NASA to Discuss Fuel Tank Repair Progress for Shuttle Atlantis

Workers apply foam and molds on the shuttle Atlantis' external tank to areas damaged by hail. The white hole with a red circle around it (upper right) is a hole prepared for molding and material application. The red material is sealant tape so the mold doesn't leak when the foam rises. The white/translucent square mold is an area where the foam has been applied and the foam has risen and cured against the mold surface. CREDIT: NASA/George Shelton.

NASA mission managers will discuss repair efforts to the space shuttle Atlantis' hail-battered fuel tank today, and are expected to lay out plans for the orbiter's return to the launch pad next week.

Shuttle officials are slated to begin meeting at about 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) to evaluate repairs to thousands of dings and divots etched into Atlantis' fuel tank during a freak Feb. 26 hail storm above its Pad 39A launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The resulting damage delayed the shuttle's planned STS-117 mission from March 15 to no earlier than June 8.

"They're feeling pretty good about that right now," NASA spokesperson Kyle Herring, of the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, told SPACE.com of the repair work. "June 8, right now, continues to be the internal target launch date."

In addition to going over Atlantis' fuel tank repair work, shuttle officials will also discuss progress on propellant line inspections for the orbiter's three main engines, NASA officials said.

Herring said NASA shuttle managers are targeting May 16 as the date to haul Atlantis back to its Pad 39A launch site from its berth inside the agency's cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC.

Commanded by veteran shuttle astronaut Rick Sturckow, Atlantis' STS-117 mission will deliver new solar arrays to the International Space Station during a planned 11-day spaceflight. The mission will also ferry NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson to the ISS, where he will relieve U.S. spaceflyer Sunita Williams as part of the outpost's Expedition 15 crew.

NASA shuttle officials will discuss the results of today's meeting during an afternoon teleconference with reporters, the space agency said.

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