NASA Aims to Launch Shuttle Endeavour Two Days Early
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The seven-astronaut crew of NASA's STs-118 are pictured from the left are astronauts Richard Mastracchio, mission specialist; Barbara Morgan, a mission specialist and NASA's first educator astronaut; Charles Hobaugh, pilot; Scott Kelly, commander; Tracy Caldwell, Canadian Space Agency's Dafydd Williams, and Alvin Drew Jr., all mission specialists. The crewmembers are attired in training versions of their shuttle launch and entry suits. CREDIT: NASA. |
CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA aims to move up the planned launch of shuttle Endeavour to Aug. 7 while Atlantis is headed for a weekend return to Kennedy Space Center.
Now scheduled for Aug. 9, the launch of Endeavour on an International Space Station construction mission will mark the orbiter's first flight since 2002. Shuttle managers are expected to move the target date during a meeting Thursday.
NASA plans to move Endeavour from its processing hangar to the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building next Monday, three days early. The fully assembled shuttle is set to be rolled out to Pad 39A about July 9.
Atlantis, meanwhile, appears to have come through its station assembly mission relatively unscathed. Inspectors found just 10 heat-shield tiles with gouges greater than an inch long.
A thermal blanket repaired during a spacewalk peeled back about an inch during re-entry, but no damage was done to the graphite epoxy rocket pod that it protects, NASA said.
Technicians this week are preparing Atlantis for a ferry flight back to KSC. The orbiter landed Friday at Edwards Air Force Base in California because of bad weather at the Cape. Atlantis will be bolted to the top of a modified 747 jet, which is to leave Edwards on Friday. The trip probably will take at least two days.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright ? 2007 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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