With Shuttle and Cargo at Pad, NASA Steps Closer Toward Launch
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The space shuttle Discovery returns once more to Launch Pad 39B on June 15, 2005 in preparations for NASA's STS-114 spaceflight. CREDIT: NASA/KSC. |
With the space shuttle Discovery and its cargo at the launch pad, the pieces are all but set for NASA's STS-114 mission, the agency's first orbiter flight in more than two years.
Shuttle workers are expected to open Discovery's cargo bay doors Thursday and prepare the orbiter for the Friday installation of its Raffaello cargo module, which is laden with food, water, equipment and supplies bound for the International Space Station (ISS), NASA officials said.
"It's exciting to have both the shuttle and its cargo module at the pad," said NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem in a telephone interview. "It means we're that much closer to launch."
Discovery rolled out to Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39B on Wednesday, about two days after a cargo canister delivered the Raffaello module and a pair of pallets carrying space station replacement parts and spacewalk components for the shuttle's STS-114 mission.
NASA officials plan to launch the STS-114 spaceflight no earlier than July 13 in what they hope will be the first shuttle flight since the Columbia accident, which destroyed one orbiter and killed all seven STS-107 astronauts aboard during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003. Investigators later found that wing damage caused by external tank foam debris at launch led to the loss of Columbia.
Shuttle officials hope that two years of modifications to NASA's external tanks and the orbiters themselves will increase shuttle safety.
"Everyone at United Space Alliance (USA) is excited to have Discovery back at the launch pad," said William Pickavance, vice president of Florida operations for the shuttle contractor, in a written statement to SPACE.com. "The NASA/shuttle team has worked hard to ensure that all the shuttle system components are safe and ready for flight and we believe we are there."
But according to an independent safety panel, there still remains work to do. NASA has not yet met three of the 15 recommendations that Columbia investigators believed should be fulfilled before the space agency launches its next orbiter, the panel said last week.
That panel, the Return to Flight Task Force chaired by former astronauts Thomas Stafford and Richard Covey, said more analysis is needed on NASA's efforts to eliminate harmful launch debris that could cause shuttle damage much like that seen during Columbia's launch. Additional analysis into NASA's orbiter hardening activities, as well as the orbiter inspection and tile repair abilities were also required, the task force said.
Meanwhile, NASA's continues to prepare for a July space shot for Discovery, with mission managers reportedly setting a tentative flight readiness review for the end of June.
"The payload is on track to be placed in the orbiter on Friday, which puts us on pace for the launch window of July 13 through 31," Pickavance said. "As of now, everything looks good for that July launch."
Discovery's STS-114 mission, which is designed to test new hardware and run through potential repair methods, is expected to be followed by a second mission, STS-121 aboard Atlantis, later this year. Both spaceflights are vital for the International Space Station, which hasn't received the any large cargo deliveries--or sent home any equally large shipments of unneeded equipment afforded by shuttle supply modules like Raffaello--since December 2002.
"The space station needs a lot of supplies taken up for this mission and aboard the next space shuttle flight," Clem said. "But what is more important is the amount of cargo [the shuttle] can bring back down."
NASA's three remaining space shuttles can ferry much more material to and from the ISS than Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the only vehicles currently transporting station astronauts and their equipment to and from orbit.
Russia's unmanned Progress spacecraft also perform periodic resupply missions to the space station, but are designed to burn up during reentry. The next ISS cargo ship, Progress 18, is scheduled to launch from the Russian Federal Space Agency's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan later tonight, June 16, at 7:09 p.m. EDT (2309 GMT) and dock at the space station on June 18.
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