its external fuel tank and twin rocket boosters. The slow-moving crawlers then take 12 hours to get the shuttle from the launch pad safely indoors.
Moving Atlantis off the pad would put the space agency in a time crunch, and a delay of Atlantis' launch could threaten the space agency's short-term goal of finishing construction of the international space station and its long-term goal of returning people to the moon, space experts say.
NASA wants to launch by Sept. 7 so the shuttle's visit to the international space station doesn't interfere with the trip of a Russian Soyuz in mid-September.
The launch window for the mission is also tight, running only through Sept. 13 because NASA wants to launch the shuttle to the space station during daylight so it can photograph the shuttle's external fuel tank, where insulating foam has fallen off during previous launches. The shuttle Columbia was doomed after foam hit a wing, causing a breach that allowed hot gases to penetrate during its return to Earth.
After September, there are only two days to try a launch in October and only a few days in December. If they miss those, NASA would have to wait until next year.
If the decision is made to move Atlantis, it would take at least nine days to move Atlantis indoors, then back out to the pad and launch — the fastest time NASA has done something like that was over 11 days in 1999.
Liftoff originally had been set for Sunday afternoon, but it was delayed until Tuesday to give engineers more time to figure out if a lightning strike Friday damaged the spacecraft's solid fuel rocket boosters and other systems. NASA cleared the solid rocket booster system late Sunday for launch.
Part of the Atlantis mission is to add a key construction truss to the space station. Fourteen later shuttle flights until 2010 — the agency's self-imposed construction deadline — depend on its success.
"This flight has to work for the next flight to occur and the next flight to occur and the next flight to occur," NASA space station program director Mike Suffredini said Friday.
And that means NASA's long-term goal of returning to the moon also depends on Atlantis and subsequent flights getting off somewhere close to on schedule.
"They're in a bad situation," said Syracuse University technology professor W. Henry Lambright. "If any one flight gets pushed back and the time frame gets cramped, that raises risk... That's the bind they're in. It's very tight."
___
AP Writer Mike Schneider contributed to this report.
Sphere: Related Content
National Hurricane Center's Monday morning forecast put Ernesto's track almost directly over
Kennedy Space Center late Wednesday or early Thursday, and listed a nearly 50 percent chance of tropical storm force winds just south of the cape.
If NASA decides to move Atlantis, it won't start actually moving the shuttle until Tuesday, giving engineers the opportunity to still launch on Sept. 3 if Ernesto's track moves away from Florida, NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said Monday.
The preparations are already started but the final decision on whether to move the shuttle likely won't be made before Tuesday morning, he said.
Mission Control informed astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth, about the delay in the launch of the six visitors to his home at the international space station.
"Sounds like everyone's got a lot of replanning to do," Williams said. "We're flexible."
NASA is caught between two competing interests: a tight launch schedule to get Atlantis in orbit and a need to keep the multibillion shuttle from preventable damage. NASA rules say the shuttle should not be outside in winds of more than 45 mph.
It takes nearly two days of preparations to get Atlantis from the launch pad into its massive Vehicle Assembly Building.
The first step was the delicate removal of Atlantis' super-cooled on-orbit fuel and other potentially dangerous supplies. After that, NASA removes the explosive devices on the shuttle, its external fuel tank and twin rocket boosters. The slow-moving crawlers then take 12 hours to get the shuttle from the launch pad safely indoors.
Moving Atlantis off the pad would put the space agency in a time crunch, and a delay of Atlantis' launch could threaten the space agency's short-term goal of finishing construction of the international space station and its long-term goal of returning people to the moon, space experts say.
NASA wants to launch by Sept. 7 so the shuttle's visit to the international space station doesn't interfere with the trip of a Russian Soyuz in mid-September.
The launch window for the mission is also tight, running only through Sept. 13 because NASA wants to launch the shuttle to the space station during daylight so it can photograph the shuttle's external fuel tank, where insulating foam has fallen off during previous launches. The shuttle Columbia was doomed after foam hit a wing, causing a breach that allowed hot gases to penetrate during its return to Earth.
After September, there are only two days to try a launch in October and only a few days in December. If they miss those, NASA would have to wait until next year.
If the decision is made to move Atlantis, it would take at least nine days to move Atlantis indoors, then back out to the pad and launch — the fastest time NASA has done something like that was over 11 days in 1999.
Liftoff originally had been set for Sunday afternoon, but it was delayed until Tuesday to give engineers more time to figure out if a lightning strike Friday damaged the spacecraft's solid fuel rocket boosters and other systems. NASA cleared the solid rocket booster system late Sunday for launch.
Part of the Atlantis mission is to add a key construction truss to the space station. Fourteen later shuttle flights until 2010 — the agency's self-imposed construction deadline — depend on its success.
"This flight has to work for the next flight to occur and the next flight to occur and the next flight to occur," NASA space station program director Mike Suffredini said Friday.
And that means NASA's long-term goal of returning to the moon also depends on Atlantis and subsequent flights getting off somewhere close to on schedule.
"They're in a bad situation," said Syracuse University technology professor W. Henry Lambright. "If any one flight gets pushed back and the time frame gets cramped, that raises risk... That's the bind they're in. It's very tight."
___
AP Writer Mike Schneider contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment